Category Archives: Genders

authoritarianism, Debates, Feminism, Genders, Politics, Right watch

CJP and The Prime Minister’s Satisfactions

1 Comment

There is a hole in the Prime Minister’s soul

That cannot be filled.

We must all concede

To his greed

His limitless hungry need

For love. 

All the time.

It is very difficult to watch the video of a fifteen year old girl apologizing to the nation, and then look at Narendra Modi’s Instagram post in which he proffers forgiveness to the “shararati bacche” of the nation. The video in which a 15 year old girl is made to apologize with folded hands, and her mother made to thank the Prime Minister for his magnanimity, is deeply disturbing because it reveals the true sociopathy that lives inside this man. And what lives inside him is a hatred of women and a desire for control and dominance so pathological that it derives its satisfaction from this. What satisfaction is a 75 year old man, the prime minister of a nation, with the full force of the state and its violence behind him, deriving from the video of a 15 year old girl begging forgiveness? 

Who is a “shararati baccha”? What drives Narendra Modi’s need to infantilize the adults who gathered on Jantar Mantra, specifically daughters, and teach them lessons? What is the actual lesson that Narendra Modi wishes to teach the betis of this country? The psyche acts towards it’s own satisfaction. What is the nature of pleasure that accompanies this video of a 15-year old child as she is taught a lesson? 

Insulting language is not a crime. Narendra Modi is owed no apologies from anyone. However, why is the law and the goons not demanding apologies from the young men, legions of them, chanting, “Neem ka patta kadwa hai, Narendra Modi ***** hai”? We know the answer to this question. Feminists have given us the weapons to diagnose it. But despite the tools that feminism has given us so we can look squarely at the forms that patriarchy takes, this video produces a visceral revulsion at the psychopathology of this regime and the man who presides over it.

The goons arriving at the doors of women demanding apologies are extensions of the prime minister. The men issuing rape threats to 15 year old girls are psychic prosthetics of the prime minister. They are doing the psychic bidding of a man who speaks of women’s bodies in an obscene fashion. Who obsesses about the sexual lives of women by calling a woman a 50 crore girlfriend. A man who compares a woman to a Jersey Cow, and then talks about her “hybrid child”. A man who demands that a 15 year old girl beg his forgiveness in public. And then her mother be made to thank him for giving her daughter a “Jeevan dan”. This pervert is the Prime Minister of our country. And in the 12 years of his regime he has gathered around himself an incel army that embodies every perverted form that masculinity takes. 

At least one strand of the murderous rage the ruling regime feels for the young people gathered at Jantar Mantra has to do with the nature of masculinity that characterized that space. Instead of the obscenity that characterizes this regime, what happened at the CJP protests at Jantar Mantra was the modeling of a masculinity that is not scared, embarrassed, or disgusted by women’s bodies and what they may need. And unlike the toxic obsession that the right-wing has with women’s bodies and the horrific things they want to do to them, this masculinity does not sexualize every encounter with it. Like the young man, he must not have been more than 16 years old, who was offering sanitary towels to women. I thanked him and said I didn’t need them, to which he replied, “Abhi nahin to kabhi to zaroorat padegi. Hamare paas bahut hai, aap ek le lijiye. Aur aapko nahin zaroorat to kissi aur ko de dijiye.” Compare the care in these words said to a woman thirty years older than him, with the desire of the Prime Minister to teach young girls lessons in which they beg forgiveness.

At Jantar Mantar, there were two queues to enter the space of the CJP protest enclosed by the barricades, one for men and one for women. The young men who were the volunteers responsible for crowd management, immediately took women through the women’s entrance. I had come that night with my brother and I hesitated for a moment when I was asked to go through, because our phones weren’t working and I wanted to coordinate where to meet. Regardless, this young man must have thought I was worried about my safety. Because he looked at me and said, “Ye Kumbh Mela nahi hai, aapka bhai aapko andar mil jayega, promise.” By this he did not mean that I would not get lost in the crowd. He meant that I would not be encountering the Sanatan Hindu masculinity that is issuing rape threats, hunting down young women, and demanding that they perform their abjection for the Prime Minister. 

