Feminism for India

There are some good points made about Indian feminism in a slightly rambling article in The Guardian. From The cult of the sex goddess:

"Between the soap-opera beauties and the establishment figures of "women's empowerment", the Indian woman is floundering for new ideas about herself and her destiny, unclear about what freedom means, at a time when east and west are clashing at every shopping mall."

In many ways, this is an echo of the slow decline of feminism in the West. There is now a strong counter-movement to embrace feminity and a return to homemaking and other traditional pursuits.

The problem in India is just magnified. Feminists here have, despite their good intentions, failed in the battle of perceptions. While the Western feminist is seen as a cold (and dowdy) non-woman, the Indian feminist comes in two versions: an Indian echo of her Western counterpart or, more recently, a Westernised, sexually-liberated woman with no respect for tradition.

The first idea has, I think, become irrelevant in India. The second, is, for me, a more worrying one.

When women's liberation is associated with the fear of Indian culture's corruption, there is sure to be a backlash. Hence, The Guardian columnist's finding that many Indian students are reluctant to be drawn into that and would rather stay within the bounds of Indian culture--better a known devil than an unknown one. And why not, when the soap-opera ideal has shown that the traditional Indian woman is no longer confined to the home. She can go to the gym and the beauty parlour, while still cooking a mean Indian feast and touching her mother-in-law's feet.

It's a sad situation. I grew up imbibing two brands of feminism: one came from Western books and media, the other came from my mother's family. My grandmother, saddled with an errant husband, had almost single-handedly raised seven children. When my aunt was widowed, my grandmother, against all custom, brought her back home, got her to study her Master's degree and raise her child alone. All my other aunts are also educated and empowered. However, they are also traditional Indian women, who do not "appear" liberated to outsiders. They did not need to choose between the two, like Indian girls today think they need to.

The goal of feminism should be to create a world where it no longer needs to exist. But so long as it remains disengaged from people's lives, it will remain a movement with limited subscribers. Whether in the West or in India, we need a new kind of feminism, one that creates change from the inside out.