Feminism; Feminists before Partition

1. Feminists before Partition
Given that India and Pakistan and Bangladesh are all patriarchal societies, it
follows that the histories of these lands that have been resuscitated from the
past, and presented to populations that do not have much of an idea of the
past, have been male histories. There are many male heroes and leaders, poets
and writers, men who gave memorable speeches and men who stood up to the
British; the stories of women are harder to find.
In the late 1930s, a woman named Lakshmibai Tilak became one of the first
Indian women to write her autobiography. The book, which tells the story of
Tilak’s life, includes the story of her grandfather who was hanged in 1857
owing to his participation in the uprising against the British. Born in 1868, she
was married off at an early age to a Marathi-language poet who was subject to
many whims and eccentricities and often just got up and left, leaving his
family behind. It is quite likely that it was owing to these events that Tilak
advocated for women’s financial and economic independence. In an effort to
do just this, she began training as a nurse, an endeavour she sadly had to
abandon owing to family responsibilities.
Similarly spirited was Rakhmabai Raut, a woman who had been married early
but refused to leave her father’s home to live with her husband. The husband
sued in court when Rakhmabai was 19 years old. She still refused to join him,
pointing out his lack of education and his dishonest lifestyle. The British judge
ruled in favour of Rakhmabai, saying that she did not have to go and live with
her husband because the marriage had been arranged when she was a minor
and had never been consummated. The decision caused a huge outcry in
India, where marriages of minors were often arranged and where asking for
the consent of the parties was unheard of. Hindus were particularly incensed
by the judge’s application of these concepts of consent and consummation
because they imagined marriage as a sacrament for eternity rather than a
contract lasting a single life.

2. The tumult from this case and the continuing agitation by women against
abuse, child marriage and other cultural and religious customs that demeaned
their existence led to vehement debates in the local press across India. Men
and religious figures felt that women had become very rebellious and had
overstepped their boundaries. Women on the other hand felt that these issues
had remained in the dark for a long time and it was time there was public
debate on them.
COLUMN: ECO-FEMINISM AND POWER
In South Asia, where women are often subjected to a lot of pressure, climate
change is also an urgent problem.
Pakistan’s recent and devastating floods showed that women are especially
impacted by the effects of the climate emergency. This emergency is
paradoxically being felt both in the form of water scarcity and in extreme
weather events such as floods. Yet, despite their vulnerability, women are
often excluded from talk of solutions.
In 2022, ecologist Emily Beasley gave a presentation to a Pakistani charity, of
which I am a trustee. Her research highlighted that 80 percent of people
uprooted by climate change are women, in part because of a lack of education
and personal autonomy. Among Internally Displaced People and climate
refugees, women bear the heaviest burden of unpaid labour and care work.
Environmental degradation contributes to upticks in zoonotic diseases, school
exclusions and incidences of domestic violence, further exacerbating the
problems women shoulder.

3. The term ‘ecofeminism’ was coined in the 1970s by French philosophers
seeking to draw links between the oppression of women and the exploitation
of the natural world. The fundamental idea of ecofeminism is that these forms
of oppression are intertwined. They cannot be fully understood or addressed
in isolation.
Ecofeminists argue that patriarchy, capitalism and other power systems have
historically treated women and nature as resources to be ravaged. This
extractivism must be resisted to create a more just and sustainable world.
We should re-evaluate our perceptions of embodiment. One way is through
what new materialist Stacy Alaimo calls “transcorporeality”. This term
describes the link between human bodies and the natural world. It urges a
rethinking of the notion of the body as an inert, solitary entity.
Instead, we should see bodies as potent and relational, constantly shaping and
being shaped by their environments. Incorporating and subverting the
maternal body as a metaphor in storytelling is one tactic for creative writers to
adopt.
New decade, new feminism
Gender equality, and how it affects you
One of the basic ways it affects young people is through the gender roles and
expectations assigned to them as children. Certain emotions are more typically
expected (and accepted) coming from girls rather than boys.

4. Girls are comforted when they’re sad or crying, but boys are punished for the
same behaviour. If you’re a girl, you’re likely to be rewarded for behaviours
such as being nice, caring and cooperative. If you’re a boy, however, your
parents are more likely to praise you for speaking up, being good at activities
such as sports and taking charge of things.
When girls and boys are praised for exhibiting such different behaviours, they
grow up with an imbalance in their range of abilities. This is why so many girls
have little confidence in themselves and often experience feelings of low self-
worth. As a girl, have you ever had the experience of not feeling confident
enough to raise your hand in class even though you may have known the
answer to a teacher’s question?
On the other hand, boys who are encouraged to take charge of every situation
can sometimes fail to notice other people’s perspectives/needs because, as
children, they were not trained in skills such as empathy (the ability to notice
and share another person’s feelings). Moreover, since they’re often taught to
act independently, they can fail to ask for help when they need it; this ends up
leading to depression and loneliness in the long run.
Unfortunately, the entire spectrum of human qualities and skills has been
divided in half between women and men. You know what that means? That
we’re all operating at only 50 percent of our potential.
Can you imagine how different each person, and the world, would be if we
learned the full spectrum of all the wonderful human potential each of us is
born with?
What’s the basis of gender inequality?
We are all extremely talented when we’re born, but as we grow up, we’re
encouraged to pursue different activities, praised in different ways, and
pressurised to conform to behaviours traditionally defined as either feminine
or masculine. For example, boys are encouraged to play with mechanical toys
(airplanes, robots, etc.) whereas girls are supposed to play with dolls. It is not
surprising, then, that there are so few women in STEM (science, technology,
engineering and mathematics) careers.

5. According to the psychologist Anders Erickson, the only kind of “gift” or
natural talent that humans possess is our brain and body’s ability to adapt or
“learn” new patterns and behaviours. There is really no discernible difference
between the natural abilities of men and women. The differences that do
emerge later on in life are actually “learned”; and what’s learned can always be
unlearned.
What really is feminism?
Feminism is the belief in the equality of the sexes, but it is often mistaken as
the fight for women’s rights alone, which makes sense. Historically, women
have faced a great deal of discrimination, injustice and lack of opportunities,
and they continue to do so because we live in a patriarchal world in which men
hold most of the power and enjoy greater opportunities than women.
Even though men have more power, they’re also suffering under the
limitations of patriarchy just as women are, because patriarchy is a social
system that forces them to act in limited ways that are stereotypically defined
as “masculine” (e.g., not expressing emotion, which is psychologically harmful
and often keeps them from seeking help in difficult times).
According to the writer and feminist Gloria Steinem, “A feminist is anyone
who recognises the equality and full humanity of women and men”.