The Delhi version of a spreading global campaign has divided opinion. But should we simply diss it?
I have a large wardrobe. I spend several minutes every day fretting about what to wear. Don’t let that fool you into thinking I’m a sharp dresser. I’m not. But I have to choose. There are work clothes (shirts, pants, jeans, long skirts); out-of-town work clothes (kurtas with sleeves, shalwaars); party clothes (sarees, sleeveless or low-cut tops); work clothes that can be worn to evenings out (jackets, shrugs); winter clothes; wedding/festival clothes (satin, brocade).
Anita Roy tells me she is surprised that nobody has thought it fit to write about how girls getting felt up in a bus might be linked to female foeticide or honour killings. Being a ‘slut’ would imply promiscuity but in India, girls aren’t even allowed to have a boyfriend (singular), or are killed if they marry for love.
People would ask, ‘Isse kya hoga?’ (What will this accomplish?). The answer is always the same: Who can say? And how do we judge efficacy anyway? Unlike hunger strikes undertaken to press for a new law, or a demonstration calling for the arrest of a politically-connected murderer, the success of a protest against blaming victims for sexual assault is very hard to measure. If we look at the number of people supporting it on Facebook and the thousands who have pledged to join Slutwalk, it is already a success. Will it stop Delhi’s male population from behaving badly? If you ask young men in Delhi, no. Kuber Sharma believes that most men will just follow the ladies, mobile cameras in hand. He thinks that rather than declaring a war on men, Slutwalk needs to engage them in some kind of dialogue. So perhaps Slutwalk will not succeed. Who can say? But sometimes, we can change our world just by living on our own terms. Sunayana Roy says she has felt her own neighbourhood grow inured to the sight of a woman dressed in short or tight or unconventional clothing every day. After a while, people just don’t notice. “The day that happened,” she says, “I felt a sense of achievement and liberation that I cannot describe!” Yet, as women’s experiences in Toronto and other Western cities show, people being used to women wearing short clothing doesn’t necessarily change attitudes when it comes to violence; the malaise runs very deep. That is why Shubhashish Nichani, a journalist who grew up near Delhi, thinks that this is not the right time for a desi Slutwalk. “The main problem is that Indian men look at women as commodities. That has to change. Slutwalk should be the last nail in the coffin [of patriarchy], not the first.” Anita Roy agrees. If she was in London, she would have supported Slutwalk unreservedly. “In India,” she says, “Slutwalk has connotations of being only for the young, urban and beautiful people.” The ‘classist’ nature of the protest is something that’s causing discomfort even amongst young, urban and fairly liberal citizens. There are jokes on Twitter about how it should perhaps be called ‘SelectCitiSlutWalk’, a reference to Select Citywalk, one of Delhi’s biggest shopping malls, full of expensive brands and moneyed families. So, perhaps it is true that Slutwalk Delhi will be pushed by privileged young women who have not suffered much because of their gender, but are outraged to discover that they can be subjected to violence and humiliation, and that the clothes they wear will be used as justification. That they should be outraged is also true. But violence comes in degrees. The kind of brutality we read about — teenager blinded while fighting off rapists; mother-of-two set on fire for reporting rape — makes the freedom-to-dress-as-we-like issue look like a petty tantrum, definitely not very high up on the list of priorities for women’s rights activists. But let us not make the mistake of dismissing young anti-blame, anti-shame activists. There is nothing more putrescent than to allow half the human race to assault and humiliate the other half, and then blame the victims for bringing it on. Violence against women is a human problem, and it cuts across class and race. So perhaps the new feminist discourse will be rooted in this: This battle to undo the hundreds of big and small violent acts against the bodies of our sisters, this struggle to live without fear. The Besharmi Morcha might be a small reactionary wave. It might not lead to anything. But I see it as a point on a continuum. Organisations like Jagori address many kinds of violence against women. There’s BNP, which is more focused on sexual-social violence. There was Pink Chaddi. Now there’s Slutwalk. We are all doing what we can. Let us not piss on the single spark just because it is not already a great consuming fire. But is it ephemeral? Will it sustain? Isse kya hoga? Who can say?
(This story appears in the 15 July, 2011 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)