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CONTENTS RELIGION AND SOCIETY

33. GENDER, PATRIARCHY AND

RELIGION
KAUSHIKI DAS

INTRODUCTION

Women across religions often suffer from discrimination,their body stigmatised,

their movements and their social interactions constantly controlled; any transgres-
sion results in social ostracism.

Leela Dube draws attention to such practices in the context of India. Parda or veil-
ing is a common practice among Muslims and Hindus for regulating female sexuality
and for maintaining solidarity of an agnatic kin group in the light of entry of outsiders.
Even in the absence of veiling, a proper demeanour, the maintenance of physical dis-
tance and proper modes of speech serve to keep women in check. Also, menstruation
and parturition are deemed as polluted states during which women are forbidden to
pray, fast or touch religious texts.Patricia Jeffrey’s study of the Pirzada women reveals
that they are forbidden during menstruation to carry on those activities that connect
them with their husband’s means of livelihood, like sewing curtains for the saint’s
tomb or preparing sweets for the pilgrim.Although according to Theravada Buddhism,
women are not polluted, yet their involvement in the bodily processes, including pro-
creation and the nurturing of the young, is cited as a reason for declaring them unfit
for ordination.Women are seen as more rooted in the world, unable to be detached,
are the centre of household stability, and hence, cannot be monks.The Devdasi tradi-
tion is another instance of an exploitative religious tradition, wherein young girls
dedicated to Goddess Yellamma end up being trapped in prostitution and sheer
poverty. As patriarchal Hindu values spread to tribal communities, Samar Mullick ar-
gues, indigenous cultures are gradually getting negatively influenced and they too
start targeting women as witches. For instance, it has been noticed among the Ho and
Munda tribal communities.

Such oppression had its antecedents in the nationalist era. Nationalists had capital-
ized on the myth of the advanced Aryan woman, as evident in their historiography.
According to Partha Chatterjee, on one side were those who opined that women were
the repository of Hindu tradition, bereft of any colonial influences and on the other
hand were those who believed that women’s reform should constitute a crucial part of
the anti-colonial struggle. He added that the nationalists decided to resolve the
women’s question by casting Indian women as Grihalakshmis and Kulalakhmis (God-
desses of home and kin-groups). For instance, women were depicted as Annapurna,
the Goddess of food and were expected to provide an unfailing supply of food. In ad-
dition, they drew upon other Hindu mythological personages. While Rama was pro-
moted as Sat-Purusa or ideal man to counteract the colonial construct of the weak,
effeminate man of the East, Sita was the dutiful wife who remained devoted even as
her husband exiled her to fulfil his ‘national duty’. In the nationalist imagination,
women were supposed to be confined to the domestic sphere as their stepping out
into the sphere,epitomised by Sita’s crossing of the ‘Lakshman-Rekha’, would wreak
havoc.

A similar problematic rhetoric is endorsed by right-wing parties today. Their Hindu

supremacist agenda is predicated on ‘proper’ Hindu womanhood; upper caste women
were perceived as victims of the ‘Other’ — the Muslims and as custodians of national
honour. This new politics of community, political scientist Zoya Hasan claims, served
as a convenient ruse for strengthening patriarchal control over female sexuality. Runa
Das states that the ‘Sangh Parivar has consistently deployed women’s bodies,images
and representations to delineate post-partition history and re-aligning the bound-
aries of a Hindu domesticity,community and nationhood from a gendered and com-
munal perspective’ [Das,2007:6]. Besides using the bogey of Islamic invaders, the
Sangh employs the language of empowerment to mobilize women. Mahila Morcha,
Durga Vahini and Rashtriya Swayam Sevika Sangh claim that they emancipate women
by training them to be leaders in the public domain. However, Tanika Sarkar argues
that their traditional roles remain uncontested, within a generally conservative do-
mesticity. A distorted version of Hinduism idolises the imagery of docile, compliant
woman, urging women to sacrifice their rights and recasting the patriarchal family in
a benevolent light. The women’s wing of RSS does not recruit married women, urging
them instead to focus on domestic duties and childcare. Even the martial arts they
learn in the camps are supposedly healthy exercises to ensure strong sons.

We will first try to look at the patriarchal narrative embedded in the religious texts.

