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Zealous Reformers,
Deadly Laws: Battling Stereotypes
Social reform in favour of women has always been a component of Indian politics. In the 19th century, social reform was a predominant part of mainstream nationalist politics. But, as Kishwar states, "social legislation does not determine social behaviour." Whether it was a hundred years ago or in today’s climate, mere legislation never did affect human psychology where people fall prey to age-old stereotypes relating to women. Tharu and Lalitha in their excellent volumes on Women Writing in India have pointed out that social reformers were very often irritated with their own subjects, that is, women, and more often than not spoke of them as gossiping, untrustworthy and superstitious. Kishwar also points out that those in high places are the biggest violators of laws that are meant to enforce positive changes for women. The largest givers and takers of dowry, for instance, are among the top bureaucrats and ministers. Accordingly, one of the issues Kishwar examines is not the implementation of laws, such as restrictions against child marriage, but the reasons why such laws are infringed. In extremely poor, migrant households, young girls are married off before attaining the legal age because of the high incidence of crimes committed against them like rape and molestation. Insecure parents are forced to hold daughters back from going to school and push them into early matrimony because of the enormous responsibility of protecting them from social crimes. Implicit in Kishwar’s examples is the desire to address the origin of the issue rather than penal enforcement by the law-and-order machinery after the crime is committed. Kishwar also claims that crimes increase paradoxically owing to police presence: the closer a village is to institutions of law and order, the greater the rate of crime. She thus goes against legal convention to suggest the advantages of early marriage: "For many Indians, marriage at 16 is far more preferable to pre-marital sex at 16, just as for most Americans or Europeans, pre-marital teenage sex has today become a normal expectation but marriage at 16 is seen as a sign of ‘cultural backwardness’." A number of articles focus on dowry and the role of NGOs in holding demonstrations to shame the party concerned. Kishwar recounts how difficult it is to convince the girl’s parents that the humiliation of the boy’s parents is not the only course of action; they need to make their daughter secure in the knowledge that "she has a right to her parental home and support ... rather than being viewed as an object of charity." Clearly, most essays advocate turning to one’s family than to public services which goes to expose an average Indian’s distrust and cynicism of systems placed by the government for the protection of its citizens. Other themes relate to female stereotyping. Kishwar contends that women’s powerlessness in our history is due more to the select few instances of female emasculation—the agnipariksha of Sita, quotations from the Manusmriti diminishing womanhood, Buddha’s injunction to prevent women form entering monasteries, and so on. Such representations neglect other texts and traditions which are favourable to women. One thus ends up confirming the view that nothing gainful ever happened to Indian women in the last 5, 000 years. Kishwar believes that such stereotyping is not simply the work of patriarchy but that of ‘enthusiastic’ feminists as well. Further, militant manifestations of Hindu goddesses such as Kali, Durga and Chandi are acceptable to feminists but their benign avatars like Parvati and Radha are scorned. Undoubtedly, readers of Manushi would have read these essays over the years but Zealous Reformers does a laudable service in stringing them together in one book.
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MADHU
Kishwar is one of the few women who brings theory into practice.
Although she claims that she is not a feminist, her life revolves around
writing about women’s issues and having their abuses redressed.
Kishwar’s self-reflexive new book, recently launched by the Prime
Minister’s wife, Gursharan Kaur, contains 25 essays written over the
last many years and published mainly in Manushi, the well-known
women’s journal pioneered by the author herself, on subjects relating
to women’s rights—from their abject position in the family to their
marginalisation in politics.