Event Description

On 22nd February,2019 Chandraprabha Saikiani Centre for Women Studies organized a talk delivered by distinguished social activist, Kamla Bhasin as a part of the Women Studies lecture initiatives in Council Hall from 11.30 am onwards. Dr. Mahurima Goswami, head (CSCWS),Tezpur University gave the welcome address. Kamla Bhasin was felicitated by Prof Vinod Kumar Jain,VC, Tezpur University. Dr.Biren Das, Registrar, Tezpur University gave a brief talk on Chandraprabha Saikiani Centre for Women Studies. Bhasin ma’ám quoted the Upanishads and explained the meaning of education through the sloka “sa vidya ya vimuktaye” as something that liberates us and frees us from our narrow mindedness and narrow heartedness. She urges the system to free individuals from the shackles and let them fly like a bird in the open sky. She said that education has the power to liberate us from our unjust traditions, unfair practices, narrow mind-sets; it liberates us from our inner weaknesses, power of love and the desire to dominate.

As a completely unrelated topic, she urged the students to give up the love for power of the chair,i.e. power; and encouraged them to sit on the floor.

Continuing with the concept of education, she said that education should not only be for livelihood but for life and women. It should not be for the livelihood of husband, wife and two children. She commented that even animals look after their children, and that too a lot. So, it does not give any purpose to the human life. Remembering her early life, she talked about how she joined an NGO in 1972 after resigning from her job in Germany. She went back to her state, Rajasthan and joined an NGO called Sevamandir. There she observed the meaning of literacy to be different. Girls were made literate so that they can read the number of the bus and write accounts. She wrote three slogans: I am learning how to read so that I can read the world.
I am learning how to write so that I can write my own destiny.
I am learning how to count so that I can keep an account also of my rights.

Kamla Bhasin goes on to explain about the importance of responsibilities. Responsibilities come before rights. As feminists, we should be very clear about our responsibilities. She recites one of her famous poems, “Tum ladki ho tumhe kyu padhna hain?” Where a father asks his daughter. She urges to reduce the power of patriarchy, casteism and narrow nationalism. She said that she follows the words of Rabindranath Tagore and says “Jai Hind” and along with that she says “Jai Jagat”. That’s the kind of Nationalism that she believes. She claims to be peace activist and said that most of the wars are caused by narrow nationalism. According to her every feminist activist should also be a peace activist, a Dalit activist, a LGBTQ activist. They should be against all exclusions in the age of intersectionality. She questioned about the guiding force for social activism and claimed that our constitution has the power to do so. It is one of the finest constitutions in the world, made by 299 men and women. Out of them were only 15 women but they were strong. She talked about the fact that in the last 75 years the number of female participations in our parliament has not changed much and have remained very low. She said that our constitution is under threat and we need more representatives to protect it. She observes that we do not need any separate feminist agenda and our constitution is feminist enough as it considers all human beings are equal. She claimed that women studies centre should affect the overall environment and should not just remain as certificate providing centre.

She talked about gender and its importance. Gender means men and women, girls and boys. There is a difference between sex and gender. It’s high time to make boys and men understand the curse of masculinity and how patriarchy dehumanizes men. Along with the privileges, patriarchy also causes many troubles for men. She talked about the life of Chandraprabha Saikiani, and called her one of the greatest social activists of Assam. She talked about the problems she faced in her personal life and how she rose above all. She talked about how Saikiani removed purdah and went to Karachi for congress conference. She urged everyone to follow what Saikiani did in the present context. Only then can the country will be changed; our homes will be changed and our life can get some meaning.

She went on to talk about the challenges faced by social activists and went on to talk about three challenges, namely- To protect the constitution and constitutional value
To understand capitalist patriarchy
To challenge boys and men to involve in the struggles against patriarchy.

This has to be done, not to save women but to save human, to save families and to take this country forward. She said that each one of us are attacking the constitution. This she said based on different statistics and facts from government data. The fact that casteism is around, the fact that patriarchy is around, the fact that religious communities are fighting with each other, points to that fact. There are very few instances of inter-caste and inter-religious marriages. There were also instances of difference in families where only the brother’s birthday is celebrated and only his janampatri is made. Fathers pass on their property to male child only. The girl child is considered “paraya dhan”. She talked about kanyadan and claimed that it is against the Indian Constitution. According to the constitution no father can give his daughter as daan to another man. She ridiculed the concept of arrange marriage and touching husband’s feet. She said that Pati means owner or master, swami means the same, husband means controller, manager and domesticator; and compared it to animal husbandry. The idea of putting sindoor amd mangalsutra in married women and no such things with the husband; changing a woman from Miss to Mrs. but not causing any such change in men;the rules regarding widow,everything is called as something against the constitution. The menstrual taboos are another bizarre concept. She urged everyone to find one human being who has been born without the woman having menstruation. She shamed the society which have turned the force of life into something dirty. Patriarchy has been internalized by us, it is sitting in our stomach, hence we follow the traditions created by patriarchy to keep up the inequality between the genders. She urged everyone to make list of al the customs and practices in their household which make the women a second-class citizen and men as privileged ones. She talked about Karwa Chauth, Bhai dooj, Raksha bandhan etc. and how they are gender biased. Patriarchy keeps reminding us that we are women, however high we may go. She urged everyone to respect the constitution.

According to her struggle for women’s equality is not between men and women, but between two mind sets. One says that Patriarchy is better and the other says that equality is better. Many men have fought for gender equality. The opposite of patriarchy is not matriarchy. Both are sicknesses. We need nurturing, caring equality. Nothing is as dangerous as capitalist patriarchy. The examples are pornography, women trafficking, cosmetics industry. She talked about the gender bias in toy industry, itemization of women as Barbie dolls.

The Bollywood and Hollywood concept of itemization of women in terms of songs and advertisements were also discussed. She discussed in details about the wordings used in the songs which have dehumanized the status of women. She urged all the men and women to object to such lyrics and concepts. Otherwise we are a group of mindless people. She urged everyone to challenge these things, write about these issues and express our views. As feminist, if we women change and men don’t change, then the institution of marriage and families will not last. The men need to be taught to be partners and reflect on patriarchy. In the end she said that gender equality is not a zero-sum game. Both men and women will be in a win-win situation. Feminism is not about waiting for men to open doors and pay bills. Without women being free men cannot be free. Women studies centres should work as nurseries to nurture the young feminists. So that they can go and plant equality in every section of the society.

The session ended with the slogan for Azadi. Next there were some questions and answers which were very nicely explained by respected Kamla Bhasin ma’am. Students asked various questions related to the alternate method to Kanyadaan, how to educate society, what to do in certain situations and many other things related to the university life.