RELIGIOUS TEXTS

Looking at “vrat kathas” that are related to the fasts undertaken on certain days or
on religious festivals like Janam Ashtmi, Jasbir Jain argues that these are structured in
a way so as to instil ideas of subordination in women. The kathas list specific perfor-
mative acts of austerity, abstinence which are invariably undertaken by the woman
for ensuring the wish attainment of the male members of her family. As such, her own
aspirations and desires are cast aside; only her family’s welfare, particularly longevity
of husband’s life and procreation of male children, is defined by the kathas as her ulti-
mate priority in life. By moulding comportment and conduct according to the blue-
print laid out for feminine subservience and by nipping any sign of defiance in the
bud, kathas entrench patriarchal authority further.

Usha Menon similarly mentions three popular mythological stories in Orissa—two

of them are about the Goddess Devi in her reincarnations as Parvati and Kali’s rela-
tionship with their husband, Shiva while the third narrates the story of an ideal
woman Anasuya and her husband, sage Atrimuni. They all carry pedagogic elements
relating to what constitutes the essential traits of the Hindu wife—obedience and def-
erence to the husband. In the course of her fieldwork, she also mentions metaphors
like earthen pitcher and the concept of rajas guna/qualities which depict women as
impure beings whose behaviour has to be carefully monitored; although this belief
dissipates once they enter the post-menopausal phase. She also argues that despite
the prevailing belief that all Hindu women embody ‘Sakti’ i.e. female energy or power,
it hardly translates into any social and cultural empowerment. She suggests that for
actual and not just metaphorical power, they need to make Sakti immanent in them
‘through culturally prescribed actions’ [Menon,2002:1].

Subaltern studies theorist Ranajit Guha points out the oppressive aspects of Bhakti
tradition. He mentions that the principal modalities or rasas embedded in the Bhakti
tradition emphasize on servitude. The sringararasa (erotic mode) too stresses on sub-
ordinationto the male deity. It not only ‘spiritualizes and aestheticizes male domi-
nance of gender relations but also assumes the sexual passivity of women’
[Guha,1998:48]. This is evident in the way tales about Lord Krishna’s sexual adventures
among the gopis or milk maids of Vraj always focus on the former’s initiative to seduce
and abandon hiscompanions. As such, the women are depicted as channels for the
deity’s sexual pleasure, which is then glorified as an ideal of love as all-transcendent.
When Kubja, one of the only female companions, expressed her desire to satisfy her
sexual desire and not solely that of the male deity, she is vehemently condemned.
Moreover, ‘the soul of the devotee becomes a gopi in its relationship to Lord Krishna
and as such, becomes a female consort of the God’ while the latter does not undergo
a similar transformation’[Guha,1998:49].

Moreover, the Laws of Manu presents Danda, the indigenous concept of domi-
nance, essentially from a male point of view and hence, prescribes the use of force to
exploit women either for labour or for sexual gratification of men. In fact, punitive
sanctions imposed on women for disregarding a code of sexual morality are justified
as vital for the maintenance of a monolithic moral order [Guha,1998:30].

However, Sharada Sugirtharajah begs to differ. She opines that there are some re-
deeming features that undermine the alleged patriarchy ingrained in the religious
texts. As an example, she mentions Sita in Ramayana and Draupadi in Mahabharata as
protagonists who balanced both roles easily—that of devoted wives but also as women
critical of sexist notions of wifely behaviour.Philosophically speaking, Hinduism af-
firms the spiritual equality and inseparability of male and female. She adds that ‘as
Shakti, the divine feminine power is latent in the masculine; without the former, the
latter is rendered powerless’ [Sugirtharajah, 2002:8].

