Hours after the two women entered Sabarimala, the Hindu terrorists began their handiwork. Mad mobs, including women, began to roam the streets and attack by-passers, in their desperation to foment violence and provoke riots. In Karunagappally, Muslim establishments and shops were singled out for vandalism. The Sangh-backed Sabarimala Action Council called for a hartal today and they have spared no effort to make sure that people are terrorized. Continue reading Hindutva Terror and Left Hegemony: After Women’s Entry into Sabarimala
Category Archives: Debates
The Triumph of Streevaashi! Women break the wall of caste at Sabarimala
Out of the dark, seemingly never-ending night, a streak of light! Two women of menstruating ages, Bindu and Kanakdurga, finally entered Sabarimala, breaking the concerted walls built against them by brahmanical-Hindutva male authorities on the right and left. Continue reading The Triumph of Streevaashi! Women break the wall of caste at Sabarimala
हिंदी समाज में हीरा डोम की तलाश – स्मृतिलोप से हट कर यथार्थ की ओर
( अकार, 51 – हिंदी समाज पर केंद्रित अंक में जल्द ही प्रकाशित)
‘देवताओं, मंदिरों और ऋषियों का यह देश ! इसलिए क्या यहां सबकुछ अमर है ? वर्ण अमर, जाति अमर, अस्पृश्यता अमर ! ..युग के बाद युग आए ! बड़े बड़े चक्रवर्ती आये ! ..दार्शनिक आए ! फिर भी अस्पृश्यता , विषमता अमर है ! ..यह सब कैसे हो गया ? किसी भी महाकवि, पंडित, दार्शनिक, सत्ताधारी सन्त की आंखों में यह अमानुषिक व्यवस्था चुभी क्यों नहीं ? ..बुद्धिजीवियों, संतों और सामर्थ्यवानों का यह अंधापन, यह संवेदनशून्यता दुनिया भर में खोजने पर भी नहीं मिलेगी ! इससे एक ही अर्थ निकलता है कि यह व्यवस्था बुद्धिजीवियों, सन्तों और राज करनेवालों को मंजूर थी ! यानी इस व्यवस्था को बनाने और उसे बनाये रखने में बुद्धिजीवियों और शासकों का हाथ है।
– बाबुराव बागुल /17 जनवरी 1930 – 26 मार्च 2008/
जानेमाने मराठी लेखक
1.
वर्ष 2014 में हिन्दी की प्रथम दलित कविता कही जानेवालीे एक कविता ‘अछूत की शिकायत’ 1 के सौ साल पूरे हुए। महावीर प्रसाद द्विवेदी द्वारा सम्पादित ‘सरस्वती’ पत्रिका के सितम्बर माह में प्रकाशित अंक में यह कविता छपी थी।
हीरा डोम द्वारा रचित इस कविता पर बहुत कुछ लिखा गया है, किस तरह यह कविता साहित्य में नयी जमीन तोड़ती है, धर्म, पूंजीवाद, सामाजिक गैरबराबरियों को वैधता प्रदान करती मौजूदा व्यवस्था को प्रश्नांकित करती है, ढेर सारी बातें लिखी गयी हैं। फिलवक्त़ न मैं इसकी तरफ आप का ध्यान दिलाना चाहता हूं, न इस बहस की तरफ कि क्या उसे प्रथम दलित कविता कहा जा सकता है या नहीं ! साहित्य के सुधी पाठक एवं प्रबुद्ध आलोचक इसके बारे में मुकम्मल राय दे सकते हैं। /इतनाही याद रखना जरूरी है कि पत्रिका में छपनेवाली रचनाओं के बारे में संपादक के तौर पर महावीर प्रसाद द्विवेदी काफी सख्त माने जाते थे। उनकी इस सख्ती का अन्दाज़ा इस बात से लगता है कि निराला – जो बाद में महाकवि के तौर पर सम्बोधित किए गए – उनकी चन्द कविताएं भी शुरूआत में उन्होंने लौटा दी थीं। लाजिम है कि हीरा डोम की इस कविता को प्रकाशित करने में भी उन्होंने अपने पैमानों को निश्चित ही ढीला नहीं किया होगा।/
कल्पना की जाए कि सरस्वती के अंक में अगर उपरोक्त कविता छपी नहीं होती तो हीरा डोम नामक वह शख्स ताउम्र लगभग गुमनामी में ही रहते। कोई नहीं जान पाता कि उत्पीड़ित समुदाय में एक ऐसे कवि ने जन्म लिया है, जिसकी रचनाओं में जमाने का दर्द टपकता है। Continue reading हिंदी समाज में हीरा डोम की तलाश – स्मृतिलोप से हट कर यथार्थ की ओर
आई आई टी मद्रास – आधुनिक दौर का अग्रहरम !
