Women and Hindu nationalism (contd..)

Women were particularly prominent during the Ayodhya campaign and the 'credit' for this ought to be given to the Sangh Parivar propaganda machinery. Advani's rath yatra was accompanied by the voice of a woman, Sadhvi Rithambra, shrill and shrieking, urging Hindu men, almost shaming them to rise to the defence of their religion. The use of posters with pictures of a smiling baby Ram, and accompanying words suggesting that he had been snatched away from his rightful birthplace, were designed to appeal to the maternal instinct within women.

Participation by women was prevalent even during the pre-Ayodhya phase. In 1989, a huge procession of Hindu women, brandishing trishuls marched through the streets of Bijnor shouting inflammatory slogans. In the ensuing riots, almost 400 were killed. Many of the women who were later interviewed expressed satisfaction at the role they had played. In the post Ayodhya riots, women of fidderent classes- from rural women in Bhagalpur, to Maruti driving ones in Ahmedabad took active part in the riots.

So this raises the interesting question of why women are attracted to Hindu nationalists? First, a vast majority of these women come from the upper middle classes of north India. Many of them were of the age when they were stepping outside the boundaries of their home for the first time. Here they were encountering sexual harassment and opposition. Hence, the RSS emphasis on physical training would appeal to such women. But as Flavia Agnes has argued, these women would be repelled by traditional feminist doctrines. This would encourage them to reject all that they had taken for granted for so long, and would probably have brought upon them oppobrium and ostracism from their family. On the other hand, Hindu nationalists provided a means of making a painless transition from the private to the public sphere. As many of the women interviewed by Sarkar pointed out, they had suffered atrocities within the home, and public political participation was an exhilarating process. At the same time, they were hesitant to repudiate their traditional roles as wives and mothers. Hindu nationalists were providing them with a cocoon within which they could engage only with selective aspects of politics. It shielded them from various harsh truths and would be met with family approval.

Amrita Basu argues that part of the successful strategy for the BJP has involved making a fine distinction between being 'communal' and being 'fundamentalist' on women's issues. So there is no obsession with Hindu women's sexuality or fertility, but the Muslim woman's child rearing abilities are sneered upon or treated with apprehension on the grounds that they will outbreed the Hindus. The BJP has never offered any opposition to issues such as abortion or contraception. Hence, she argues that they are communal rather than fundamentalist. However, these two strands do occasionally come together, revealing the even uglier side of the BJP- as was witnessed during the Roop Kanwar incident in Rajasthan, when many BJP leaders of the state took up a pro-Sati stance.

This raises the next question: why would I argue that Hindu nationalism would not benefit women? This is because they have never really fought for any women's issues. Their obsession with the 'female Hindu body' as a contested terrain over which questions of nationalism are decided is worrying. The equation of the mother(land) with the nation, and the gendered imagery that the RSS wishes to convey through these tactics, again worries me. The women who have been mobilized by Hindu nationalist, have not been mobilized in a cause that uplifts them, they have no been mobilized for any issue that directly concerns their lives, and I suspect when they do mobilize, will be pushed right back to Golwalkar's lakshmangandi. And it is herein that my doubts about the empowering aspects of Hindu nationalism lies.

In my final post on this, I'll refer to Shah Bano, the Uniform Civil Code and the feminist movement in India.

I've just found this excellent archive of material on Hindu nationalism. Take a look!