All societies have pathological tendencies, as all societies have resources for life. In the twelve years of his rule, Narendra Modi has viralized every pathological tendency there exists——of casteism, of misogyny, of islamophobia, xenophobia, racism. The tactic of control has been to make the social body sick with fear and normalize more and more depraved forms of violence against Dalits, against Muslims, women, Kashmiris, people fighting for their land, transpeople, farmers, students, teachers, anyone and everyone who asks any questions about this regime. The protests at Jantar Mantar are so terrifying to this regime because they displayed a moral compass in a nation which feared it had lost one. And they showed that social depravity has a location. That location is the Prime Minister and the entire ecosystem that has birthed and sustained him. To quote a slogan from Jantar Mantra, “BJP ke daftar mein.” But society has managed, despite the pathogens released by the PMO, to recover a space for ethical action and care for each other. Jantar Mantra is terrifying to the toxic insecure masculinity that drives the vaanar sena and its 56-inch Senapati, because it is a world in which women can talk about their periods, and young men can offer them sanitary pads when they need them. And in response the regime reasserts its right to derive pleasure from the humiliation of girls and women by making a 15 year old girl beg forgiveness. The list of unforgivable things that Modi and this regime have done is long. This is high on that list.

Culture, Genders, Islamophobia, Politics, Right watch, Sex, Violence/Conflict

Statement in Protest of the Violent Meme targeting Mamata Banerjee and the Muslim Community

Leave a comment

Following is a statement signed by 1815 people protesting against the violent anti-Muslim and misogynist meme that had been circulating, targeting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

We, the undersigned people from different walks of life, express our deep revulsion and anger at the vicious meme, targeting the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, which has been circulating in social media on this day April 27, 2026. We are attaching with this statement, a blurred image of the meme, along with the profile of the person who circulated it – they call themselves a “Rightwing Nationalist” based in Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh – so that our compatriots know what we are protesting against.

The meme is not only violent and misogynistic, it is also viciously anti-Muslim. It depicts the Muslim – perhaps the “Bangladeshi Muslim” – as passing through Mamata Banerjee’s open legs and is titled “This is Momta Culture” – while of course, giving us a splendid view of the meme creator’s own sanskari culture.

Through this statement we want to appeal to the people of this country, our compatriots, and to those in the judiciary, and elsewhere in the system, who still stand in defence of minimum standards of probity in public life. We want to underline that this is a challenge to our justice system that such hate speech against an entire community and a woman politician can be aired and shared with complete impunity.

We also want to underline that it is the culture of rape and misogyny that has been encouraged by the ruling party at the centre that has led to this situation that anybody can air whatever comes to their hate-filled minds. We have not forgotten the release of the rapists of Bilqis Bano, the killing of the Hathras rape victim, the destruction of the entire family of the Unnao rape victim; nor have we forgotten the Kathua rape or the killing of Ankita Bhandari for failing to provide “special service” to a senior leader of the ruling party or giving an election ticket to sexual harassment accused former chief of the Wrestling Federation of India. In all these cases, we have witnessed complete silence from the top leaders of the ruling party including the prime minister and home minister.

We do not want to address the creators of the meme for we know that they are products of this frightful hate machine that “Rightwing Nationalism” (their appropriate self-description) is. Rather, we are interested that our institutions of democracy and justice play the role that they should be playing in order to ensure minimum standards of probity in public life. Continue reading Statement in Protest of the Violent Meme targeting Mamata Banerjee and the Muslim Community →

Debates, Feminism, Genders, Right watch, Theory

Left, Right, Left – Notes on Radical Post/De-Coloniality: Gita Chadha

1 Comment

[This post is the ninth – and penultimate – essay of the series in Kafila titled Decolonial Imaginations. Links to the previous essays are given at the end.

The terms ‘decolonization’ or ‘decolonial’ have become quite critical now, given that the impulse of justice lies at the core of these concepts. Neither postcolonial nor decolonial perspectives are compatible with right-wing ideologies but the fact that Hindutva ideologues in India and the rightwing globally are now trying to appropriate that language makes it seem to some that the very idea of the postcolonial or decolonial is suspect. We believe that this demonizing of decolonial theory from a position defensive of the European Enlightenment needs to be unpacked in the interests of a mutually productive debate. Kafila has been publishing a series of interventions on what the idea of the decolonial imagination involves, locating decolonial theory as speaking from the margins, drawing attention to identities which the orthodox Left subsumed under ‘class’ and which the rightwing in India seeks to assimilate into Brahminism. Additionally the orthodox Left’s rejection of spiritual beliefs and inability to engage with them is also a factor that may have produced the space for right wing appropriations of a field marked “religion”. 

