Freedom, violence, and peace through a gender lens

Beyond achieving equal status with men, gender equality must consider intersectionality and gender-specific measures, writes Devaki Jain

India’s journey towards independence from the British empire is said to have been one of the most peaceful transitions from a colony to an independent nation. However, this statement can be challenged and rechallenged as independence was accompanied by enormous bloodshed, violence, and death. It was neither intended nor expected that once the subcontinent was free of the colonial master, she would be ravaged by terrible suffering due to religious animosities.

The breaking up of the subcontinent into two pieces on the basis of religion was truly a painful surgery and actually a post-surgery recovery challenge. However, while the pain and loss were destructive, they could not overpower the extraordinary exuberance of freedom.

In 1947, when I was 13 years old, we were living in Gwalior, where my father was Dewan and a member of the States Committee. As a result, the atmosphere of joy and fear was ever-present in our home.

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My father had called on Gandhiji on January 29. In his memoirs entitled Of the Raj, Maharajas and Me, he recalls Gandhiji’s despondence at the violence and communal hostilities that were prevailing in the country.

It hurts me that Gandhi, who crafted our journey towards freedom from the British, had to see a violent end due to others who wanted to have religion define territory.

We experience the consequences of this even today.

Repairing the damage

Credit must be given to leaders and freedom fighters such as Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Sarojini Naidu, who turned their attention to repairing the damage by working to rehabilitate refugees and rebuild India’s cultural and craft heritage.

Another extraordinary phenomenon was the unity amongst those who took part in the struggle – across gender, region and caste.

The word ‘freedom’ was widespread across generations, gender and localities.

Vast gap

Yet, seven decades after independence, vast divides exist. This is particularly evident in the context of gender justice. Are women included in the workforce as much as men? Are they as educated as men in various classes and castes? Are they reaching the same positions in firms?

Speaking for myself, having observed, noted, spoken and written about the various inequalities that women experience, I am pleased that changes are being made. A key method for breaking the barriers of patriarchy is organised countervailing power.

Research by women, of women in India, reveals their irreplaceable contribution to the production of goods and services (tangible and intangible). Women writers and scholars are giving visibility to these phenomena.

There is a growing emergence of women’s organisations now. The resulting progress can be seen in local self-governments, where they have moved from the compulsory 33% representation of women to 60% in some cases. As we move forward in representation at the local level, we reasonably move forward at the national level. A case in point is the recently elected President of India.

Much needs to be done to enable women from less-privileged castes to move forward to jobs that have been kept beyond their reach. Thus, there have to be special arrangements to orient them towards achieving those spaces.

Reservation for women in Panchayati Raj has produced excellent results in some parts. For example, in Karnataka, more than 50% of representatives at the gram panchayat level are women.

While reservation has been a good step, the more significant barrier to women coming into political spaces is the problem of wealth.

Unequal access to wealth and finances are often drivers for successful men in politics. This lack of access to finance, and wealth, and, of course, the overpowering pressure of traditional ideas of gender roles have inhibited women from entering the political scene in the numbers required for a powerful lobby.

There is also a gap in the efforts of women-centric NGOs — they concentrate on enabling women in the social and economic aspects, but have not yet galvanised to enable their entry into the state and central levels of governance.

(The author is a senior economist.)