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Monday, December 27, 2010

Kashmiri Women and "Azadi"

Watching TV these days, I start contemplating over issues for which my mother, or ladies in my locality, could go on to the streets protesting violently. I get this thought whenever I see images of "Burning Kashmir" on TV and see ordinary women shouting slogans of “Azadi". The women I am talking about are ordinary homemakers. These are not contemporary, highly qualified, so called intellectual and privileged women. So, how do these ordinary women get extra-ordinary courage to come out in the burning streets risking their lives?


Another thing that intrigues me is their slogan of "Azadi"! I ask myself, do these women actually understand the meaning of "Azadi"? And, if they do understand, what are their attributes of "Azadi"? I was unable to find a direction for my thought to explore the reason for this phenomenon. Then, I decided to explore some prominent social movements of present day India which were spearheaded by women. Two major movements that came to my mind were, anti arrack movement in Andhra Pradesh and the Chipko movement in present day Uttarakhand. I considered these two movements because they were both against the state, started spontaneously by women without any notable organised leadership and finally they brought about a substantial change in state policy.



The anti arrack agitation was started by women in Warangal, Karimnagar and Adilabad districts of Andhra Pradesh in 1990-91.This was suppressed by the government by using police force. It went to the extent of selling arrack in police protection and in some cases even in the police stations. Arrack was locally made cheap liquor. This was consumed mostly in rural areas as it was abundantly available locally and was cheap. Arrack production and sale was licensed by the government, thus, was legal. These licenses were with some powerful local contractors who were local musclemen and were politically well connected. This movement revived in August 1992 in a remote village of Nellore and later spread to other districts of Andhra Pradesh. This was when this agitation was first covered by media and people took note of it. Despite the agitation, government was reluctant to ban arrack. It tried to forcefully suppress the movement. This was because of the involvement of very powerful people in arrack business and the revenue that state government got from sale of local liquor. But, the women were in no mood of succumbing to government pressure and threats from contractors. Finally, government had to accede to the demands of the protesting women. When TDP (Telugu Desam Party) won the election in 1994 it went ahead with its promise of total prohibition. This movement was spearheaded by poor and mostly literate rural women.



The "Chipko Aandolan" as it is popularly called was started mostly by rural women in the present day Uttarakhand, then Uttar Pradesh. This was the time when nobody talked about "Global Warming"! It was the time when aggressive economic development started in India. Timber was a major export item in those days which earned the government foreign exchange. This resulted in unabated felling of trees in the hills of present Uttarakhand. Deforestation led to soil erosion, landslides, floods, silting of rivers etc. All this was realised later, the initial effects of deforestation were felt by the rural women folk in the hills. In their own terms, the forest was their "maika" which means maternal home in Hindi. This was the place which gave them food, fodder for their cattle, fuel for their "Chulas" and drinking water streams. In other terms, forest was a major constituent of a household economy. Hence, started the movement. Whenever timber contractors came to cut trees, women would first try to convince the contractors, not to cut trees, by informing them about the demerits of deforestation. Subsequently, if the contractor refused to concede, women would hug the tree such that the contractor would have to kill the woman first in order to cut the tree. Later, women also started tying holy threads around trees which is a symbol of pious bonding according to Hinduism. This strengthened their bond with the forest as this gave them emotional bonding with the forest. Such was the success of the movement that it was recognised internationally and later on the government had to go slow on felling trees despite the contractor pressure and financial loss. Reforestation drives were initiated, legal battles fought and subsequently in December 1996, The Supreme Court of India declared cutting of trees in forest areas as illegal (not solely because of Chipko movement though).



By looking at these two movements, the only point I could infer as a reason for these women to come out openly on the streets was that, the “issue in contention” in both the above cases was directly affecting their home. By home here, I mean family relationships, family peace and economy. The constituents of the threat in the above cases could be health issues, food scarcity, money scarcity, threat to social security etc. I strongly believe that the reason for women, in Kashmir, to come out on to the streets is also that they see a threat to their own home. On many occasions, in a social scenario, we see many homes failing to manage crisis situations and breaking, but we never feel that the same will happen to our home. We experience fear only when the magnitude of the problem is huge and we feel that we can also be the victims of a similar crisis. Thus, if so many women find the situation threatening to their homes in Kashmir, we can assume the magnitude of the problem.