We hope that these interventions will clear the ground for productive conversations on the Left rather than polarised and accusatory claims that mark some spurious claims to ‘correctness’.]

Much has already been said in this set of essays on the difference between two kinds of Indian responses to colonial western modernity. These responses can be classified as the left leaning post(de)-colonial theories and the right-wing responses that may also be classified, by some, as post(de)-colonial theory. This set of essays are in conversations around the allegation that the former feeds into the latter. It is evident to many of us doing post(de)-colonial theory on the left that the difference between the two is unmistakable. Yet, this is missed by many on the left, leading to much misrepresentation; and by many on the right, leading to much appropriation. We also know that the responses to modernity from post(de)-colonial theories on the left are fractured on multiple axes, religion and faith being a major one. Due to the common worlds we inhabit, it is indeed possible for much confusion to occur. I think the act of demarcating the players, the fields, and the actions of the oeuvres, the right and the left is important, especially for a pedagogic purpose.  Each generation seeks clarification in the classroom on several of these confusions and debates. While demarcating the difference regularly and rigorously is an important intellectual exercise for everyone in the discourse, doing this is also an ethical responsibility, particularly for those who do not wish to be either misrepresented or appropriated, which is basically those who are not bedfellows with the orthodox left and definitely not with the orthodox right. The demarcation is required to be done in multiple domains of theory as well as practice. This set of essays seeks to precisely do that. Continue reading Left, Right, Left – Notes on Radical Post/De-Coloniality: Gita Chadha →

Genders, Identities, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

ALIFA Condemns Rape and Death Threats to Naga Women’s Rights Leader Prof. Rosemary Dzuvichu

Leave a comment

Statement by the All India Feminist Alliance – NAPM calls upon the State to ensure her safety, bring perpetrators to justice and uphold Naga women’s right to reservations in municipal bodies.

NAPM (All India Feminist Alliance – National Alliance of People’s Movements), a pan-India collective of feminist, grassroots organizations and individuals strongly condemns the threats of death and sexual violence made on social media to Kohima-based women’s rights activist and academic, Prof. Rosemary Dzuvichu, Advisor, Naga Mothers’ Association (NMA). The vile, violent and vicious threats on Facebook by one Mr. WJ Longkumer warn her to desist from advocating for women’s political reservation – a hard-won right of Naga women, also upheld by the Supreme Court.  We demand immediate legal action against the perpetrators and call upon the state to ensure the safety of Prof. Rosemary as well as other Naga women, facing similar threats. 

Prof Dzuvichu is no stranger to intimidation. Back in 2017, she was among those leading the struggle to ensure the long-delayed implementation of the Nagaland Municipal (First Amendment) Act of 2006, or the “Nagaland Reservation Bill of 2006″. Through this amendment of the 2001 Municipal Act, women were allotted 33% reservation in urban local bodies (municipalities and town councils), in accordance with the 74th Amendment to the Constitution of India. Article 243 T (3) of the Indian Constitution, mandates that at least one-third of all directly elected seats in every municipality in India must be reserved for women. Yet, all was not smooth as quotas for women in political bodies was posited as ‘going against the customs and culture of Nagaland’, and women who defied these customs were seen as legitimate targets of ire.

Continue reading ALIFA Condemns Rape and Death Threats to Naga Women’s Rights Leader Prof. Rosemary Dzuvichu →
Culture, Debates, Democracy, Genders, Right watch

हिन्दुत्व के कल्पना-लोक में स्त्री और RSS के लिए उसके अतीत से कुछ सवाल

Leave a comment

[मध्ययुग में पश्चिमी जगत में आधुनिकता के आगमन ने धर्म के वर्चस्व को जो चुनौती दी थी, भारत में अंग्रेजों के आगमन के बाद पैदा हुई परिस्थितियों और राजनीतिक आजादी ने यहां धर्म के प्रभाव को और अधिक सीमित कर दिया। रूढ़िवादी, प्रतिक्रियावादी ताकतों ने समय-समय पर इस बदलाव को बाधित करने की कोशिश की। संविधान निर्माण से लेकर स्त्रियों को अधिकार-संपन्न करने के लिए ‘हिन्‍दू कोड बिल’ को सूत्रबद्ध एवं लागू किए जाने का हिन्दुत्ववादी ताकतों ने जिस तरह से विरोध किया, ऐसी ही बाधाओं का ही परिणाम रहा कि डॉ. आंबेडकर को नेहरू के मंत्रिमंडल से इस्तीफा देना पड़ा। यह आलेख संविधान-निर्माण के दौरान स्पष्ट तौर पर उजागर हुए राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ के स्त्री-विरोधी विचारों एवं सक्रियताओं की पड़ताल करता है]