नागेश / बदला हुआ नाम/ – जो आई आई टी मद्रास में अध्ययनरत एक तेज विद्यार्थी है, तथा समाज के बेहद गरीब तबके से आता है – उसे उस दिन मेस में प्रवेश करते वक्त़ जिस अपमानजनक अनुभव से गुजरना पड़ा, वह नाकाबिले बयानात कहा जा सकता है। उसे अपने गांव की जातीय संरचना की तथा उससे जुड़े घृणित अनुभवों की याद आयी। दरअसल किसी ने उसे बाकायदा मेस में प्रवेश करते वक्त़ रोका और कहा कि अगर वह मांसाहारी है, तो दूसरे गेट से प्रवेश करे।
मेस के गेट पर बाकायदा एक पोस्टर लगा था, जिसे इस नये ‘निज़ाम’ की सूचना दी गयी थी। यहां तक कि अपने खाने की पसंदगी के हिसाब से हाथ धोने के बेसिन भी बांट दिए गए थे। ‘शाकाहारी’ और ‘मांसाहारी’। एक रिपोर्टर से बात करते हुए नागेश अपने गुस्से को काबू करने में असमर्थ दिख रहे थे। उन्होंने पूछा कि आखिर आई आई टी का प्रबंधन ऐसे भेदभावजनक आदेश को छात्रों से सलाह मशविरा किए बिना कैसे निकाल सकता है। Continue reading आई आई टी मद्रास – आधुनिक दौर का अग्रहरम !
IIT-Madras, a Modern Day Agraharam ?
The institute’s recent order, now withdrawn, of separate entrance for non-vegetarians is just a part of the overall policing and push for vegetarianism after the Modi government’s ascent.
Image Courtesy: Catch News
Nagesh (name changed), a bright student at the Indian Institute of Technology- Madras, who hails from a very poor economic background, had a shock of his life when he was entering the hostel mess. Someone literally stopped him at the gate and asked him to enter the mess from the other door if he is not a vegetarian.
A notice was duly pasted at the entrance of the mess, informing everyone of this ‘new order’. Even separate basins were demarcated for the students’ cuisine choices. Talking to a reporter with rage in his eyes, Nagesh questioned how the IIT-Madras management could issue such a discriminatory order without even consulting the students.
As of now, the notices have been removed after taking into consideration the uproar this ‘untouchability of a different kind’ caused at the national level. management is now trying to save itself by putting the blame on the caterer. Anybody can guess that a caterer, who is basically a contractor serving food for a fixed period, cannot suddenly disturb the existing arrangements, divide the mess into two separate sections, and have the courage ‘instructing’ his customers to use separate gates.
