It’s more than two months since the gruesome murder of a young lady doctor on duty within the precinct of a state run hospital in Kolkata shook the collective consciousness of civil society, not only of Kolkata but the entire nation and beyond. Protest marches have been held within the country and in many places abroad, spearheaded by the Bengali community and mostly by women.
Even in Kolkata, women have been at the forefront of these marches. It is indeed an irony that women continue to be victims of deep seated patriarchal norms and toxic misogyny even in the 21st century when we Homo sapiens boast of our advancement in science and technology, where women’s contributions are noticeable. Women of India have broken many glass ceilings, making their mark in all spheres of life, from literature to science, armed forces to sports and yet they continue to be victims of heinous crimes. It is indeed a baffling situation. But then, members of the Justice for R G Kar campaign have clearly indicated that they are not ready to accept such injustice to them lying low; they are determined to fight to the finish.
However, this is not the first time women have exhibited such iron clad agency. In the Western tradition of political thinking, the concept of civil society, viewed as a space of negotiation and interaction between the State and private world of citizens, has undergone considerable changes. Noted Italian Marxist thinker Antonio Gramsci considered civil society as a place where the Capitalist state establishes its hegemony through spreading its ideology with the help of church, academic and cultural institutions. German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, instead of civil society, used the term ‘public sphere’ which he defined as an arena made up of private people gathered together as a public and articulating the needs of society with the state.
The ideology of the public sphere theory is that the government’s laws and policies should be steered by the public sphere and that the only legitimate governments are those that listen to the public sphere. However, feminist thinkers like Nancy Fraser critiqued the concept of the public sphere, pointing out that it excluded women, and relegated issues concerning them like reproduction, health, child care, to the private domain, treating them not as issues of common concern. Feminist thinker Carol Hanish’s paper, ‘The Personal is Political’ further challenged this private-public divide and asserted that issues like do – mestic violence and sexual exploitation of women are reflection of deep seated patriarchal bias of society emanating from male domination within the family itself.
Feminist movements in the West, navigating through the First Wave, Second Wave and Third Wave, called for concerted actions by women across class, colour and racial divide to fight for their basic human dignity. They urged for Sorority. The first notable ‘Reclaim the Night Movement’ happened in Leeds, England in 1977 to reclaim the freedom for women to move in public spaces in the night. The first march on 12 November 1977 came in response to the Yorkshire ripper murders. There had been protests to Reclaim the Night for women after the 2012 Nirbhaya rape and murder in Delhi and also in 2017 when women marched in 20 cities after mass molestation of women in Bengaluru.
The ‘Reclaim the Night Movement’ this time in Kolkata, on the night of 14 August, was reportedly initiated by a few women on social media in some small pockets of the city. However, it soon gained a widespread appeal and was not limited to just Kolkata but spread to other parts of the state as well. It was also taken up by women of different strata and people across the country. Soon, junior doctors’ forum and people from all walks of life joined the protest movement, making it a huge conflagration, a tremendous outpouring of anger, frustration and outrage directed towards an inept administration.
As time proceeded, it was becoming evident that the brutal murder of this young lady doctor was perhaps not just a sex crime, committed in the heat of the moment but an institutionalised murder of someone who dared to challenge the evil nexus of criminal syndicate and state administration. While almost everyone knows the details of the subsequent turn of events, what needs special mention is the fact that the first matchstick was struck by some young female students which later on started the wildfire, engulfing the whole world. Role of women in Civil Society Movements in In India presents a fascinating area of study. The NatureCulture and Public-Private dichotomy has always challenged the agency of women in India, despite mobilization of women by Gandhiji and other stalwarts of our freedom movement. A
gain, despite the constitutional guarantee of equal status, Independent India kept witnessing restricted space for women’s participation in politics and public policy making. Still, women have shown rare courage and conviction to challenge society’s attempt to marginalise them. Those sceptical of the outcomes of civil society movements are ignorant of the fact that many of these movements have been successful in bringing about new legislation and significant changes in public policy. The Chipko Movement, which started in the Garhwal Himalayas in the 1970s, mostly by local village women, against indiscriminate felling of trees by greedy contractors, gained iconic status and went on to become a rallying point for many future environmental movements all over the world, contributing to the emerging trend of eco-feminism. It prompted the Union government to amend the Indian Forest Act, 1927, and introduce the Forest Conservation Act 1980, restricting indiscriminate felling of trees. Narmada Banchao Andolon forced the Supreme Court of India to issue directions for lowering the height of Sardar Sarovar Dam to minimise inundation of nearby villages.
Resistance by Manipuri Women Against Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) forced the government to bring considerable changes to soften the provisions of this draconian legislation. One hopes that the current movement brings about not only the desired justice for hapless girls, but some fundamental changes by breaking the evil nexus between criminal syndicates and state bureaucracy. A point to be noted is that while the murder of the young doctor caught the imagination of the nation, incidences of sexual assault on women continue to happen with alarming regularity, often escaping our attention. Perhaps men’s frustration and jealousy about progress made by women, their injured egos provoke them to commit revenge crimes on women, or the commodification of women’s sexuality in media ignites their ill intention.
What is needed is awareness and education, particularly of boys, to drive home the point that women are normal human beings and not objects of gratification. The issue must remain in public domain, a social audit of the government’s role in preventing such crimes must be done regularly so that all victims get justice. Let’s remember those fiery words of Che Guevera, If you tremble with indignation at every injustice then you are a comrade of mine. Let’s be the comrade of that legendary revolutionary
(The writer is Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Women’s Christian College, Kolkata)