CC_India

Within the context of armed struggle, varied forms of violence against
girls and women such as revenge and teaching a lesson to the enemy,
sexually violating and mutilating women’s bodies — become the values and
instruments of the battle and is equally internalised by the women.
and unemployment and downplayed its linkage with
the movement, in interest of the more significant goals
of the struggle. Indeed efforts at exploring a feminist
discourse of VAW were actively resisted by the women.
In the Kadhamal context rising domestic violence was
not linked by the Hindu caste women with the growing
brutalisation of the society in the aftermath of the
communal violence and impunity.
Documentation of the gendered experiences of violent
conflict invariably positions women as victims. However,
as revealed in the CCs process of listening to women’s
voices, there were also narratives of quiet/vocal agency.
In Poonch there was Reshma, the panch of Banwaat village.
She reminded us of the agency that thousands of
ordinary women demonstrate as they manage the survival
of their families and communities under the most
difficult conditions of living between two guns. Reshma’s
constituency of 150 voters was reserved for women and
she had defeated three other women candidates. Her
husband was in the police posted in Jammu, making her
a vulnerable target as she tried to raise her four small
children alone. “I used to sleep with a gun. My husband
taught me how to use it. I’ve surrendered the gun now.
A gun in the house may be a greater source of danger to
me,” she said. Militants did not knock at her door.
In Tripura, there were educated tribal women activists
like Romita Reang. She was able to access education and
acquire professional skills and is fired with the determination
to work for the upliftment of the tribal women.
She argued for more training for women so they could
be empowered to demand rights and entitlements.
In Kandhamal, there was a Christian nun studying law
to ensure access to justice for the community, holding
out the possibility of a choice other than being forced
to turn the other cheek in a situation of gross unequal
power. Also, there was the resilience of women rebuilding
their lives in a scarred society.
In the anti POSCO struggle women have showed a bold
fearlessness in defending their land, family and community,
but for all their active contribution, they are
excluded from decision making and effectively instrumentalised.
The marginalisation of women’s contribution
in the narratives of political resistance armed and
democratic is a common gendered experience of conflict
and peacebuilding and was emphasised in the context
of Tripura the anti POSCO struggle.
As Abha Bhaiya, anlaysed, in these two contexts, evident
is a patriarchal script that women learn and replicate,
thus accepting and reproducing their own subjugation.
Often at a time of fierce struggle especially in a situation
of unequal power, the situation provides little space for
women to challenge strategies promoted by male leadership
which are gender exploitative and discriminatory.
Also, within the context of armed struggle, varied forms
of violence against girls and women such as revenge
and teaching a lesson to the enemy, sexually violating
and mutilating women’s bodies — become the values
and instruments of the battle and is equally internalised
by the women. Sexual violence and mutilation of
the body of women is used as a strategy for humiliation
of the enemy. It is an extension of the patriarchal narrative
that has deposited family and community honour
in the body of the woman.
Even in the democratic anti POSCO people’s struggle,
women’s bodies in a very material way became the
strategy to defeat a more powerful enemy. In order to
shame the police and deter them from physically moving
in to arrest the protestors, women stripped themselves
naked. The strategy was chosen by the male
leadership, not devised by the women. Women did not
critically reflect on the meaning of their bodies becoming
a part of the strategy. Neither was there any possibility
of questioning — why men did not strip, nor the
patriarchal politics of ‘shame’ and ‘honour’.
UNEQUAL CITIZENS: Women’s Narratives of Resistance, Militarisation, Corruption and Security
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