Commenting on this episode, the Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle – a student group within the institute- which brought this issue to national attention, says:
“Caste masquerades as something else in ‘modern’ society. In IIT Madras campus, it manifests itself as separate entrance, utensils, dining area and wash area in the mess for vegetarian and non-vegetarian students…:
( Read the rest of the article here : https://www.newsclick.in/iit-madras-modern-day-agraharam)
Scrap the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, It is Unconstitutional, Illegal and Immoral : 70 People’s Organizations of Assam
Guest Post by 70 People’s Organizations of Assam
( Photo Courtesy : AISA)
Protestors from various democratic organisations in Assam have began an indefinite dharna in Jantar Mantar from today 9 Dec. This includes KMSS and peasant leader Akhil Gogoi, AJYCP, Tai Ahom Satra Sontha, Asom Moran Sabha, All Asam Motok Sonmilon, All Asam Minority Students Union, and 70 other organizations of indigenous population of Assam, who are part of an umbrella platform against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016. This Bill seeks to change the very definition of a Citizen of the country and include a religious dimension to it as part of the RSS’s ideological project. The effects of this Bill can be seen in starkly in Assam – which has been to fuel ethnic and religious anxieties and conflict. Protests against it has also taken unprecedented forms in recent months with participation of millions of indigenous people, including Assam bandhs, and so on.Find below the text of the Leaflet issued by them. Please forward and Join in the Solidarity.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 15thJuly, 2016 [Bill No. 172 of 2016] has already caused deep anguish in the minds of the democratic India. A Joint Parliamentary Committee has also been constituted to examine this Bill. Despite wide-spread protests in Assam against the Bill, the BJP aggressively aims to pass the Bill in the coming Winter Session of the Parliament which will help to make their dream of the Hindurashtra a reality.
*Why the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 is unconstitutional, illegal, unethical and immoral?*
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 seeks to make fundamental alterations in the citizenship and immigration norms of India on the basis of religion. The Bill proposes to exclude ‘minority communities, namely, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan’ – from the scope of the definition of being ‘illegal migrant’. The Bill further reduces the requirement of 11 years to acquire “citizenship by naturalization” to only six years of ordinary residence for such immigrants. The ‘Statement of objects and reasons’ of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 also makes it clear that the Bill intends to declare ‘illegal migrants’ as Indian citizens. Several Indian government notifications and orders have already enabled persons of these communities who had entered India till 31st December, 2014 to get shelter without valid documents.
The Bill will change the philosophical premise on which Indian citizenship is granted. The principle on which Indian citizenship is granted is jus soli where citizenship of a person is determined by the place where a person is born. However,if the Bill passes, it will make a shift from jus soli to jus sanguinis, where a person acquires citizenship on the principle of blood, which our Constitution-makers consciously avoided. India’s Constitutional experts have opined that the Bill is unprecedented as never before has religion been specifically identified in the citizenship law as the ground for distinguishing between citizens and non-citizens. The ideas spelt out in the proposed Bill are against the ethos and spirit of the Indian Constitution. It will violate the spirit of the Preamble of the Indian Constitution and is also against the Articles 14, 15, 25 and 26 of the Indian Constitution.
An extra-ordinary and widespread peoples’ movement has now swept across Assam and the entire North-East India against the Bill. We, the people of Assam feel that the Bill will change Assam’s political, economic and social fabric forever. The Bill will violate the clause 6 (A) of the Citizenship Act, 1955, a special provision for Assam, which is a non-obstante clause. If the Bill passes, it will make the Assam Accord null and void. It will be a violation of the national promise. The people of Assam are afraid that the Bill will open ways to creating further insecurity and pressures in a region already over-burdened with large-scale demographic changes due to illegal migration. It will create religious basis for it, and fuel fresh rounds of ethnic and religious conflict.
*We, an umbrella platform of 70 ‘Jatiya’ (national) organizations of Assam, are on a hunger strike for an indefinite period in Delhi from 9th December, 2018 demanding the immediate scrapping of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 for the sake of the Indian Constitution, and its moral, legal and ethical values, and to protect Assam and her inhabitants from another long spell of social and political strife.*
*The Government of India plans to pass the Bill in this Winter Session of the Parliament. We appeal all political parties, organizations and individuals of India to be united to oppose this unconstitutional Bill. We sincerely believe that you will extend your support to us, and oppose the Bill to save our Constitution and democracy.*
contact: secretarykmss@gmail.com, 8638084494, 8826219749
पवित्र गाय, त्याज्य लोग !