वह 1936 का साल था, जब राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ (RSS) के विचारों एवं कार्यों से प्रभावित होकर नागपुर निवासी लक्ष्मीबाई केलकर (1905-1978) ने संघ के संस्थापक सदस्य डॉ. केशव बलिराम हेडगेवार से मुलाकात की और संघ से जुड़ने की इच्छा जाहिर की थी। सुश्री केलकर- जिन्हें बाद में लोग मौसीजी नाम से पुकारने लगे थे- को यह कतई उम्मीद नहीं रही होगी कि संघ सुप्रीमो इस प्रस्ताव को ठुकरा देंगे और उन्हें सिर्फ स्त्रियों का संगठन बनाने की सलाह देंगे। ‘’राष्ट्र सेविका समिति’’ की स्थापना की यही कहानी बताई जाती है, जिसे आरएसएस का पहला आनुषंगिक संगठन भी कहा जा सकता है।

राष्ट्र सेविका समिति की जब स्थापना हुई, तब RSS का निर्माण हुए 11 साल का वक्फा गुजर चुका था। वह दौर औपनिवेशिक शासन के खिलाफ तथा सामाजिक उत्पीड़न से मुक्ति के लिए उठी हलचलों का था, जिसमें स्त्रियों ने बढ़-चढ़ कर हिस्सा लिया था। भारतीय राजनीतिक-सामाजिक जीवन में जबरदस्त सरगर्मियों के इस दौर में संघ संस्थापक महानुभावों में से किसी को भी यह खयाल तक नहीं आया था कि आबादी का आधा हिस्सा स्त्रियां उनके नक्शे से गायब हैं। वैसे, उन्हें इस बात का एहसास होता भी कैसे क्योंकि इन दोनों किस्म की हलचलों से उन्होंने दूरी बना कर रखी थी और अपने बेहद संकीर्ण व असमावेशी नजरिये के तहत संगठन बनाने में जुटे थे। धर्म आदि के आधार पर जिन्हें वह ‘अन्य’ समझते थे, उनको लेकर अपनी एकांगी सोच के प्रचार-प्रसार में सक्रिय थे। ( Read the full article here : :https://followupstories.com/politics/women-in-hindutva-ideological-realm-and-historical-blunder-of-rss/)

Everyday Life, Feminism, Genders, Media politics, Movements

Concerns arising from the suicide of Atul Subhash – A feminist response: Naveddu Nilladiddare, Karnataka

Leave a comment

Statement by Naveddu Nilladiddare, Karnataka, a state wide network of organisations and individuals concerned with issues related to women and all human rights

The tragic suicides of Atul Subhash and police constable, Tippanna Alagur in Karnataka have once again given rise to volatile debates on the ‘misuse’ of the laws related to gender violence specifically the (erstwhile) IPC 498 A and the Dowry Prohibition Act. It has provoked a PIL in the Supreme Court that seeks reform of these laws to “prevent harassment of Innocent husbands.”  It has also given space for irrational and dangerous fears being unleashed by men’s rights organisations and a sensational media about “greedy and exploitative” women who are a threat to the institution of the family with their rapacious demands for maintenance and alimony. Even the Home Minister of Karnataka has legitimised these fears stating that the suicide has “opened up a debate about men’s rights” in the country.  These statements and debates betray an ignorance of the processes of law in addition to a denial of violent patriarchy that continues to impact on the lives and deaths of women and men. 

