INDIA: BREAKING FEAR'S SILENCE
Women all over India - peasants, workers and students - have been speaking out and organizing against rape and harassment of women. The March/April 1979 issue of the Indian feminist journal Manushi reports on this. We are reprinting here excerpts from several articles giving an overview of these actions. The introduction is from the Manushi editorial. This excellent issue is available from A- 5 Nizamuddin East, New Delhi 110013, India.
The reports and articles we received for this issue testify to a greater ferment and restlessness among women. While on the one hand, sexual violence and atrocities on women are increasing, there are promising signs that women are beginning to organize themselves to demand Our Right To Our Bodies. This issue seems to have the potential of uniting women irrespective of class, caste or religion. Isn't there a lot in common between the slogans raised by the university women's morcha against eve-teasing in Delhi, and what the Andhra dalit women have to say about their organizations against rape? Eve-teasing and rape are manifestations of the same attitude towards us as women - an attitude which denies us our humanity, which reduces us to mere objects: mere bodies to be used or abused.
If these bodies are not on piecemeal sale for a few rupees, or life-time sale with a dowry thrown in, then they can be trespassed on, and sampled at will. If they are not the well-guarded property of one man, then any man is free to buy them if he can, or to grab them if he can't.
And this man is not necessarily a pervert, a "goonda". He could be the respectable elderly gentleman edging closer to you in the cinema; anonymous hands pinching you in the bus; a boyfriend who expresses his love for you by "screwing" you or any girl who comes his way, while his father keeps a virgin bride ready for him. He is often our employer, whose molestation we have to put up with to hold the job; the landlord whose fields we cultivate; the policeman we go to for help. And quite often "it's all in the family" - an uncle, a cousin, a father-in-law. There was a recent report from Delhi of a father who raped his 15-year-old daughter. And of course our own husbands, thanks to whom sexual violence and rape have become a part of our lives.We are "lawfully" expected to submit to their unchallengeable property-right over our bodies - a right superior to our own right to control our bodies!
Are we to blame if we are molested? Is it because we dress provocatively, invite attention, want to be whistled at, enjoy being teased, "ask for it" when we are raped? No, sisters. this is an old lie, a male myth — that every woman wants to this is an old lie, a male myth — that every woman wants to be pursued, dominated, raped. When a man dresses attractively,is he sexually attacked by women? No, eve-teasing is not a way of expressing appreciation, of reaching out to another human being; it's a way of spitting out contempt at us for being women. And this is true whether the remark hurled at us is "Hello Sweety" or an obscenity. It is an act of aggression,psychological and physical, to humiliate and terrify us, just as much as is the rape of a dalit woman. It is a systematic attempt to destroy our sense of self.
What provocation do dalit women offer? Why has rape by upper caste men acquired the force of an institution in their lives? Do the landlords not use rape as a way of degrading those belonging to the lower castes? There has been a tremendous spurt in the incidence of gang-rape of dalit women,to punish the rural poor for trying to organize themselves and fight exploitation.
The assaults on women may take different forms in different settings, but the message is clear: the streets are not ours, the city after dark is not ours, our own bodies are not ours. Should we be more "careful", "non-provocative"? The logic of this would be: do not step out of the house (if you have one),go into purdah. And if we are raped at home? By landlords' men raiding our homes at night? By religious fanatics and communalists? By drunken husbands? (Marital rape is not a legal offence!) What then? It is only by ceasing to be at all,to be as women, that we can stop "provoking" aggression.We have to realise that we are not to blame if we are attacked- that sexual violence is a conscious process of intimidation to keep women oppressed and in a permanent state of fear. It is time for us to start being more provocative. We must provoke anger, by fighting back - like the women in Andhra who have formed organizations to defend themselves, like the women in Maharashtra who took out morchas against rape,women in Tamilnadu who conducted an anti-obscenity campaign.