..बुलंदशहर की घटनाएं इस बात की ताईद करती हैं कि हिंदुत्व वर्चस्ववाद का यह नज़रिया जिसमें मानवीय जीवन के प्रति गहरी असम्वेदनशीलता और असम्पृक्तता टपकती है और जो एक चतुष्पाद को पूजनीय बनाती है, आज उरूज पर है।..
( Photo Courtesy : indianculturalforum.in)
कभी कभी एक अदद वक्तव्य किसी नेता की एकमात्र निशानी बन कर रह जाती है। विश्व हिन्दू परिषद के नेता गिरिराज किशोर इसका क्लासिकीय उदाहरण कहे जा सकते हैं जिनका नाम लेने पर अक्सर उनका विवादित वक्तव्य ही लोगों की जुबां पर आ जाता है। याद है कि उन्होंने कहा था कि ‘‘पुराणों में गाय को मनुष्य से अधिक पवित्रा समझा गया है।’’
वह अवसर बेहद शोकाकुल करनेवाला था, जब उनका वह वक्तव्य आया था। दिल्ली से बमुश्किल पचास किलोमीटर दूर दुलीना नामक स्थान पर पांच दलितों की भीड़ द्वारा पीट पीट कर हत्या कर दी गयी थी Continue reading पवित्र गाय, त्याज्य लोग !
Sacred Cows, Disposable Humans
The Bulandshahr mob killings show that the Hindutva Supremacist world view, which has complete apathy and indifference toward human life and puts a four-legged animal on a pedestal, is on the ascendance.
“It is a curious people. With them, all life seems to be sacred except human life.”
– Mark Twain on Indians.
A single quote sometimes remains the sole memory of a leader.
Giriraj Kishor, a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader, can be considered a classic example to demonstrate the thought behind Mark Twain’s quote. Kishor had rather (in)famously said, “Cow is considered more sacred than human beings in the Puranas(Hindu scriptures)”. The occasion was a tragic one when five Dalits — who were carrying dead cows — were lynched by a vigilante mob in front of a police station (Dulina, Jhajjar in Haryana, October 2002) with many senior government officials turning mute spectators.
The spectacle-type killing was followed by another grotesque drama when police personnel, who by their inaction had connived with the crime, promptly sent the dead cows for examination, and filed cases against the dead Dalits over cow ‘slaughter’.
Kishor died few years ago but the worldview he represented, which has complete apathy and indifference towards human life and which puts a four-legged on the pedestal, is on the ascendance.
( Read the full text here : https://www.newsclick.in/sacred-cows-disposable-humans)
Of Angry Women and Insecure Men – Hindi cinema and the MeToo Age: Rama Srinivasan
Guest Post by RAMA SRINIVASAN
Men have had every advantage of us in telling their own story. Education has been theirs in so much higher a degree; the pen has been in their hands. I will not allow books to prove anything.”
― Jane Austen, Persuasion
Austen’s words, a searing commentary on how patriarchy controls the narrative, remains relevant today despite tenacious efforts by women to wrest authorial control from men and narrate our own stories. Even as the struggle to find one’s voice and to be heard continues, we might also ask ourselves what we will be left with after we have successfully challenged male authority and supremacy in our stories, the idea of heroes and villains, of chaste wives and women of disreputable characters. In the moment of triumph, is there also a need of introspection? The MeToo movement, in India and elsewhere, opens our world(s) up to these and many other questions that do not have easy or ready answers. A standard reply, reproduced in several platforms when questions like ‘why now’ or ‘what next’ are raised is illuminating of the problem societies face when women tell stories: “For now, we should just listen to the women who want to speak up.” It not only represents the struggle to tell our stories on our own terms but also tell them without a fixed agenda or plan.
