Women and Hindu Nationalism- revision part II

As I promised, I'll blog some of the stuff I hope to impress my examiners with! So this post is about the gendered aspect of Hindu Nationalism. The next two incidentally, shall be about democratization and Islamicization (is it Islamization?) in Pakistan. Also, I've changed the template of this blog, to make it more readable. Hope this helps...I've changed the name too...it's a bit boring, but I'm not a terribly imaginative person. I'll keep searching for an appropriate name till I find one. All suggestions are welcome!

Let's begin with a quick survey of some of the sources I've used for this: the Bulletin of Concerned South Asian Scholars had an interesting compilation of articles, as does Urvashi Butalia and Tanika Sarkar's book, Women and the Hindu Right. There are also plenty of excellent articles by Amrita Basu and Amrita Chhachhi. Basu's two books, mentioned on her webpage are also extremely useful. I'm not a huge fan of Gail Omvedt, but you could read this article by her. A few other articles that you might want to browse through are:
1. Mother India by Urvashi Butalia
2. Hindu Nationalism and Women in Orissa by Angana Chatterji.
3. Journal of Women's History (Winter 1998)- Women's Activism and the Vicissitudes of Hindu Nationalism,"
Amrita Basu
4. Khaki Shorts and Saffron Flags by Tapan Basu, Tanika Sarkar et al (relevant pages- 72-94)

That I think is a reasonable coverage of some of the important reading material out there. It's not exhaustive but it ought to be useful, in case you're interested. If you want more stuff, do email me.

Hindu nationalism and its gendered aspects has belied certain long held beliefs about the links between women and pacifism. We've seen in the course of riots in Surat, Bijnor and so on, active participation by women, that has stunned many activists. So this then raises the question: why do women join Hindu nationalists? Are they empowered by this? My argument would be two fold- a) they join because this allows them the freedom to move from the private to the public sphere without forcing them to confront some of the contradictions of their existence and hence is a 'safe option' b) yes, they are empowered, albeit in a way that will ultimately conspire to subjugate them.

The first Hindu nationalist women's organization was the Rashtriyasevika Samiti, the women's wing of the RSS. Note that it's not called the Rashtriya Swayamsevika Samiti. The term itself puts women within the RSS at a lower hierarchical level and robs them of the autonomy and self control that the word 'volunteer' implies. The women's wing was formed after opposition from Golwalkar who felt that women should not be allowed to step outside the lakshmangandi. Anyway, the women's wing has not seen the spectacular growth rate that other Sangh Parivar organizations have. Their recruitment methods are modest- each new recruit is made to feel comfortable through certain family based gatherings and is seen as channel to her neighbours and kin. Women are encouraged to pass on what they learn to their children, and are hence equipped with basic pedagogical tools. They are provided with some training in basic Hindu texts, but encouraged not to criticise. The aggressive, supremacist aspects of these texts are emphasised. Further, women are encouraged to have careers but with parental approval. Parental approval also plays a key role in marriages. The idea is simple- it helps reinforce familial and caste bonds without explicit references to caste. Women are not encouraged to divorce and are told that if their husbands are unhappy with them it is their fault. Those whose husbands are unfaithful are told that infidelity in men is a biological fact and they must put up with it.

I will stop here because I need to get back to work! In the next post I'll tackle Women in the Ayodhya movement, and why the feminist movement has found the gendered aspect of Hindu nationalism so hard to deal with.