Loriliai Biernacki too argues that some 15th-18th century Tantra texts signals a
transition from the notion of ascetic male domination over women and over body,
thus countering the misconception that sex in Tantra constructs women as objects
for male gains like supernatural powers [Biernacki, 2006:187]. The Brhannila Tantra is
a Goddess-centred or sakta text, followed in the northeast, which explicitly advocates
respecting women even beyond the sex rite, something lacking in the other Tantra
texts like the Kularnava Tantra or the Kulacudamini Tantra. For instance, it urges the
practitioner to bow down to the woman he will engage in the sex rite with and not to
force women to mechanically satisfy his own desires. The Cinara Tantra, another
north-eastern sakta text of 17th century, also instructs the practitioners to avoid
abusing or criticising women and more importantly, preaches that salvation can be
solely achieved by serving women, a subversion of the idea of salvation attainment by
worshipping men. Interestingly, Biernacki states that the texts do not invoke God-
desses who are intangible, metaphysical deities nor is the woman considered to be a
temporary channel during the rite.In fact, it exhorts the veneration of ordinary
women in their everyday lives. Moreover, by focussing on the body, Biernacki argues,
the oppressive binaries (man/woman,mind/body,subject/object),mental schemas
that project women as inferior, are contested.

Sharmila Rege too points out that B.R. Ambedkar had also attempted to engage with
Buddhism to analyse the question of gender empowerment. In ‘The Rise and Fall of
the Hindu Women’ (1951), he tried to counter the nationalist myth of the Vedic woman
and the charge against Buddha for the fall of women from an erstwhile high position.
Interestingly, in his refutation, he tries to demonstrate how oral traditions can get
mistranslated in the midst of codification. He argued that the Buddha never disap-
proved of contact between the Bhikkus and women. He lauded the initiative to allow
women to be inducted into the Bhikkuni Sangha, since earlier sanyas or renunciation
as a goal was denied to women. The Bhikkuni Sangha appreciated women as rational
human beings capable of intellectual communion [Rege,2013:71]. More importantly, it
welcomed all kinds of women—widows, prostitutes,married and unmarried. Ambed-
kar argued that in light of such freedoms, it is unlikely that Buddhism was responsible
for the decline in women’s position. In fact, Manu’s intricate rules for women was
meant to curb this freedom, as evident in the exalting of the husband, refusing cre-
mations to women who were part of “heretic” cults and to those born out of mixed
unions, thereby entrenching further Brahmanical patriarchy.

Thus, there have been numerous instances of critical inquiry of religious texts.

RELIGIOUS SPACES

The patriarchy ingrained in texts is reinforced through segregation of religious spa-

ces. Women are especially banned from entering places of worship when they men-
struate. The Vedas explicitly state that menstrual blood is an evil manifestation of
women’s power as it can poison and even kill a man. Any transgression was to be se-
verely punished. This was the cited as the grounds for the arrest of a young actress in
Kerala for violating this cardinal rule. She had visited a certain temple which had
barred the entry of women altogether (because of their possible ‘polluting element’).
On the order of the Kerala government, the Crime Branch charged her under Section
295 of the Indian Penal Code related to offending religious sentiments. Similarly, the
Nizamuddin Dargah in Delhi banned the entry of women inside sanctum sanctorum
that houses the saint’s tomb. Even, Haji Ali Dargah, Mumbai in in 2012 banned the
does not permit women to be near the tomb of Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari since the
Sharia deems it as a sin.

However, these bans have not been without contestations. In 2010, under the initia-
tive of governor of Assam, JB Patnaik, women entered the sacred confines of Patbausi
Satra at Barpeta district. In Gujarat, women challenged the community laws barring
temple entry of women who marry outside. Moreover, a small congregation of women
prayed beside men under the aegis of Ajan Peer Dargah at Sivasagar. This trend has its
historical precedent in 1988 when the Idgah Masjid in Shillong allowed women to en-
ter its premises to offer their namaz or prayer. Since then, there have been numerous
instances of Muslim women praying in mosques, from the Palayam mosque in Thiru-
vananthapuram to the Zamiat-Ahle-Hadis mosque in Orissa, with some of them even
petitioning the courts to grant permission for their entry, like in case of Mangalore’s
mosque in 2010. All India Muslim Women’s Personal Law Board reiterates that Islam
has never forbidden women from praying in mosques. Since July 2013, Sharia courts
managed by women were established across the length and breadth of the country in
Mumbai,

Ahmedabad, Pune, Odisha and Tamil Nadu. In another positive development, the
Pandharpur temple, on orders from the Supreme Court, inducted women priests for
the first time and allowed them to conduct rituals at the Rukmini temple, which had
so far been the monopoly of upper-caste men.

