Hindu

Everyday Nationalism: Women of the Hindu Right in India

admin — Sun, 09 May 2010 16:01:00 +0000

Everyday Nationalism, a publication in "The Ethnography of Political Violence" series, offers readers a provocative and sometimes disturbing look at Hindu nationalist organizations and the role of Indian women in representing the nationalist movement. Kalyani Devaki Menon conducted her principal fieldwork in and around Delhi from January 1999 to January 2000, acting as a participant observer; interviewing women activists; visiting schools and training camps associated with the movement; and taking part in women's education classes, meetings, rallies, and protest marches. She reports that “gender and sexuality were pivotal to the narratives of self and 'other' produced by the women” she worked with, and that women played a crucial role in building the broad-based support for the movement that brought the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into power from 1998 to 2004.

The nationalist movement in India remains powerful, drawing thousands of women and men to accept a sociopolitical vision that is “xenophobic, exclusionary, and tremendously violent,” a view of India that sees Muslims and Christians as invaders, defilers both of Hindu women and the sacred soil itself, the body of the goddess Bharat Mata (Mother India). Hindu nationalists assert the need for “violent reclamations of Hindu masculinity” and for vengeance on outsiders who have violated the honor of Hindu women. Menon asserts, "This gendered construction of history, that perpetuates the logic of revenge, is widely promulgated to young female recruits, and remains central to mobilizing support for the politics and actions of the movement today." She makes clear to readers that she disagrees with this policy, yet she does not comment directly on the horrible irony of a politic that encourages Hindu youth to rape Muslim women and Christian nuns as payback for the sexual assaults said to have been enacted on Hindu women now and in the past.

The image of women as vulnerable victims is somewhat offset within the movement's various organizations by efforts to strengthen and toughen girls and women. Camp sessions include military drill, endurance training, yoga, and rough physical games. Women are taught to overcome their fears and to defend themselves. One woman activist said, “Girls today want to be free. We ask them, do you want to be free or strong?” Hindu nationalists criticize the desire to be free like Western or feminist women, claiming Indian women should be strong in order to serve the Hindu state, but still subservient to their husbands and male leaders. In Hindu societies, women are traditionally seen as “mothers, wives, and caretakers of their families.” Nationalists consider the whole Hindu nation to be an extended family, and in this context, women find reasons for civic activism: they become, in a sense, mothers of the nation.

Most Indian women marry, and many Hindu women nationalists are married, but many activists in the movement are either female renouncers; religious sadhvis, who give up worldly attachments but remain political; or pracharikas, unmarried celibate female volunteers who devote all their energies to the movement. A number of other women activists are widows or separated from their husbands. In a sense, the political organizations to which they belong become their families. Women find a favorite role model in a historical figure, Queen Jijabai, mother of the Hindu king Shivaji in the seventeenth century. Male historians concentrate on Shivaji himself, but the women nationalists portray Jijabai as an “enlightened mother” who played a key role in the nation's destiny by inculcating Hindu values in her son.

Menon's witness is compelling because she acts as intermediary between the people she studies and her readers, who need to understand what's going on in the crucial Indian subcontinent. Just as she translates Hindi texts into English, she explains many customs and beliefs that may be unfamiliar to non-Hindus. I found her presentation enormously helpful and would recommend _Everyday Nationalism _to anyone interested in religious movements, rightist politics, or both.

Written by: Kittye Delle Robbins-Herring, May 9th 2010

Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language

admin — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:00:00 +0000

By Katherine Russell Rich

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Katherine Russell Rich never dreamed she would leave her job as a tough-skinned editor in the edgy world of New York City’s magazine publications. Then she was faced with two rounds of cancer—the second bringing her to the brink of death. Just as she came out on the other side of her illness, she was handed a pink slip. A firm internal voice urged her to seek a more artistic life. Little did she know that this voice would take her halfway around the world.

Russell Rich’s first visit to India came by accident. A newspaper editor called with a writing assignment, and Russell Rich promptly lied saying she would be in India. The editor called her bluff by suggesting she write an article about the trip, so she stepped out of her chaotic world and made the journey.

Never in her life had she been to such a place. The smells and colors, the markets and people, and the languages and landscapes swirled inside her head and heart. After returning home, Russell Rich sought out a professor to give her lessons in Hindi, and not long after this, she applied and was accepted into a year-long, intensive, language learning program in Udaipur, Rajasthan. Dreaming in Hindi was born of her experiences there.

The events that took place while Russell Rich learned Hindi transformed what would have been a purely academic book on language learning into a touching and passionate memoir. The book is filled with startling, poignant, and hilarious stories that include a fellow American student being sent home for writing death threats against a Hindu girl who rejected his advances in his school journal, accidentally appearing half-naked in a temple because she did not correctly drape her sari, and developing a close friendship with the Hindu women in the home in which she lived.

Dreaming in Hindi struck a cord deep in my heart, and I found myself longing to visit the country that Russell Rich describes. This book gives us permission to step out of our comfortable boxes, try something new, and perhaps, change our lives.

Written by: Ann Hite, November 27th 2009

Sita Sings the Blues

admin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 09:14:00 +0000

Directed by Nina Paley

Shadow Distribution

As an independent woman struggling to experience life for myself instead of through a man, I’m always looking for inspiration from other women who develop identities beyond being appendages or servants to men. As I was already familiar with the story of Sita, a Hindu goddess, I was curious to see how Nina Paley would present the story in her animated film. Simply going by the graphics, the movie is a fantastic exploration of the parallels between the ancient mythological world and modern day. The animation is split into three distinct segments which alternate: Sita’s journey, the three shadow puppet narrators, and Nina’s marriage, which spans America and India.

A polished and highly stylized production, Sita Sings the Blues is, surprisingly, Paley’s first full length film. Music, dance, and comedy fill the screen with bright colors and sounds and there is a mix of Indian flavor and 1920s jazz. The only visual that bothered me was Sita’s tiny waist line, giant boobs and matching swivel hips—then again, that image might be a deliberate mockery of feminist ideals on Paley’s part.

Sita and her modern sister, Paley, follow and devote themselves to their respectful husbands. Sadly, their loyalty isn’t enough to win reciprocal devotion from the men. Sita goes through trial after trial in her displays of devotion; she’s kidnapped by an evil king and her husband Rama accuses her of being unfaithful; she has his babies and he takes his sons back (but not her) and so on. Paley follows her husband across the globe to India where he shows absolutely no interest in her and, in fact, leaves her not only sexually frustrated, but alone.

As the two women continue to make sacrifices for their unresponsive men, the clever puppet narrators debate the difference between unconditional love and martyrdom. In the process, they help to explain the history behind the Sita myth. A fantastic film, it is free to all audiences under a Creative Commons License, so give it a view!

Written by: Nicolette Westfall, June 8th 2009