Gender in the Hindu Nation: RSS Women as Ideologues PDF
Preview Gender in the Hindu Nation: RSS Women as Ideologues
Gender In the Hindu Nation feminist fine print is a moderately priced, handy new series that offers two, three or four core essays on a single issue, from a critical feminist perspective. The essays may be single-authored or have multiple author ship depending on the issue, its significance within India and South Asia, and its theoretical and political implica tions. feminist fine print Gender in the Hindu Nation ASS Women as Ideologues Paola Bacchetta ~ I i UNLIMITED Gender in the Hindu Nation was first published in 2004 by Women Unlimited (an associate of Kali for Women) K-36, Hauz Khas Enclave, Ground Floor, New Delhi- 110 016 C 2004, Paola Bacchetta ISBN: 81-88965-02-2 Cover design: Visual Vibe All rights reserved Typeset at Print Services, B-17 Lajpat Nagar Part 2, New Delhi 110 024, and printed at Pauls Press, E 44/11 Okhla Phase II, New Delhi 110 020 Contents 1. Hindu Nationalist Women as Ideologues Tbe Sangh, the Samiti and their differential concepts of the Hindu Nation 1 2. •All Our Goddesses Are Arm~. n Religion, resistance and nwenge in the life of a militant Hindu nationalist woman 61 3. Communal Property/ Sexual Property On n!presentations of Muslim women in a Hindu nationalist discourse 93 1 Hindu Nationalist Women as Ideologues The Sangh, the Samiti and their differential concepts of the Hindu Nation1 IN an earlier phase of scholarship on Hindu national ism, women sometimes surfaced as symbols or as vic tim-bodies whom 'communalist'2 males saw as part of their mission to protect or avenge. Today, since women have been more widely recognised as militants in 'com munal' violence, it is often assumed that they act on the basis of their male counterparts' ideology. Here, I hope to dispel that notion for women have created, and their activism is supported by, a speci~cally feminine Hindu nationalist discourse. In what follows, I unravel one such discourse, that of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti (hereafter the 'Samiti'), and view it in comparison with that of its male counterpart, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (hereafter the 'Sangh'). The focus is on a thematic which for both is highly gendered, the 'Hindu Nation'. This dismantling and comparative process has sev eral functions: it should disclose the constitutive and thematic elements, of course; it should also reveal the differential modes in which men and women appeal to their own gender and are called upon to insert them selves into the same 'communal' conflict; finally, it should foreground internal mechanisms whereby Hindu nation alist discourse is fractionalised (here, along· gender lines, but similar operations work to reach other sectors of society) while retaining unity enough to achieve ulti mate common objectives. The discursive unity is provided by a framework elaborated by the Sangh-the Samiti ideologues frame their own construction process within its context. They use some (but not all) of the same symbols and signifiers, and create some of their own. They are, indeed, pro foundly related; yet, the two discourses simply canhot be reduced to one. Between them there are zones of 2 Hindu N•tlon•ll•t Women •• Ideologue• convergence, of non-antagonistic divergence, and of complementary difference; and there are points of an tagonistic difference. The convergence is perhaps most evident. It can be explained by what Nicole Claude Matthieu refers to as the direct mediation of women's consciousness by men.~ Here, Samiti ideologues reproduce elements of the Sangh's discourse in their own words, without modifi cation. Areas of non-antagonistic divergence and com plementary difference can be understood in terms of Gramscian modes of refraction.• Here, the Sangh's dis course, which occupies the dominant position in rela tion to that of the Samiti's (socially, politically and in its more extensive elaboration), is imperfectly assiµillated by it, and imprecisely reprcxluced. Other divergences are the result of the Samiti's thematic expansion, horizon tally, into areas unexplored by the Sangh, reflecting the separate concerns of women and men, and their differ ential locations within a gender asymmetrical society. The antagonistic points are more difficult to under stand. I attribute them to the Samiti's creative use of structural and subjective factors, and the Sangh's atti tudes of acceptance, fgnorance and sometimes devalorisation of the Samiti's discourse. By structural elements I mean the organisations' positions within their interrelations: each is somewhat autonomous, has de veloped somewhat separately, although the Samiti is technically subordinate to the Sangh. They also position themselves within the Hindu symbolic: it encompasses a range of representations of each gender that ideologues can draw upon, and to which diverse interpretations can justifiably be assigned. Despite this potential, the Sangh's ideology leaves little space for women-actors to 3 GENDER IN THE HINDU NATION exist, and so the Samiti, in order to craft a Hindu nation alism which women can relate to, is obliged to exit the realm of the Sangh's discourse at some points. It is not surprising, then, that most of the antagonisms originate around questions of feminine and masculine identities, even if they extend into other domains. Briefly, then, what I am arguing is that because of · these differences, when women and men struggle for what they collectively call a 'Hindu Nation' they do not necessarily have exactly the same entity in mind. This will be the subject of the rest of the essay, but first, a few background notes are necessary in order to contextualise my discussion. The Sangh and the Samttl: some hlstorlographlcal notes Until recently, the Sangh was perhaps most known outside India for its implication in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Today, it is notorious for its role in the wanton demolition of a sixteenth century mosque, the Bahri Masjid in Ayodhya, in December 1992. The Sangh was founded in 1925 in Nagpur, Maharashtra, in a context of 'Hindu-Muslim' riots, the national movement for independence, and low-caste protest movements (which historically have been promi nent in Maharashtra). The founder and first Sarsanghchalak (Supreme Leader), Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgevar, played a key role in provoking 'communal' riots in the area.s He was also a peripheral member of the youth group of the Congress which functioned as an umbrella for a range of nationalisms. He left, follow ing disagreements on goals and tactics. The Congress advocated an all-inclusive, secular Indian nation, and 4
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