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Gandhi, Nandita!
The Issues at stake : theory and practice in
the contemporary women's movement in India /
Nandita Gandhi & Nandita Shah. -- ·New Delhi :
j
Kali for Women, 1992.
347 p. ; 22 cm.
66-91
Includes bibliographical references (p. (339)
.
-347).
ISBN 818510722X : Rs225.00
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ENG
fa 1/24/92 02
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1HE ISSUES AT STAKE
Themy and Practice in the Contemporary
Mooement in India
Women~
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NANDITA GANDID
&
NANDITA SHAH
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1992
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77ie lssutS at Stake:
1'll«1ry and Practice in the Contemporary Women's Mcwement in India
was first published in 1992 by
Kali for Women
A S6 Gulmohar Park
New Delhi 110 049
Cl Copyright Nandita Gandhi and
Nandita Shah 1991
ISBN 81 85107 22 X
Typesd in New Baskerville by IPP Catalog Publicalions Pvt. Ltd., ND 110 016.
Printed at Crescent Printing Wortc. (P) Ltd., ND 110001.
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Acknow"ledgements
We are authors of this book only in the sense that we have brought
together the thoughts, actions and experiences of many people. If
we were to thank all of them their numbers might run into SC\'eral
sheets ofp aper. In particular, we would like to thank all the activists
of the many groups and organisations of the women's mOYCment
who shared their experiences, confusions and ideas. In her own
unique way, Amrita Chhachhi helped us clarify and organise our
information and thoughts. The chapter on work bears the stamp of
Sujata vast experience and knowledge of working
Goth~kar's
women. She has also painstakingly read and commented on almost
all the chapters. We appealed to Gayatri Singh to go through the
chapter on Legal Campaigns. Chayanika Shah, Kamaxi Batre and
Swatija Manorama together commented on the Health chapter;
Flavia Agnes looked at Violence. Vtjay Kanhere sorted out the
chronology in the Introduction. And a special thanks to all the
women of the Forum who listened to our many problems and drafts
and gave us enormous strength and suppon. Loes ~er of the ISS,
the Hague, and the Dutch Embassy, offered us financial assistance.
Beena Sorab worked out a classification without which our material
would have been in a hopeless mess. Rajeshree Mahatani formu·
lated the initial questionnaire. We enjoyed working with jaya Ve
lenkar in conducting the Pune interviews. Chhaya Datar gave us
some useful advice in the initial stages of the study. Finally we would
like to thank each other for enduring the strains and tensions of
collective authorship with tolerance and friendship.
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Contents
. . . . . .
1. Prologue .1
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
. . . . .
2. Rhythms of a Movement . 15
• • • • •
.
3. Violence Becomes a Political Issue . 36
• • • • •
. . . . .
4. Recognising the Right to Health 102
• • •
. .
5. Labouring for Love and Wages 160
• • • • • •
6. Legal CampaignJ . . . . . . 213
• • • • • • • • • • • • •
. . .
7. Organisations and Autonomy .. . .. 273
8. Not a Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 322
usr . . . . . . . .
APENDIX: OF ORGANISATIONS . 336
. . . . .
BIBU OGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
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Prologue
The story within the study
The list of contents of this book gives you an idea of what to expect
in it, the introduction outlines our objectives and methodology, the
chapters that follow deal with specific subjew, and the last one is
undoubtedly a conclusion. However, In the last few years, or in the
time taken to complete this book we have lived and worked not only
according to what you see on the contents page. There are stories,
experiences, flights of thought, changes and transitions which do
not seem to find a place anywhere. Rather, the entire process of
research has, like a new lens, altered our vision, questioned some of
our assumptions and modified our method.
Documentation, factual writing or, for that matter, any non-fic
tion is required to be precise, based on concrete data, and objective
and neutral in approach and style, all ofw hich goes into the maldng
of •the scientific method". Whilst there are certain merits to this
method, we find that its deliberate and total banishment of subjec
tivity reduces the proceM of research and writing to a correct but
baldly mechanical, factual but merely formal, communication of
facts and in the proc~. loses many of its insights and emotions.
Also, is it possible to really eliminate subjectivity? Does it not exist
in the choice of subject matter, the method and presentation? We
believe that the role of subjectivity has to be reconsidered in social
science research methodology so that we as researchers are able to
interweave experiences, feelings, our interactions with people and
·soft"data with facts and •hard" data. Why, for example, do "we". the
researchers become anonymous in seeking neutrality and objectiv
ity? Who we are and why we happen to be co-authors is also very
much a part of this book.
We would like to share a briefh istory of ourselves and the process
of this study with you.
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Wbo'we'are
March 8: perhaps the story can be said to have begun with . the
celebrations, when a woman asked me, "Why are you in the women's
movement, Nandita Gandhi, you are hardly an oppressed woman."
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Surprised by the utter simplicity of the question, I wanted to reply
that not eYCryone had to be battered or raped to "qualify" for the
women's movcment. Marx would have had to ghost write Das Capital
for a work.er if that was the case. Instead, I asked myself, yes, indeed
how and why did I come to believe in personal change and change
in society and what made me want to document women's actions?
Perhaps part of the answer lies with my family which differentiated
itself from the hundreds of migrant trading Gujarati families in
Bombay only by its involvement in the Nationalist Movement. I was
raised on a diet of movement stories, of nationalist euphoria and
sacrifice with my relatives going off to jail, and of the charismatic
Gandhi who visited our house often. Or perhaps it was my own shy
introverted and lonely childhood which lead me to make friends
with Alexandre Dumas, Maxim Gorky, Mulk Raj Anand, the
Panchalanlra and made me an uneasy observer of the petty jealoll5-
ies, insecurities and oppression in human relationships, those deli
cate things which carried such a promising potential of love and
happiness.
The most tangible influence on any life was the politically turbu
lent period of the 1970s. As a student, I encountered others who
had rejected the mainstream political ideologies and had turned to
alternative development and grassroots organising, met the Trot
skites who wished to "smash" all such centrist groups, sat in their
study circles to clarify my theory, and dialogued with the Marxist
Leninists who ridiculed both and advocated a single-minded com
mitment to armed revolutionary practice. When the women's
movement crept into the political scenario and when the first
meeting to protest against Mathura's rape by two policemen took
place, I was at home with a sick baby, a school-going daughter, three
ailing, ageing in-laws, waiting for a,n ever travelling husband. Per
haps all of this-the personal and the political-involved me not as
asympathiserandsupporteroftheoppressedbutasoneofthemany
oppressed in our society.
The Forum Against Rape (now called the Forum Against the
Oppression of Women) was a total organisational and ideological
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