Continue reading Concerns arising from the suicide of Atul Subhash – A feminist response: Naveddu Nilladiddare, Karnataka →

Culture, Feminism, Genders

Surokkha Istehar, Forum of Theatre Workers Memorandum to Pashchimbanga Natya Akademy on Sexual Harassment

Leave a comment

SUROKKHA ISTEHAR (Safety Manifesto), is a recently formed forum of theatre workers and individuals and organizations concerned with gender justice in Bangla Theatre. The forum was formed following a raging recent controversy arising from providing a forum to an accused in many sexual harassment cases. A deputation of Surokkha Istehar submitted a memorandum to the member Secretary, Paschimbanga Natya Akademi (the WB government body invested with the recognition and welfare of Bengal theatre groups) seeking immediate information about sexual harassment redressal mechanisms within the ambit of the Akademi, fair representation of all segments of the theatre workers’ community in the constitution of the Akademi as well as accountability of theatre groups and the Akademi in ensuring persons accused of sexual harrasment do not occupy positions of power within the Akademi, etc. 

Published below is the memorandum, containing more than 900 signatures, which also announces the launch of the forum, which seeks to offer assistance to survivors of sexual harassment in theatre spaces, to ensure gender justice in Bengali theatre, among others. 

Deputation of Surokkha Istehar submitting their Memorandum to the Pashchimbanga Natya Akademy

The Memorandum submitted to Pashchimbanga Natya Akademi

Madam/ Sir,

Continue reading Surokkha Istehar, Forum of Theatre Workers Memorandum to Pashchimbanga Natya Akademy on Sexual Harassment →
Culture, Feminism, Genders, Islamophobia, Law, Religion, Right watch

उत्तराखंड महिला समूहों का बयान उत्तराखंड समान नागरिक संहिता (यूसीसी ड्राफ्ट बिल)

Leave a comment

समान नागरिक संहिता के विधेयक के मसौदे पर उत्तराखंड महिला समूहों का यह बयान हम यहाँ छाप रहे हैं ताकि इस ख़तरनाक़ बिल पर और बहस हो सके।

6 फरवरी 2024

उत्तराखंड महिला समूह और प्रतिनिधि राज्य विधानसभा में पेश किए गए इस विधेयक को पूरी तरह से खारिज करते हैं।

  • संवैधानिक व्यवहार को अपराध बनाने वाला, नैतिक पुलिसिंग का परिचय देने वाला विधेयक अस्वीकार्य है।
  • प्रस्तुत हिंदूकृत समान संहिता विधेयक का एजेंडा सभी वर्गों के परिवारों में असमानताओं को दूर करना नहीं है, बल्कि मुस्लिम अल्पसंख्यक और वयस्कों के स्वायत्त व्यवहार को अपराधी बनाना है।
  •  मांग करें कि यह स्थायी समिति के पास जाए।
Continue reading उत्तराखंड महिला समूहों का बयान उत्तराखंड समान नागरिक संहिता (यूसीसी ड्राफ्ट बिल) →
Culture, Everyday Life, Feminism, Genders

Patriarchy and Misogyny in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s ‘Animal’: Bebaak Collective

Leave a comment

This guest post was written by HASINA, with co-authorship contributions from Sanjhana and Mridul from Bebaak Collective, ‘Voices of the Fearless,’ a collective dedicated to addressing the citizenship rights of marginalized communities.

A thread of commonality that ties together Indian society – from familial space to the entertainment industry, from the personal sphere to the political sphere – is the oppression of gender minorities under patriarchy. The longstanding structures of patriarchy and misogyny subject women to various forms of violence and abuse within and outside the household. Such a harsh reality of society is reflected by the popular media and film industry very promptly. The new movies that are being directed and the new music that’s being produced are a great reflection of how we, as a society, have failed women and queer communities. The peppy lyrics that objectify and hyper-sexualise women’s bodies and the movies that glorify toxic masculinity do nothing but perpetuate and normalise gendered violence. As we step into the New Year, we must ask ourselves if we can leave these outdated notions behind and step into a society that fosters peace, equality, and love amongst all.