This is going to provoke hostility, repression, violence.Wherever women have been protesting, the entire power structure, from the local to the national, has cracked down with greater brutality. Witness the way Andhra women have been hunted from their homes, JNU girl students were beaten up in Delhi, the heavy odds against which the Sangamner women organized their morcha. Women coming out of their isolation onto the streets, to protest, represent a threat to the whole power structure, from the family to the national,political level. The people's struggle enters a more militant phase when women begin to participate in larger numbers.
And this is what is beginning to happen - localized, embryonic,but definite beginnings.
At this stage it is vitally important that we keep in touch with each other, know what women in other parts of the country are doing, learn from each others' experiences. Many readers emphasised this need for coordination. We hope that Manushi"emphasised this need for coordination. We hope that Manushi will play a role in developing links between localized groups and forging their struggles into a united women's movement in this country.
"We have formed the Sangham to make our lives worth living, to protect ourselves from rape and insult".
SO spoke Kankamma, a young peasant woman, president of the Ryotu Mahila Sangham, Kodurpaka village.
Kodurpaka falls in Sirsilla taluk which, with Jagityala taluk, has seen severe repression of the year-long peasant movement, culminating in the notification of these taluks as
"disturbed areas" on October 4, 1978. These two taluks are part of Andhra Pradesh.
In November, the People's Union for Civil Liberties, Delhi, sent a Fact Finding Committee to investigate the situation in these areas. In the course of its investigation, the committee met and talked with a large number of peasant activists, including Kankamma and others from her village
Kankamma had fled Kodurpaka and sought sanctuary with friends and relatives in another village. But she boldly accompanied us to her home village to take us to the house of Rajavva, a fifty-year-old activist of the Ryotu Mahila Sangham, who had been raped by the goondas of the landlord
The landlord, Shri Venkatrao, who owns two hundred acres, was not present in Kodurpaka when the committee went there, but his "men" were everywhere, right from the road, where Venkatrao (who is also a member of the Lions' Club) has constructed a bus stand, to every place inside the village visited by the committee. His father, though present, refused to meet us.
Rajavva, the victim of the rape, had left the village with other key activists of the Ryotu Mahila Sangham. Her old husband had been beaten very badly and could hardly talk. It was Kankamma who narrated events, though she quietened down for a while when the landlord's men came and joined the group surrounding the committee. About ten to fifteen women had also gathered but they moved away as soon as a committee member attempted to question them.
The attack on the women activists came a few weeks after the notification. "On October 29", said Kankamma, "Nampally, Potinarsiah, Kondiah, Bariah, Hanumiah, Padolla Narsiah, Sudha Narsiah, and Ventiah slaughtered a buffalo, ate the meat and got drunk. In the evening, they came to Harijanwada from the fields, with the bottles in their pockets. They wanted to rape me. But I had not been living in my house for some time. Then they wanted to rape Bannava. She was not to be found.
Not finding either of these two women, the goondas beat up another activist and her husband, who fled towards
Harijanwada. The goondas then came to Rajavva's house and
took her to the fields. When her men-folk tried to help her,
they beat them up and tied them to poles.
"There in the fields, seven men raped her. She lost consciousness. They brought her back and threw her into the house. When we tried to take her to the hospital, no cart,
rickshaw or any other vehicle was allowed to take her"
They managed to get her to Karimnager Hospital only the next evening. Rajavva's eldest son went to lodge a complaint with the police. The Sub-Inspector said, "Do you know what rape means? Your father owes the landlord Rs 3,000. You are making up a false case to evade the debt". However, the rape case was registered — No. 101/78, P.S. Sirsilla. The committee was told that the police had come and made enquiries but no action had been taken.
"Day in and day out we are exposed to such treatment", Kankamma continued, 'The dora's (landlord's) goondas of our own caste have vowed to rape us, to beat us and to ransack our houses. They are not letting us live in our homes. Nor are they allowing us to enter the village. After the Ryotu Mahila Sangham was formed, Kondiah, my own cousin, took an oath that he would rape me whenever he got the chance"
As we walked with Kankamma to another house which had been ransacked by the goondas, a menacing crowd of men and women, many armed with spears, gathered around us. They were people of her own caste; they hurled abuses and threats at Kankamma who withstood it all defiantly. The mukhia, and old man who is the community leader of the 150 Harijan families in Kodurpaka, said, "We must stay united. We must be with the dora and keep to the old customs. No need of any Sanghams".