The current moment in Hindi cinema has been complementing these societal struggles, perhaps even foreshadowing the MeToo challenges to patriarchy by both wresting authorial power to tell stories of relatable people, especially of women, but also displacing plot devices and narrative arcs familiar to stories that end up reaffirming patriarchal authority. Continue reading Of Angry Women and Insecure Men – Hindi cinema and the MeToo Age: Rama Srinivasan
Ideas as Crime in a Majoritarian Democracy
Image Courtesy: Vappingo
To such a degree has Religion fuelled conflict, complicated politics, retarded social development and impaired human relations across the world, that one is often tempted to propose that Religion is innately an enemy of Humanity, if not indeed of itself a crime against Humanity … it is time that the world adopted a position that refuses to countenance Religion as an acceptable justification for, excuse or extenuation of – crimes against Humanity.
-Wole Soyinka
A modern critique of Sacred Books of any religion — which are worshipped by its followers — is an act which is full of dilemmas.
What should one say if they have references about burning of infidels, permitting a man to marry many women, instructing the rulers to cut somebody’s tongue or pour hot lead into somebody’s ears if s/he sings/listens to religious hymns, ordering a particular section of its devotees to be kept aloof even from places of worship or spotting a ‘divine figure’ engaged in abusing one’s own daughter or harassing women.
Should a critical intellectual just look the other way, pretending that s/he does not see, decide to keep quiet or rationalise such acts to further re-ensure her/his faith or say few things, albeit in a mild tone, that such acts do not match modern values?
And what should a modern state — which claims to be not based on faith — do in such a case? Facilitate flourishing of such critiques or allow faith merchants/fanatics of different shades to criminalise such acts taking recourse to its own statue books.
( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/ideas-crime-majoritarian-democracy)
An Open Letter to Brinda Karat about Rehana Fathima: Why are we being hunted in Kerala?
Dear Comrade
Last year, around this time, I wrote you an open letter about the plight of Hadiya Asokan who was being hunted down by the Hindutva groups for her choice of faith and partner while the CPM and its cyber force was either actively abetting the violence or watching passively. I wrote in joy, because you had taken a firm stand and despite angry howls of protest against you from your own party. However, this time, I write in sheer despair at your silence; not just yours, but of the AIDWA in Kerala in general, in the wake of the twisted machinations of the Hindutva forces around the Supreme Court’s order permitting the entry of women of menstruating ages to the Sabarimala temple. Continue reading An Open Letter to Brinda Karat about Rehana Fathima: Why are we being hunted in Kerala?
Under the Shadow of ‘Holy Book!’
Inching Towards Majoritarian Democracy
( Madhu Dandavate)
1.
These are times when the state of democracy is a cause of worry everywhere. With the emergence of populists, demagogues of various hues as custodians of the future of their countries, growing fascination for illiberal ideologies among masses in different parts of the world, the concern is not misplaced and it is apt that we are having this brainstorming where our focus would be on India itself.
‘Working Group on Alternative Strategies’ – which comprises of some of the finest public intellectuals and activists of our times – need to be thanked that they have been organising such seminars since last thirteen years and in this way commemorating the life and works of Prof Madhu Dandavate, a great Parliamentarian and Socialist ideologue. Continue reading Under the Shadow of ‘Holy Book!’
Time to Dump Blasphemy Laws
Can the countries from this part of Asia walk in the footsteps of Ireland?
Mera azm itna bulund hae, Parae sholon se dar nahin.
Mujhe dar hae tu atish e gul se hae, Ye kahin chaman ko jala na dein
(my confidence in self is strong, I’m unafraid of foreign flames
I’m scared those sparks may ignite, that in the blossom’s bosom lay )
— Shakeel Badayuni’s couplet which was very dear to Salman Taseer who was assassinated by Islamists
Know Meilana, a 44-year-old ethnic Chinese Buddhist from Indonesia, whose conviction under Indonesia’s controversial blasphemy laws, caused an uproar in the country, merely few months ago. The only ‘offence’ registered against her was that this woman from Sumatra had merely complained about ‘the volume of adzan or call to prayer, from her local mosque’. Her complaint was considered ‘blasphemous’ and even triggered an anti-Chinese riot in which several Buddhist temples were burnt.
(Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/time-dump-blasphemy-laws)
‘आधार’ न बचा, न मरा, बचा केवल मदमस्त सफ़ेद हाथी : राजेन्द्र चौधरी
Guest post by RAJINDER CHAUDHARY
उच्चतम न्यायालय के बहुमत ने ‘आधार’ पर दिये गए हालिया फैसले में सरकारी योजनाओं, सब्सिडी इत्यादि का लाभ लेने के लिए आधार अनिवार्य करने के सरकारी फैसले को सही ठहराया है। इस के साथ ही आयकर दाता के लिए भी आधार अनिवार्य कर दिया है। इस के अलावा बाकी जगह इस के प्रयोग को अवैध ठहरा दिया है; अब न मोबाइल फोन और न बैंक खातों के लिए यह ज़रूरी रहेगा। न निजी कंपनियाँ इसे मांग या प्रयोग कर पाएँगी। यह सब अब बच्चा बच्चा जानता है। सवाल यह है कि इस परिस्थिति में अब आधार का क्या प्रयोजन बचा है?
सरकार ने अदालत में आधार को कर-चोरी, काले-धन और आतंकवाद के खिलाफ लड़ाई और राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा के लिए एक सशक्त हथियार के तौर पर प्रस्तुत किया है (बहुमत समेत तीनों फैसलों की एक संयुक्त फाइल का पृष्ठ 1095-6)। काले-धन के खिलाफ लड़ाई के लिए बैंक खातों और पैन को आधार से जोड़ना अनिवार्य किया गया था। आतंकवाद से लड़ने एवं राष्ट्रीय सुरक्षा के लिए मोबाइल फोन के लिए आधार अनिवार्य किया गया था। अब जब बैंक खातों और मोबाइल फोन के लिए आधार अनिवार्य नहीं रहा, तो अब आधार इन दोनों उद्देश्यों की पूर्ति के लिए किसी काम का नहीं रहा। लोगों के छद्म नाम से कई-कई खाते चलते रहेंगे और काले धंधे का कारोबार जैसे अब तक चलता रहा है, वैसे ही चलता रहेगा। आयकर दाता के लिए आधार अनिवार्य करने से काले धंधे और काली कमाई पर कोई खास फर्क नहीं पड़ेगा। अदालत के आधार को वैध ठहराने वाले एक जज ने भी अपने फैसले में कहा है कि बैंक खाता और पैन कार्ड दोनों का लिंक होना ही प्रभावी होगा (अकेला पैन कार्ड नहीं; इस लिए उन्होने बैंक खातों के लिए भी आधार को वैध ठहराया है हालांकि अल्पमत होने के चलते उन के फैसले का यह अंश प्रभावी नहीं होगा (पृष्ठ 55 माननीय जज अशोक भूषण के फैसले का/पृष्ठ 1103 तीनों फैसलों की संयुक्त फाइल का)।
Continue reading ‘आधार’ न बचा, न मरा, बचा केवल मदमस्त सफ़ेद हाथी : राजेन्द्र चौधरी
Love Patriarchy, Hail Hindu Rashtra!
From Hindu Code Bill to Sabarimala via Roop Kanwar’s Sati — keeping women subjugated under the cloak of tradition
It was the mid-1980s when a 18-year-old Roop Kanwar’s burning on the pyre of her husband — under controversial circumstances — had made national headlines. There was national outrage over the incident because more than 150 years after the banning of this custom — the practice of Sati, was seeing a revival of sorts. One can still recollect how thousands of women had come out on streets then in different parts of North India, glorifying the act in the name of tradition.