PERSONAL LAWS DEBATE

A controversial debate surrounding personal laws and their impact on women has
been raging for years. Proponents of the Uniform Civil Code, including some femi-
nists, pleaded for the need to introduce uniformity among personal laws of different
faiths. While liberal nationalists like Minoo Masani condemned personal laws for
threatening national unity, women leaders like Hansa Mehta and Amrit Kumar per-
ceived them as an obstacle to women’s empowerment. There has been ample evi-
dence to demonstrate such claims, such as in the infamous Shah Bano case. The Mus-
lim Women (Protection of Rights on Divorce) Act, introduced by the government in 1986
and which stipulated that the husband must pay a “fair and reasonable provision” for
maintenance, was denounced as an attempt to bolster Muslim personal law and ap-
pease the fundamentalist forces. It was also perceived as a move to discourage
women from taking recourse to constitutional law.

Even today, there have been challenges from various quarters to personal laws. For
instance, Mary Roy opposed the rejection of her claim to her father’s house, which
was denied to her under the Travancore Syrian Christian Act, 1916 and the Cochin
Succession Act, 1921.

Article 44 of the Indian Constitution in 1950 encouraged the establishment of the

Uniform Civil Code(UCC) by the state. The UCC was projected as a necessary instru-
ment to override the multiple legal systems existing in the country, critical for ensur-
ing women’s rights and for protecting national integrity. Dating back to 1937 when the
All India Women’s Conference pleaded for the application of UCC for all religions, the
women’s movement continued to lent its support to the UCC, well into the 1980s.

Unfortunately the rancorous opposition to the personal laws has drowned out the
alternative view supporting them. Rohit De writes that regrettably, the focus of the
personal laws debate has shifted from all forms of community identity and the state
to exclusively on Muslim personal law during the Shah Bano case in 1985 [De, 2013:6].

Women’s groups like All India Women’s Democratic Association (AIDWA) voiced their
concerns. They were wary of the Uniform Civil Code, perceiving it more as a tool in
the hands of political parties to cash in votes. While the right-wing parties presented
Hindu laws as the ideal laws, the Muslim community resisted any attempt to reform
their personal law (despite opposition from Muslim women). Hence, AIDWA and oth-
ers distanced themselves from the two parties and instead focussed on introducing
equal, common laws in areas of matrimonial property and registration of marriages.

Prominent Feminist Nibedita Menon has refuted the Hindu Right’s push for the
UCC to be modelled on the Hindu Personal Laws. She argues that contrary to its
claims, the latter have never been reformed and have been selectively codified. Any
personal law in consonance with North Indian, upper-caste practices were codified,
thus eliminating the vast spectrum of liberal customary laws. In fact, the opposite has
been true in many cases. Muslim personal laws have afforded better protection to
women through their inheritance laws and the right of mehr. At the same time, she
attacks the community laws as being by-products of colonial attempts to, in consulta-
tion with self-appointed community leaders, organize the great multiplicity of laws
under four religious personal laws. Hence, these cannot be defended on the grounds
of being natural and prior to any other identity.

By 1995, the thrust was more on incorporating reform within Personal Law,bringing
in laws that cover areas neglected by secular and personal laws and evolving a gen-
der-just law framework of rights,pertaining to areas covered by personal laws and the
public domain of work.

WOMEN’S AGENCY AND RESISTANCE: FEMINIST THEOLOGY

In the following section, we will look at how women have appropriated theology to
forward their cause.

Feminist theology is unique in its acceptance of religion as a vehicle of change, yet

at the same time recognizing the oppression that stems within. According to Sheila
Collins, it does not advocate abstract syllogisms, rather it is concerned with women’s
lives—their feelings about their families, their daily routine,etc.

Feminist theologians belong to two different groups, espousing different strategies

for contesting patriarchy. One set advocates myths and rituals of Goddess religion
while the other intends to amend religious institutions from within.

The former perceive God as sexist, preferring to celebrate the Goddesses of ancient
cultures and the Goddesses within themselves. In particular, pro-Christian theolo-
gians cherish their ‘powers of fertility and procreation as well as of insight, stifled un-
der the oppressive weight of western culture’[Porterfield,1987:4]. They envision in the
future a feminist society based on the harmony between women and the earth. Ritu-
als are conducted in order to evoke a sense of energy, wilfulness among its partici-
pants. These often involve inversion of the existing ecclesiastical establishment, as in
case of the Women’s Spirituality Movement in 1976, documented by Naomi Golden-
berg.