"Kankamma has brought trouble to the village. We were fine until she and the other women started their meetings", shouted someone else in the crowd . As the situation grew increasingly tense, we put Kankamma in our car and left Kodurpaka. A group of the landlord's men were on watch at the crossroads outside the village as, in the deepening twilight, we transferred Kankamma to the jeep that would take her back to her refuge.
The Sanghams
What are these Sanghams that the mukhia did not want in his village? He was referring, not just to the Ryotu Mahila Sangham but also to the Ryotu Coolie Sanghams (peasant organizations) which have been formed in both Jagityala and Sirsilla taluks. In both taluks, the Ryotu Coolie Sanghams have led a powerful and popular agitation against illegal landholdings, against bribes and fines extracted by the landlords, against vetti system of compulsory labour for the landlords, and for higher wages.
Almost every report of the demonstrations and meetings mentions the presence of peasant women in large numbers. Women participated most in the Pudipalli Ryotu Coolie Sangham meeting. In Gummalapuru (Mettapaili taluk) it is reported that on October 2 1 , 1978, the police came in a jeep t o arrest the organizers of the newly formed Ryotu Coolie Sangham. Hundreds of women surrounded the jeep. One young woman took the ignition key of the jeep and hid it
After a few hours, more policemen come to the rescue of their besieged colleagues. They fired in the air and made a lathi charge in which many women were injured. In some villages women have been implicated in false cases. In many villages, the Ryotu Coolie Sanghams have organized a social boycott, that is, a total strike against the landlords. No villager, man or woman, would go to work for the landlord during this time.
The peasant movement, which has been organized after the revocation of the Emergency and has developed momentum through last year, has attracted the wrath of the landlords, the local police, and finally of the Andhra Pradesh Government. Seventy landlords reportedly called upon the Chief Minister, Chenna Reddy, urging him to take stern measures against the peasants. Ten days later, the two taluks were notified "disturbed areas" under the Andhra Pradesh Suppression of Disturbances Act....
In both Chakapalli and Kodurpaka, the women's organizations appear to be ancillary to the peasant organizations. The women's organizations are being formed in the context of the peasant movement against the big landlords and are organically linked with it.
Meeting A Need
The Mahila Sanghams, however, meet a specific need of the women of the poorer classes who are sexually abused by men of the upper classes. There are districts in this region where it is customary to send a girl to the landlord when she attains puberty. Village women are also made available to the landlord when his wife is pregnant. Over the years, this sexual exploitation by the upper class men has become part of the dally life of the poorer women. But now women are beginning to resist and revolt.
The attacks on Rajavva and other women activists are, on the one hand, part of the repression of the movement of the poor peasants. They are also specifically directed against these women as women who are defying "old customs" and practices which are degrading t o the female sex. The repression has taken the form of sexual violence, either threatened or actual - from molestation to rape. This form of repression is by no means isolated or accidental. It is an important part of the spectrum of repression let loose on the struggles of the oppressed for their rights. Witness the recent Bijatpur violence on women and the landless poor by the landlord's goondas, the rape of women and killing of workers by the police in Bailadilla.
Though the Ryotu Mahila Sanghams are only at a nascent and embryonic stage, these and other such organizations are of vital significance. The women's movement in India can evolve its own coherent and distinct shape only by examining and participating in movements for change at the grassroots level, movements that aim at ending exploitative relations between employer and worker, landlord and peasant, man and woman.
The inspiration and the strength of the Indian women's movement will come from women in the factories, fields and plantations , fighting against exploitation, both economic and sexual - women like Kankamma, who are breaking fear's silence. Kankamma says: " Earlier, we never spoke publicly of how we were treated. Now we have formed the Mahila Sanghams and we will struggle".
SUDESH VAID