Displaced Tribal women , Tripura. Photo Credit: Rueters 46 UNEQUAL CITIZENS: Women’s Narratives of Resistance, Militarisation, Corruption and Security
CHAPTER VI EMERGING PATTERNS In seeking to focus on the gendered experiences of conflicts in <strong>India</strong>, the wide diversity of conflicts presents a huge challenge in picking out a pattern, identifying commonalities and differences and tweaking out ‘lessons’ and sharing strategies. The contexts of militarisation and its aftermath characterise J&K and Tripura, whereas the two sites in Odisha are witness to one, a democratic political struggle against predatory development projects backed by the state’s military, economic and political might, and two, the aftermath of communal violence and the vulnerability of a religious minority (further marginalised by being dalit and tribal) in a context of the growing domination of ‘Hindutva’ majoritarian socio-economic politics. Aspects of militarisation and extremism characterise all these situations as does the widespread disappointment and disaffection of the ‘conflict’ affected peoples with the capacity of democratic governance, rampant corruption and the prejudice of state institutions to respond to peoples basic needs, including the provision of security and justice. MANY FACES OF WOMEN The <strong>CC</strong> based reports, in exploring the social impact of conflict, focus on the gendered experience of women in conflict and its aftermath. Women’s vulnerability and access to rights and entitlements is rooted in the low social position of women in these communities. However it should be added that the <strong>CC</strong>s show that women’s positions differed according to their location as members of a class, caste, ethnicity, religion, region and political category (i.e. indigenous or settler). It was a reminder, that women do not exist as a prepolitical category and their gender identity is intersected by class, caste, ethnicity, religion and region. Also, the ground experience challenges easy assumptions of women’s solidarity across conflict divides as evident in the religious fault line in Kandhamal, the religio–ethnic faultlines in Rajouri & Poonch and the indigenous — settler faultline in Tripura. Moreover, the rapidity with which the communal contagion spread and women’s complicity in violence is a worrying trend. The persisting hostility to intercaste , inter religious and inter ethnic marriages is witness to the disruption of the social cohesion characteristic of multi-ethnic, multi religious communities that for centuries have lived together. Furthermore, there are new faultlines such as the Paharis-tribal divide, and the collaborator-militant sympathiser divides which further vitiates trust. The lack of social bonding among women victims was very evident in this border belt. In Kandhmal there is no indication that women qua women opposed their community’s sexual assaults on women of the ‘other’ community. The Christian-run orphanage and the convent school was not attacked because Hindu children studied there. While Christian minority women survivors envisaged peace as the restoration of communal coexistence and urged reconciliation., Hindu women have been complicit in the social and economic boycott of Christians. In the anti POSCO struggle, there is nothing to suggest that there was any UNEQUAL CITIZENS: Women’s Narratives of Resistance, Militarisation, Corruption and Security 47
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