On the other hand, feminists within religious institutions do not accept the notion
of a misogynistic God, preferring to view it as a source of emancipation. They demand
‘women’s ordination, a new language about God, and greater ecclesiastical recogni-
tion of women’s needs and contributions’ [Porterfield,1987:3].Christian feminists play
down the masculinity of Jesus Christ, highlighting the more androgynous attributes of
love and compassion [ibid:6].For instance, Rosemary Ruether insisted that rather than
worshipping Christ as male authority, He must be viewed as representative of non-
sexist humanity.

While The Church and the Second Sex (1968) authored by Mary Daly pleads for
greater egalitarianism between Christian men and women, Ruether explored the im-
ages of Mother Mary and ancient Goddesses. In 1973, Daly’s Beyond God the Father,
she argues that discourse about God the father is a projection grounded in specifical-
ly patriarchal societal structures and sustained as subjectively real by the usual pro-
cesses of producing plausibility such as preaching, religious indoctrination, and cult’
[Cady, 1989:6]. She insisted on post-Christian feminism, predicated on separatist fe-
male communities [Porterfield:1987:6]. This demonstrates that Christian feminists
were trying to articulate Goddess religion within the Bible. Daly made a radical state-
ment when she argued that women’s devaluation in Catholicism revealed a phallic
world order, one which has to be destroyed through sisterhood [ibid:3].

Jana Opocenska mentions that by authoring the Bible, men could define male and
female sexuality as well as determine the portrayal of women’s encounters with God
in the texts. Feminist hermeneutics is the only key to their liberation.

Alice Walker evokes the concept of ‘womanist theology’. Concerned about the
prevalent racism in feminist theology, Elizabeth Fiorenza and Rosemary Radford
Ruether have tried to incorporate experiences of black women within the framework
of feminist theology. In addition, ‘Queer and Indecent theologies’ emerged contesting
the existing sexual theology.

The Zar cult of northern Sudan, studied by Janice Boddy, comprises of women prac-
ticing healing rituals that use Islamic idioms and spirit mediums. It offers a challenge
to men’s hegemonic praxis and insists on the complementarity of women with men,
despite its operation within the same parameters.

Closer home, Usha Menon rebuffs the two predominant portrayals of Hindu women
—either as passive victims of sexist social structure, meekly accepting their own sub-
ordination (as per Dhruvarajan, Jeffrey,Roy) or as crypto-feminists resisting oppres-
sion through proverb/song/story ( as per Jefferey, Bannerjee and Oldenberg) and
ready to rebel at the first politically opportune moment [Menon:2002:3]. Instead, she
recognizes women as active agents who take full advantage of the available resources
to build a preferable identity.

Women’s oral narratives of the Ramayana have not only vigorously contested patri-
archal norms, but also shifted the focus onto more liberal renditions of Hinduism—
Tantic, Bhakti and art texts– than the oft-quoted androcentric texts of Dharmashas-
tras and Laws of Manu. According to Sugirtharajah, Bhakti especially offered greater
latitude for women to experiment with their gender roles. Women poet-saints like
Mirabai in 16th century and Akka Mahadevi in 12th century subverted customs and
replaced enslavement to their husbands with intense devotion to God.

Nabaneeta Dev Sen argues that the Sita has been used as a convenient ruse to bol-
ster Brahmanical patriarchal ideas about a model wife, just like Rama was epitomised
as ideal man. Yet at the same time women have not uncritically endorse such a pas-
sive imagery; subverting it through their own versions of Ramayana. Therein, they
decry Rama as an irresolute, apathetic and unkind husband; calling him names and
berating him for losing his mind. Sita is no longer portrayed as a Goddess, but as a
wife tormented by injustice, sadness, seclusion. Clearly, there is a digression from the
mainstream renditions of the epic.

