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Business News/ Opinion / The many colours of Gujarati feminism
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The many colours of Gujarati feminism

A Patel housewife on why equality doesn't mean sharing a husband's financial burden

Garba is the Gujarati folk dance performed in devotional fervour to lilting live music in the praise of Goddess Ambe during the nine nights of Navratri. Photo: ReutersPremium
Garba is the Gujarati folk dance performed in devotional fervour to lilting live music in the praise of Goddess Ambe during the nine nights of Navratri. Photo: Reuters

Last week, I travelled to Vadodara to watch what’s widely known as Gujarat’s largest Garba event, organized for the past 30 years by the United Way of Baroda, a fund-raising organization. It had more than 35,000 registered participants this year.

Garba is the Gujarati folk dance performed in devotional fervour to lilting live music in the praise of Goddess Ambe during the nine nights of Navratri.

The nine-day festival of fasting, prayers and dancing culminates in Dussehra, observed with the burning of the effigy of Ravana, the master villain of Ramayana, a visual spectacle of the philosophic argument of good versus evil.

At Vadodara, the number of men, women and children dancing all at once in more than 20 concentric circles at the city’s huge Alembic Ground overwhelmed me.

What stayed with me long after the celebrations were the motivations that men and women found during this festival.

Women particularly insisted that they owed their buoyant mood and well-being to the Goddess’s blessings.

A majority of the revellers at this festival fast all nine days—they eat certain kinds of foods only once a day. That doesn’t stop them from dancing non-stop for three hours or so each night.

Many had bandages around their bruised feet as the Garba must be danced barefoot on the muddy and coarse ground.

Freedom of spirit and self, religious piety, faith, gratitude towards god and family came up as reasons behind the excitement, especially among older women for whom the event is not a playground to dress up and bond with boyfriends.

Interestingly, what also came up was what some called “Gujarati feminism".

I had never thought of “Gujarati feminism" as distinct from Indian women’s issues, challenges, triumphs and disillusionment in modern India.

But here, it was essentially defined by the safety and security of women and girls who can go around at any time of the night anywhere in Gujarat, driving any vehicle, including a rickety two-wheeler, wearing whatever they wished to—noodle-strapped cholis over lehngas included.

“No cases of eve-teasing or molestation are ever reported during Garbas," said an organizer.

In all likelihood, broader ideas of female freedom get suspended once these nine nights of socially sanctioned revelry are over. But however brief, the spectacle is unlike any in North India, where men and women dance together in elite pubs in cities and still may not be entirely safe.

Public dancing in an open venue is otherwise left to professional folk dance groups usually from another social class to avoid the perils of predictable drunken behaviour. Gujarat is a dry state, let’s not forget that.

Armed with this new yet confusing idea of “Gujarati feminism", I went to interview a housewife from the Patel community in her home for another writing project on contemporary Indian marriage. The lady, who only wants to be referred to as Mrs. Patel for this article, was born and raised in a tiny village of Padra district in Gujarat. She never completed her school education and was married in her early 20s. Devoid of any ornamental vanity in the day time when I met her—as she was tired of wearing jewellery every evening for the Garbas—she wore a simple floral printed salwar kameez.

Mrs. Patel said she valiantly survives a joint family, a forever caustic and now very old mother-in-law and a thankless life of a wife because of her unflinching belief in “dharma". Her belief in “good will eventually be rewarded" is her vigilant saviour. Then it was her turn to prod me for my thoughts on marriage.

Mrs. Patel, who had sat with her feet curled up on her sofa all through the interview, sat up on her knees when I said working women should contribute equally to the financial expenses of a household and that I did so.

“You let women down. We suffer so much, we give birth to and bring up children, we look after our husband’s parents, and many even work at home after working in offices. The least you should do is keep your salary for yourself," she said animatedly.

I had clearly disappointed her.

“You asked me about Gujarati feminism," went on Mrs. Patel, by now greatly provoked. “I don’t even understand what feminism means, I am not well educated, but I do know what womanhood means," she added before crumpling back into the sofa.

There are valid arguments on both sides about what women who earn must do with their earnings. Mrs. Patel and I are on opposite sides of the fence; but more than that, it was her emotional excitement at the mention of “my money, his money, our money" that stumped me. “Come again for the Garba tonight and pray to the goddess so that you understand why equality has nothing to do with sharing a man’s financial burden," was Mrs. Patel’s parting advice, delivered with a warm hug.

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Published: 30 Oct 2015, 12:50 AM IST
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