by Vijay Prashad
On Jan. 1,
5.5 million women in the Indian state of Kerala (population 35 million)
built a 386-mile wall with their bodies. They stood from one end to the other
of this long state in southwestern India. The women gathered at 4 p.m. and took
a vow to defend the renaissance traditions of their state and to work towards
women’s empowerment. It is not an exaggeration to say that this was one of the
largest mobilizations of women in the world for women’s rights. It is certainly
larger than the historical Women’s March in Washington, D.C. in 2017.
Kerala’s government is run by
the Communists. It is not easy for a left-wing government to operate in a state
within the Indian union. The Central Government in New Delhi has little desire
to assist Kerala, which suffered a cataclysmic flood last year. No assistance
with the budgetary burdens of relief and reconstruction, and no help with
financing for infrastructure and welfare services. The Communist government has
a wide-ranging agenda that runs from its Green Kerala Mission — a project for
stewardship of the state’s beautiful environment — to its fight for women’s
emancipation. The Left Democratic Front government believes that dignity is a
crucial a goal as economic rights, and that it is centrally important to fight
against everyday humiliation to build a truly just society.
Over the course of the left’s
government in Kerala, it has pushed ahead the agenda against everyday
humiliation. For instance, in 2017, the government provided free sanitary pads
for young women in school. The logic was that during their periods, young women
who could not afford sanitary pads avoided school. Prejudices against
menstruation had become a barrier to equal education. The government called
this project “She Pad,” which benefited students and teachers. Pinarayi
Vijayan, the Chief Minister of Kerala, said of the effort, “Menstrual hygiene
is every girl’s right. The government is hoping that initiatives like these
will help our girls to lead a life of confidence.”
A hundred miles north of
Kerala’s capital — Thiruvanthapuram — sits a temple for Ayyappan, a celibate
god. Women between the ages of 10 and 50 had not been permitted into the temple
due to a belief that the celibate god would not be able to tolerate women who
menstruate. The Indian Supreme Court took notice of this and, in September
2018, declared that the temple must allow all women to enter. The Left
Democratic Front government agreed with the courts. But the temple authorities,
and the far-right groups in the state, disagreed. When women tried to enter the
temple, the priests blocked them, assisted by the far right. The situation was
at a deadlock.
Chief Minister Pinarayi
Vijayan called upon progressive organizations across the state to start
mobilizing the citizens toward the building of a Women’s Wall (Vanitha Mathil)
on Jan. 1. The energy in the state was electric. Women gathered at hundreds of
mass meetings across the state. They recognized immediately that this was not a
fight only to enter a temple, but this was a fight principally for women’s
emancipation, for the right of women, as Vijayan had said, “to lead a life of
confidence.”
The public meetings in
November and December galvanized the opposition to the far right, arguing that
women have every right to enter public spaces, including religious
buildings. January began in anticipation. Women had been
organized by districts and knew where to go. Women of all ages and
backgrounds, from schoolteachers to members of the fishing
community, began to line up around 3 p.m. After taking an oath, they
marched through their towns and cities. They exuded joy and confidence, a
freedom that should warm the hearts of sensitive people.
Strikingly, the media outside
India paid little attention to this global, historical event. Press coverage in
the United States was nearly absent. Internationalism in our time is such a
façade, with so little care to amplify the bravery of people around the world.
When the Women’s March took place in Washington, D.C., newspapers in Kerala
reported it in detail. The favor was not returned. Silence was the answer.
Two days after the Women’s
Wall, the right-wing in Kerala went on a rampage. Their members attacked the
leaders on the left and threw bombs at government buildings. Over 700 people —
mostly men on the far right — were arrested that day.
Walking down a main shopping
street in Thiruvanthapuram, I see visible signs of the far-right’s attack. On
one side of the street are posters and signs of left organizations torn and
broken during the day of rampage by the far right. On the other side of the
street, far-right supporters sit on a hunger strike.
Even liberals have taken the
side of the far right. One liberal politician said that while he favored
women’s rights, he also favored the temple’s rights. But the temple has no
rights, nor does tradition. As Gandhi wrote almost a hundred years ago, “If I
can’t swim in tradition, I’ll sink in it.” Neither the temple nor tradition
trumps the rights of women to live with confidence. If a tradition is
discriminatory, it deserves to be set aside.
There are no half measures in
this debate in Kerala. The mood is that one must not walk away from one’s
principles.
5.5 million women in Kerala —
one in three women in the state — took to the streets to champion the
emancipation of women. What brought them to join the Women’s Wall was that the
Left Democratic Front government took a clear position, a principled position:
that menstruation should not be used as a penalty against women’s full
participation in society. Clarity defines the struggle. It is a lesson worth learning
around the world.
Vijay Prashad is the director of Tricontinental: Institute for
Social Research. His most recent book is “Strongmen.” He lives in Northampton.
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