When we talk about violence, we cannot leave out the impact of mainstream popular media on the larger Indian society. Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s newest blockbuster- Animal, is a disturbing film laden with sexism, misogyny, and toxic masculinity. Continue reading Patriarchy and Misogyny in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s ‘Animal’: Bebaak Collective →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Feminism, Genders, Identities, Law

Same Sex Marriage, Welfarism and the Indian Supreme Court: Thoughts from Kerala

3 Comments

When I read the Supreme Court Bench’s disappointing judgment on same-sex marriage, it was a line from Lalithambika Antharjanam’s autobiography that came to my mind. Remembering her youthful struggles against the barbaric oppression of women in the traditional Malayala brahmin caste, she wrote: “Never had my heart trembled so hard than when I placed my hand on that forbidding door”. She was referring to the terrifying, dehumanising, violent structure of restrictions under which Malayala brahmin women lived.  Over centuries, she says, innumerable women had battered it with their heads. Until one day it collapsed at a small push, soaked with their blood and tears.

Continue reading Same Sex Marriage, Welfarism and the Indian Supreme Court: Thoughts from Kerala →
Culture, Debates, Democracy, Feminism, Genders, Government, Identities, Law, Politics, Religion

Response to Law Commission of India on UCC: Feminist Working Group on Law Commission Submission on the UCC

Leave a comment

In response to the LCI ‘s invitation to “stakeholders, including public and recognised religious organisations” to share their views on the Uniform Civil Code, some feminist groups and individuals came together in Delhi on July 4-5 2023 to draft a considered response. The UCC has been debated in feminist circles for decades, and a broad consensus has gradually emerged since the 1990s that gender justice and not uniformity should be the focus of reforms of laws pertaining to family, whether governed by Personal Laws (religious communities) or customary laws (Scheduled Tribes). The following response emerged on the basis of these discussions, which in turn drew on the long history of serious engagement with the issue in feminist circles for decades.

To,

The Hon’ble Chairperson and members,

Law Commission of India

14 July 2023

Sub: Response of feminist, queer and women’s rights groups and individual feminists to Public Notice of the Law Commission of India dated 14/06/2023, soliciting views on the Uniform Civil Code (UCC).

Respected Chairperson and members of the Law Commission of India,

We, the undersigned, write to you as representatives of feminist, queer and women’s rights groups, as well as concerned citizens, who have been working on issues related to gender justice and equality for women from diverse communities across the country. We draw upon our collective experience over many decades, as we respond to the current discussion on the proposed Uniform Civil Code.

Our submission is in three parts:

  1. Concerns related to the procedure adopted to initiate these discussions by the Law Commission of India (LCI).
  2. Comments on substantive issues of uniformity, equality and non-discrimination vis à vis gender justice.
  3. Governing principles for any efforts towards gender justice for all

Continue reading Response to Law Commission of India on UCC: Feminist Working Group on Law Commission Submission on the UCC →

Bad ideas, Culture, Feminism, Genders, Government, Left watch, Media politics

B 32 to 44: Body Politics or No Body/Politics?

1 Comment

B 32 to 44 is the title of a movie — it refers to the bra sizes of the protagonists of director and scriptwriter Sruthi Sharanyam’s debut film, which has been generating highly positive reviews in the Malayalam facebook world. It has also been highly-awaited  after it received funding from the Ministry of Culture and the Kerala State Film Development Corporation.

Continue reading B 32 to 44: Body Politics or No Body/Politics? →
Debates, Feminism, Genders, Law, Left watch

An Open Letter to the National Leadership of the AIDWA : Struggle in Unity for Equality, or Struggle in Unity against Impunity?

Leave a comment

To the National Leadership which is currently participating in the 13th National Conference of the AIDWA in Thiruvananthapuram.

Dear sisters in struggle

I write to you from Kerala, where the CPM is currently in power for a second time, a rare achievement indeed, in a state where power changes hands usually in each election. I know that most of you hail from places where the CPM is very far from power. I know the difference that makes to activism.

Continue reading An Open Letter to the National Leadership of the AIDWA : Struggle in Unity for Equality, or Struggle in Unity against Impunity? →
Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Feminism, Genders, Law, Left watch

When ‘With the Survivor ‘ Rings Hollow: Observations on the Rage over the Civic Chandran Case

Leave a comment

The internet frenzy over the Civic Chandran case has reached a new zenith over the two highly problematic — deeply elitist, sexist, logically and empirically flawed — anticipatory bail orders issued to the accused by the Sessions Court. There was a strange silence about the first one which was stuffed with elitist statements, and an even stranger pause over the blatantly sexist and conservative order before the active condemnation of the latter began to be voiced over the internet. Even stranger, because there is far more tolerance of elitism among the internet woke-folk than of conservative sexist understandings of the appropriate clothing for women’s bodies in Kerala. The three-day break from expressions of outrage did not, and still does not make sense.

