British historian and diplomat EH Carr in What is History wrote: “Facts speak only when the historians call on them to speak…in a sense, a fact is and cannot be more sacrosanct than a perception.”
The perception internationally is that the position of India’s woman does not do credit to her history, culture, civilisation and democratic liberal norms. Is this true? If yes, is it fair? How does one change this perception? This calls for deep reflection.
To trace the long and difficult journey of the Indian woman to this century, to ascertain whether there has been a positive change in her status or not, is a daunting challenge.
Famous French critic and journalist Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr said: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”, which translates to: “The more things change, the more the status quo prevails.”
In India, statistics demonstrate that inequality prevails everywhere, particularly in rural India. Change is most noticeable in urban areas. The 21st-century educated Indian woman in our highly urbanised city centers is very different from her sisters in the village, particularly in rural North India.
Still, change has arrived in conservative bastions, change that has brought social upheaval, inter-caste feuding and economic upward mobility for some sections of the under privileged, including women.
It has also brought an ugly phenomenon of violence against women, a violence that is cruel and questions the basic norms of our culture and civilisation.
There was a sense that the 2012 Delhi bus gang rape would be a turning point. I was the Ambassador of India to the Netherlands when this terrible tragedy occurred. With the approval of the MEA and then-EAM Salman Khurshid, a Condolence Book was opened in the embassy so that the Dutch and embassy personnel, including me, could grieve together. I explained that this incident was an aberration in our society, not a norm. Initially sceptical, they finally concurred.
When the decline began
One must return to history to analyse the time frame of the decline. From the 10th century onwards, India witnessed a series of invasions across the Khyber Pass, bringing new culture and social norms that were absorbed, assessed, assimilated or rejected. ‘Purdah’ and ‘ghunghat’ became institutionalised and marked a retrograde step backwards for our women, cutting across religion and society.
Under colonial rule, the introduction of English and modern education brought some changes. A reformist movement of great significance, the ‘Brahmo Samaj’, began for women in Bengal and gradually spread throughout India. These included attempts to abolish ‘sati’, polygamy and child marriage, and encourage widow remarriage. Efforts were made to bring back property and inheritance rights. Women’s education was encouraged. Subsequently, women played an important part in India’s burgeoning independence movement, encouraged by MK Gandhi.
India’s Constitution guaranteed to women equal rights, including equal pay for equal work (Article 39(d)), equality (Article 14), no discrimination by the State (Article 15(1)) and equal opportunity in matters of public employment (Article 16).
The problem arose during implementation. There were many obstacles and roadblocks arising out of poverty, underdevelopment and conservative social values in significant segments of our population.
Challenges before Indian women
The problems of empowerment of the Indian women were more complex than one imagined. To take one example, education: in India, there was strong resistance to co-education in some parts of India, traditionally male bastions and socially conservative. There was a shortage of women teachers and an absence of toilets for girls in schools. In homes, where the mother was not educated, ignorance prevailed about the need to educate the girl-child.
Recall an oft-quoted folklore prominently used in the 1950s and challenged by many Telugu poets of the time: “Educating a girl child is like watering a plant in a neighbour’s garden.”
In a vast country like India, with a huge rural-urban divide and widespread conservative values, it was to be expected that the journey of the Indian woman towards emancipation and equal rights would confront many obstacles and roadblocks.
Then came institutionalised violence against women. In my view, it is a relatively modern phenomenon.
What happened when rural India, which was mainly agricultural, socially conservative and underdeveloped, moved to urban India, which was progressive, relatively socially emancipated and forward-looking? In the clash of these two Indias, institutionalised violence against women, often resulting in rape, started increasing at an alarming rate.
Since our judicial process was regarded as complex and time-consuming, bystanders and witnesses often preferred to turn away rather than give assistance or stop such acts. As a result, our cities have become increasingly unsafe for women.
Violence against women has now become the norm rather than an exception. Pressure on women to conform and compromise remains. Women are increasingly subjected to public pressure from conservatives and sometimes family members, forcing them to restrict their social freedom and clothing choices for personal safety.
What about women like me? Unfortunately, women in civil service in India are still a small minority. Yet they have achieved so much and broken glass ceilings in their individual journeys. I am a historian by discipline and a diplomat by training. Perceptions still condition the well-being and status of women in civil services.
Together, build a support system
There are lessons that women need to learn. We should know how to promote a professional platform for women and create a dynamic network for the exchange of knowledge and experience. This is very important. Women have no old-school ties, as I realised as I clawed my way up to the top. In our times, job counselling and networking existed only for the men.
There is no single role model for an empowered woman. Looking back, I realise I could have done far better as far as my family life is concerned. But those were difficult times, growing up in the 1960s and joining the Indian Foreign Service in 1976, with no family member having ever been in the Foreign Service to give guidance.
It is only years later when social values had changed in India too that I became, to my own surprise, a role model for my family, for my relatives, for the children of my friends. I found it quite amazing and then I realised how important it was to sensitise those who admired my success that behind every successful and empowered woman, there is a story and that story is the price the woman pays for the success.
Sylvia Plath, the famous American poet who died by suicide when challenges facing professional women of her day became too much for her, wrote in The Bell Jar (1963):
“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree. One fig was a husband and a happy home and the children, and another fig was a famous poet. I wanted each and every one of them. But choosing one meant losing all the rest.”
The passage truly symbolises the choice between the domestic idyll and a professional career as the unique dilemma of women even today.
The journey continues
It is a dynamic process but the status quo has changed. The process of implementation of fundamental rights and subsequent parliamentary legislation has had a definitive impact.
The nation is changing and there is much greater support, including from men, regarding the need for equal status of women. Many rights have been gained. Behind every successful woman, there is male support. It needs to increase. Mothers must be more supportive and not urge daughters to stay in abusive marriages. Parents must be more supportive.
Two quotations about this journey from the founding mothers of the women’s movement in the 1970s and thereafter are always relevant.
Simone de Beauvoir in The Second Sex wrote: “One is not born, but rather becomes, a Woman.”
Germaine Greer said: “Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure is to betray it.”
Kahlil Gibran, writing decades earlier, offers a fitting coda on freedom: “One may not reach the dawn, save by the path of the night.” He added: “You can muffle the drum, And you can loosen the strings of the lyre, But who shall command the skylark not to sing?”
India’s women must follow this message. Go in glory and success is yours. The country cannot progress without her women.
Bhaswati Mukherjee is a retired IFS officer. She has served as India’s ambassador to UNESCO, Paris, and the Netherlands. She tweets @AmbBhaswati1. Views are personal.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)