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An Indian spring

By Sheleyah Courtney - posted Tuesday, 8 January 2013


Thus it is very easy to fall into the neo-colonial trap of inferiorising nation-states like India conveniently forgetting that its present economic Spring occurs after decades of recovery from a colonisation that impoverished and ravaged it to say the least.

It is also well to remember we in the developed world have had four decades worth and three waves of feminism which began around the height of its economic prosperity in the 1970s as more women became educated.

Accompanying India's own economic blossoming comes the opportunity for more young people to become educated, both domestically and abroad, and to participate in and be exposed to cosmopolitan ideals of equality for women.

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Yet despite this complex of newness, there co-exists a spatio-temporal lag which manifests concretely: women belong to either father, husband or son and as space - the world outside - belongs to men, women can only be in that world in the context of that male control.

Women being educated in, and working in, men's spaces, dressed in clothing that does not signify such possession by such a man, is disjunctive and confusing to a consciousness that has not caught up with the acceleration of economy and accompanying modernity of ideas, ethos and practices – namely of women moving freely and self-possessedly in public space.

So these new feminine freedoms signify the anomalous for men who still believe, as do many of their mothers and aunts, that women belong to men and not to the world or to themselves.

Yet we have seen that it is thousands of educated young people who have drawn attention to this issue, because their privilege, education, increasing cosmopolitan consciousness and access to technology both inspired and facilitated doing so.

The demonstrations continue today around India and in Nepal as well; they have spread to youth and to older people who may not be as privileged as those who began and have led the groundswell.

Meanwhile in Delhi the perpetrators of the grievous rape and murder which has inspired what I believe is the start of a powerful national movement for reform are where they would never have been otherwise.

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They were swiftly apprehended and are imprisoned awaiting an unprecedentedly expeditious trial; five will appear in court as soon as Monday. I have no doubt either that the police force and judiciary are also due for a hitherto unheard of and unimaginable overhaul.

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About the Author

Sheleyah Courtney is lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sydney. Her research is among marginalised Hindu women of Varanasi, a city in North India that is holy for Hindus. She explores issues in Indian urban and diasporic communities of violence, cosmology, sexuality, and gender. Her work embraces phenomenological and psychological anthropology; and is informed by critical feminist theory. She is a catlover and Bollywood movie enthusiast.

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