Women were ‘celebrating’ a woman’s self-immolation on the pyre of her husband and resisting state intervention which wanted to enforce her autonomy, her individuality!
This may sound strange today, but was true!
India, had its ‘Roop Kanwar moment’ — albeit a bit differently — once again recently when in Kerala women came out in hundreds or thousands to resist the implementation of Supreme Court judgement that had removed the bar on women aged 10-15 or ‘menstruating women’s entry in the temple of Ayappa at Sabarimala’.
( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/love-patriarchy-hail-hindu-rashtra)
Bharatiya Janata Party or Bharatiya Jumla Party !
Review of ‘Truth in Fetters : Broken Promises and Shattered Unity’
“Change is in the air”!
A retired academic who had his last assignment as Vice Chancellor of a leading university said to me the other day, while we were discussing the contemporary political scenario. Frankly admitting that he had supported Modi’s candidature then and had even discreetly campaigned for him, during 2014 elections, he said that what a ‘disaster’ it has been these last four and half years to our polity with him at the helm of affairs.
What surprised me more was that he was from Eastern UP and belonged to one of the dominant upper castes in the region. Continue reading Bharatiya Janata Party or Bharatiya Jumla Party !
Now What? After the Betrayal of Women at Sabarimala
At the end of the five-day worship in the month of Tulam, it is clear that women have been betrayed. The right wing which promised not to violently stop women devotees did precisely that; their leader also hurled vicious insults are trans people. The dominant left which foamed Ayyankali and Sree Narayana Guru at the mouth ended up reinforcing the ‘good woman’/bad woman’ division, saying first that only the former would be allowed to proceed, made the term ‘activist’ into a code word for ‘bad woman’, and then finally threw up its hands saying that it was impossible to implement the court order. The government and the CPM had obviously not done enough to make sure that women would indeed enter the shrine. Clearly, they are reluctant to touch the savarna moral majority. Continue reading Now What? After the Betrayal of Women at Sabarimala
Rehana Fatima and the Goons: A comment on the good-cop-bad-cop game that’s on in Kerala
Yesterday’s high drama at Sabarimala told us quite a lot about the games that politicians play in Kerala. Rehana Fatima, a young woman activist who decided to take the challenge (it is now a challenge, since the trekking path to the shrine is in effect controlled by Hindutva goons heaping verbal abuse, threatening open violence, and using children as shields) had to face not only the naked threats of the so-called bhakths and the vandalisation of her home at Kochi by the same elements, she had also to swallow the Kerala Minister Kadakampally Surendran’s jibe that Sabarimala was not a playground for ‘activists’! By saying so, he hinted that only ‘pure’, ‘untainted’ women believers who are apparently by definition not activists, can be helped by the Kerala Police to reach the shrine. So much for Pinarayi Vijayan’s evocation of Kerala’s legacy of enlightened Hinduism!
This is a piece I wrote in the TOI today on the issue.
Keep Calm and Carry On: Dealing with Patriarchal Carpet Bombing in Kerala
For all women in India, what is happening in Kerala should be an eye-opener. This is how Indian society rewards you for reaching the top, aspiring seriously to be on top, and actually asking questions to authorities about why they keep drawing on women’s energies and resources while simultaneously undermining the very ground on which they survive. In Kerala, two things are going on: there is on the one hand, a vicious gang led by Rahul Easwar which is openly threatening women who would dare to enter Sabarimala with the worst kinds of violence, on the other, the horrid misogyny of the press was revealed at the press conference held by the Women in Cinema Collective who expressed their deep disquiet at the way in which the organization of cinema actors, AMMA, and its president Mohanlal, were eager to protect oppressors and ignore survivors. Also, even male intellectuals who have been very supportive of feminist and gender justices causes have been named in the MeToo campaign among journalists in Kerala.