Now that we consider, threat to one’s home, as a major problem of the protesting women. We should also find out the constituents of the threat to their homes. In a place like Kashmir, the situation is quite different from the situations mentioned in the above cases. The constituents of the threat would be different. Here, in my opinion, the constituents would primarily be threat to life of family members and threat to dignity of family members. There could be other social and economic threats, but, I consider these two to be the most important ones. Also, by the simple analogy, we can consider right to life of family members and right to dignity of family members of these women as their attributes of “Azadi”. Thus, if my analogy is correct and the attributes of “Azadi” for these women are right to life and right to dignity of family members. Then, in my opinion, there is no one else who understands the meaning of “Azadi” better than these women.



May god help these women get their “Azadi”

12 comments:

  1. yeah I agree...unless things affect us directly...we do not empathize or act.

    btw m glad that u've started blogging on some serious stuff.....keep going mate!!

    ....well that doesn't mean m not looking fwd to the "eccentric mind " :))

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  2. Thanks a lot. I will need ur help.

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  3. Another thing that i want to emphasize upon is that threats that people percieve will affect them are also different from person to person...
    Alcohol for one person might be a threat to personal health,whereas it might not be for another person.There is nothing absolute!!

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  4. interesting perspective, from the women's pov. women have always been ready to defend their homes, for their family and children. going back a little, they were very active in the independence movement too, though there were not many leaders from their gender.

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  5. Kuldeep@riyaimpex.com

    Good writing but too simple in the context. I wish it be the way you have preceived it. Yes GOD only can offer help now. (Now in kashmir stared in 1100 AD)

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  6. @Vamsi- Rightly said dear! I feel whenever ordinary women come out on to the streets, something has seriously gone wrong. I did not take example of the freedom movement because that struggle was not against a democratic government.

    @Kuldeep-Yes Kuldeep,i also feel that i have taken the analogy for granted.It should have been dealt with better. But,this is a heart felt expression!!

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  7. Liked the flow of the blog, your citations and analogies. Ending could have been better, as I am not completely convinced by the last statement. I felt it was limiting the meaning of Azadi which obviously is much broader than “right to life and right to dignity of family members”.
    I do commend the simple and thoughtful perspective of yours --- that whenever ordinary women comes out on to the streets, something has seriously gone wrong.

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  8. Hi Anu,

    Thanks for the encouragement.The central idea of the writeup is that different people have different attributes of Freedom or Sovereignty. My analogy says that, for an ordinary woman, whose world revolves around her home must be some where related to it. This shows the gravity of the problem. For a youth in Kashmir, mere presence of security forces is a sign of imperialism. Actual "idea os India and Independence" is different for me.I will discuss them soon.

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  9. ya brother as einstein stated "its all relative". One man's bread is other man's poison. Azadi is quite a broad term to define. with the two examples u hav taken i feel u hav aptly justified the plight of 'ordinary' women. i can also support you with an example of how "common" women started SHGs(self help groups)and have played pivotal role in its implementation in many of the states by the GOI. but dear the next time u use the term 'ordinary',think twice as i feel the more appropriate term would be a "common" women. b'cos no women is ORDINARY buddy....think about it...

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  10. Thanks dear!! In case of ordinary,i have not demeaned ordinary as i have been sarcastic on not so ordinary women.How can women who bring such changes in the society called ordinary??

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  11. when u dont mean something then dont use words which give that meaning...Take care of the usage of words then... ya ya i know pretty well...u wont demean any women!!! But my point is as a friend I know what u r. It doesn’t mean that whoever reads ur blog should decipher ur inner meaning. just a caution note...who knows who is reading ur blog??? may be someone who detests this Male Chauvinistic society? U never know..

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