Continue reading When ‘With the Survivor ‘ Rings Hollow: Observations on the Rage over the Civic Chandran Case →
Culture, Feminism, Genders, Government, Left watch

The Angry Young Woman and the Malayali (Progressive) Acchan -2 : The Second Season

3 Comments

I should be forgiven for this flippant-sounding title. But it is a living reality in Kerala that gender politics is increasingly reduced to soppy sentimental drama. Honestly, if there are CPM supporters out there, especially the Delhi-elite breed who call this title mere click-bait, I don’t give a flying fuck about what you think. You are not living this nightmare, we are.

Continue reading The Angry Young Woman and the Malayali (Progressive) Acchan -2 : The Second Season →
Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Feminism, Genders

How Might a Feminist Respond to a Collegial Mansplaining of Feminism? Anannya Dasgupta

2 Comments

Guest post by ANANNYA DASGUPTA

Scroll had recently featured the Foreword to a book, with the heading ‘What do allies write about when they write (poetry) about feminism?’ The descriptive tag read – Saikat Majumdar surveys a unique anthology in his Foreword to ‘Collegiality and Other Ballads’. What makes this anthology unique? Sometime in 2020, Shamayita Sen had circulated a call ‘seeking poems on feminist ideology’ from ‘non-women’. I remember thinking, surely the call will be revised; feminist allies must know that there is a problem with excluding women from a space meant to check the pulse of contemporary feminisms. Besides, who is non-woman enough to want to be a part of such a man-book? While the premise of the book was not revised, the category ‘non-woman’ has been. The title page of the anthology now reads: Collegiality and Other Ballads with a tag – feminist poetry by males and non-binary allies. The opening line of Majumdar’s Foreword adds to the uniqueness of this mostly male-only feminist anthology by attributing uniqueness to feminism itself: ‘Feminism is the name of a unique battle.’

Continue reading How Might a Feminist Respond to a Collegial Mansplaining of Feminism? Anannya Dasgupta →
Everyday Life, Feminism, Genders, Identities, Images, Language, Sex, Violence/Conflict

An Exorcism For Every Woman and A Curse on Every Man: Fulana Detail

1 Comment

This is a guest post by FULANA DETAIL

The post below is hard to read. It is written with a great deal of rage and pain and grief. It is a post about sexual violence. It is not explicit in any way. It does not describe sexual violence. It describes the feeling of being before the violence of masculinity. It describes the violence of the feeling of feeling. Which is why it is hard to read. You may wish to think carefully about whether you want to read further. Please consider this a trigger warning. 

Today I performed an exorcism. I performed an exorcism of every image that floods the media of sexual violence, of rape and mutilation, of violation, of violence that should be undoable and unthinkable. I decided to think it. I let these images move through my mind and my body. I performed an exorcism for every woman, and everyone who believes herself woman, and lives woman, and every one who lives as not man. I performed an exorcism for everyone who is not a man. I performed an exorcism for every man who is not a man. I let image, upon image, upon image, upon image, upon image, upon image, flood my mind. I opened my mind as wide as I could, without filter and protection. Eventually I let my mind break at the seams, for many hours. I let my mind descend into terror. I let my mind touch madness. I let my mind become a not mind. And not by reaching atman or bhramaan  believe you me. I let my mind become incoherent.

Continue reading An Exorcism For Every Woman and A Curse on Every Man: Fulana Detail →
Bad ideas, Debates, Feminism, Genders, Images, Law

The gender between men’s legs and other learnings from a college in kerala

9 Comments

Over the past one year, I have been trying to make a college in Kerala – in a women’s college in Kerala– take some action against one of their faculty members who rained abuse on me publicly, including a public assertion about his possession of a penis, at a seminar in which I was an invited guest. This happened in November 2019.

Continue reading The gender between men’s legs and other learnings from a college in kerala →
Bad ideas, Genders, Government, Law, Politics

Statement on the Arrest of a Survivor of Sexual Assault in Araria, Bihar: Ambedkar University Delhi Faculty Association

Leave a comment

15.7.2020

Ambedkar University Delhi Faculty Association (AUDFA is alarmed to hear of and strongly condemns the arrest of a survivor of gang rape along with two social workers (including former AUD student Tanmay Nivedita), at the office of the Judicial Magistrate (1st Class) in Araria, Bihar on 10 July 2020. The arrest was ordered during the course of recording of the survivors’ statement under section 164 CrPC in relation to a case of gang rape which took place just days earlier, on 6 July 2020.