Kerala is a society where, in the past twenty years, we have seen women come up everywhere — in journalism, literature, academics, cinema, architecture, engineering, art, management, sports, trade unionism, activism. Women in Kerala have been the force of social democratizing as evident from the struggles ranging from the Munnar tea garden workers’ struggle to the brave nuns protesting against sexual violence. For sure, a very large number of women in Kerala are ultra-conservative, and that is apparent both in their presence in the muck that Easwar and his gang are raking up in Kerala, as well as in the shameless way in which some of them were emboldened to hurl caste insults at the Chief Minister of Kerala. This is therefore reminiscent not so much of the Battle of Britain in World War II, but for the Battle of Stalingrad — which was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe, even as there was hand-to-hand combat on the ground for control of the tiniest slices of the city, and where the city residents were often subject to the terrors of both the Nazi and the Soviet sides alike.
If you want to see male hubris overflowing, please take a look at this video, of https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FWomeninCinemaCollectiveOfficial%2Fvideos%2F249328929064857%2F&show_text=0&width=267“>the press conference held by the Women in Cinema collective. All I can tell us all is, Keep Calm and Carry on. After all, unlike in the World War II, the ammunition of these creeps need not hurt us at all; it can make it only more powerful.
സ്ത്രീവാശിയുടെ ആവശ്യകത :ശബരിമലപ്രശ്നം, സ്ത്രീകൾ, സാമൂഹ്യജനാധിപത്യം
അഭിനവ അച്ചിയാകാൻ എനിക്കു സമ്മതമില്ല. അതുകൊണ്ട് രാഹുൽ ഈശ്വറെ എന്തുവില കൊടുത്തും ഞാൻ എതിർത്തു തോൽപ്പിക്കും.
കുറേ സ്ത്രീകളെ തെരുവിൽ കൊണ്ടുവന്ന് ആചാരസംരക്ഷണത്തിൻറെ പേരിൽ സ്വന്തം താത്പര്യങ്ങൾക്കെതിരെ സംസാരിപ്പിക്കുക, അവരുടെ പൊതുജീവിതപരിചയമില്ലായ്മയുടെ ഫലങ്ങൾ കൊയ്തെടുക്കുക (പിണറായിയെ ജാതിത്തെറി വിളിച്ച ആ വിഡ്ഢിസ്ത്രീ തന്നെ ഉദാഹരണം), ബ്രാഹ്മണമൂല്യങ്ങൾ തങ്ങൾക്കു സമ്മാനിക്കുന്ന അപമാനഭാരത്തെ ആത്മീയസായൂജ്യമായി എണ്ണുന്ന അഭിനവ അച്ചി-സ്ഥാനത്തെ ഉത്തമസ്ത്രീത്വമായി ചിത്രീകരിക്കുക –ഇതൊക്കെയാണ് ശബരിമലപ്രശ്നത്തിൽ കേരളത്തിലെ ഹിന്ദുത്വശക്തികൾ ചെയ്തുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്നത്. Continue reading സ്ത്രീവാശിയുടെ ആവശ്യകത :ശബരിമലപ്രശ്നം, സ്ത്രീകൾ, സാമൂഹ്യജനാധിപത്യം
നായർസമുദായാഭിമാനികളോട്: ശബരിമലപ്രശ്നം ഉയർത്തുന്ന ചില ചോദ്യങ്ങൾ
നായർ സർവീസ് സൊസൈറ്റി ശബരിമലപ്രശ്നത്തിൽ പുനഃപരിശോധനാഹർജി സമർപ്പിച്ച സ്ഥിതിയ്ക്ക് ആ പ്രസ്ഥാനത്തോട് നായർസമുദായത്തിൽ ജനിക്കാനിടയായ ഒരു സ്ത്രീയെന്ന നിലയ്ക്ക് എനിക്ക് ചില ചോദ്യങ്ങളുന്നയിക്കാനുണ്ട്. Continue reading നായർസമുദായാഭിമാനികളോട്: ശബരിമലപ്രശ്നം ഉയർത്തുന്ന ചില ചോദ്യങ്ങൾ
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 