It is further disturbing that the hon’ble court appears to have registered offence at the fact that the survivor sought the presence and support of two social workers prior to actually signing her statement under section 164 CrPC in the said case. The right of a survivor of sexual assault/rape to the presence of caregivers for psychological support is well established and is specifically noted in the Justice Verma Committee Report (2013, Appendix 8). Instead of recognising the right of the survivor to psychological support, the Judicial Magistrate, Araria District, thought it fit to order the arrest of the survivor and the two social workers under sections of the IPC, including 353 and 228, on grounds of “obstructing the work of public servants”.

The absence of sensitivity in dealing with cases of sexual assault, and the unfortunate use of power to discipline a survivor of gang rape for seeking psychological and social support at a time of deep trauma, lays bare the deeply worrisome reality of the functioning of the criminal justice system that survivors of sexual assault face on a regular basis. AUDFA unequivocally condemns these arrests and stands in solidarity with the arrested persons.

Feminism, Genders, Government, Law

Gendering the Pandemic in the Prison: Pratiksha Baxi, Navsharan Singh

Leave a comment

Excerpts from an article published in The India Forum. Link to whole article given below.

A powerful analysis of the injustice of the prison system in India (in which 70 percent of the incarcerated are under trial), the authors PRATIKSHA BAXI and NAVSHARAN KAUR make an argument for recognizing women, as well as gender and sexual minorities, as ‘custodial’ minorities.   

We argue that all women inmates may be defined “custodial” minorities. As per the 2020 statistics we collated, there are 68 persons incarcerated under the category “others”. No grave threat is posed to society by UTPs belonging to sexual and gender minorities that non-custodial alternatives cannot be found for them, while they wait for investigations and trials to be over. And alternatives to prison system need to be innovated for all convicted women, and gender and sexual minorities. There does not seem to be an attempt to recognise that their right to health and life is made far more precarious in a transphobic prison-medical complex. They must be counted and accounted for…

All women in prisons without distinction of charge, crime or sentence, whether pregnant, lactating, menstruating or menopausal, differently abled or ailing may be thought of as “custodial” minorities. Muslim women face terrible targeting and blame, as do Dalit women who face intolerable discrimination and bear the brunt of misuse of law against them. Similarly, Muslim and Dalit male undertrials are also subjected to sexualised forms of torture in police and judicial custody. And policies that exclude foreigners from interim bail position them as custodial minorities, who face institutionalised racism. However, the law has difficulty in “seeing” these prison inmates, especially undertrials, as custodial minorities.

Continue reading Gendering the Pandemic in the Prison: Pratiksha Baxi, Navsharan Singh →

Feminism, Genders, Movements, Politics

Farewell Kalpana Mehta – Remembering a Feminist Activist

Leave a comment

The following is a statement Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression  on the passing away of leading feminist activist Kalpana Mehta. This English version was earlier published in Mainstream Weekly.

Women against Sexual Violence and State Repression (WSS) deeply mourns the passing away of Kalpana Mehta in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The loss of a fellow traveller and a comrade at a time when we are going through a massive public health crisis and continuous clampdown on the right to dissent through arrests and detention is hard to bear. Kalpana has been with WSS ever since its inception in 2009.

Having done B. Tech in Aeronautical Engineering from IIT, Kanpur she had left for the US to pursue a degree in MBA. She came back to India in 1976, as it happened with many other fellow Indians who returned in those times, when the country was reeling under the clampdown of the National Emergency imposed by the Congress-led government in power at the centre. Within a few years in trade union work, she became part of a vibrant and powerful political current that brought to light women’s oppression and subordination in society and the need to organize as women, which was becoming well nigh impossible in the left and socialist movements of those years. Her life and politics have thus been shaped by the emergence of the autonomous women’s movement in the late 70s and early 80s. Kalpana was a co-founder of the autonomous feminist collective Saheli Women’s Resource Centre that was set up in 1981; she continued to remain at the forefront of the women’s movement ever since. Read the full statement here.