She draws attention to various instances of women’s retellings of Ramayana’ such as

Chandrabhati’s take on the Ramayana in 16th century wherein the latter holds Rama
responsible for the fall of Ayodhya. The other instances that Sen cites are Balakanda
and Uttarkanda. While the former deals with the birth and marriage of Sita, the latter
narrates the after-events of war and the protagonists’ return to Ayodhya. None of the
two celebrates Rama’s supposed virtues—his physical strength or his fathering capa-
bilities, concentrating rather on his flaws, his leaving behind of Sita. In fact, when
Rama exiles her to the forest, he does not regret the cruelty meted out to her, but
rather misses the comforts she provided as his wife.

There are some common threads running through women’s interpretation of the
epic, chronicling the life events experienced by them—child marriage,domestic abuse
and pregnancy. Explicit details entailing Sita’s sufferings of domestic violence are
sung by women reflecting on the exploitation they themselves endured. For instance,
the protagonist is described as being denied meals, feeding her only bitter neem
leaves and imprisoned within barred rooms. In another example, her transgression of
the Lakshman rekha, which ultimately results in her seizure by Ravana,is justified by
women as stemming from her greed to have sons. This reveals the pressures to have
male heirs since it is projected as the only way to acquire a legitimate position in so-
ciety.

Although definitely not a rebel, the allegory of Sita does offer them a persona and
voice. At the same time, it provides them a channel through which they can articulate
their grievances, fears of abandonment, insecurities and anxieties. The disillusion-
ment is palpable as the singers share their troubles.

More importantly, the songs lament the precariousness of a woman’s social identity,
dependent rather on her husband’s; without it, she is deemed as nothing. Sita’s loneli-
ness as an orphan, a central theme in most of the songs, has been used to convey the
despair of a woman who suffers from the same isolation; the self always being alienat-
ed. Singing about her tribulations provides some respite for women who have been
otherwise taught to bear all their pain in silence.

Brasher (1998), Griffith (1997) and Rose (1987) draw attention to the way women re-
spond to Church’s patriarchal dictates, motivated by the instrumental need to negoti-
ate gender relations and to ensure marital stability. Thus, the traditional idea of
agency as an extraneous intervention into the structure shifts to a more dynamic un-
derstanding of it as deliberate conformity with the structure. Contradicting the no-
tion of agency as resistance against relations of domination, Saba Mahmood identifies
agency as a capacity for action that historically specific relations of subordination en-
able and create [Mahmood:2001:3]. The piety movement, Mahmood contends, is not
radical and does not seem to usher in much agency since it tries to secure the very
virtues equated with female passivity—humility, shyness and modesty. By pursuing
traditional ideals and practices that condemn women to an inferior status, it is hardly
shaking the foundation of patriarchy. However, rejecting the idea of internalisation of
patriarchal norms, feminist scholars, during 1970s, argued that agency is not possible
only through sources existing outside religion, such as education or employment, but
also through conceptual and practical resources offered by it. Women, Mahmood ar-
gues, employ hegemonic cultural practices that have so far worked in favour of men,
subvert them and then reutilise them for their own interests and agendas.

Gail Omvedt points out that there has been a gradual transition from the 1980s
feminist movement that condemned the patriarchy embedded in religion to the cur-
rent stage where the denunciation is retracted and there is an acceptance of the
‘feminine principle’, which unites men and women alike. She argues that ‘within this
redefined attitude to religion/ethnicity/culture, traditional gender resources could
be drawn upon by women without subscribing to and actively opposing Hindu com-
munalism’ [Rajan, 1998:4]. Whether it is Shetkari Sangathana in Maharashtra waging a
campaign for property rights and political representation or the Chipko Movement
demanding forestry rights, stri-shakti has been an essential component in the collec-
tive struggle. Radha Kumar documented how some women claim to be possessed by
the Goddess as an effective way to get their demands accepted by their family mem-
bers.

Some scholars have also taken a fresh look at sacred literature, trying to unearth
the emancipatory potential within. Joanna Liddle and Rama Joshi opine that while
there may not be an explicit matriarchy in Hinduism, the seeds of a matriarchal cul-
ture are embedded in it. Women are celebrated as ‘life-givers and sources of activat-
ing energy’ [Rajan, 1998:3].

Paula Richman argues that the multiple traditions of the Ramayana enable ques-
tioning it. Ramchandra Gandhi in Sita’s Kitchen draws attention to the Sita tradition in
Hindu, Jain and Buddhist folklore and philosophy which equated women with mother-
hood, preservation, pacifism,nature, thereby opposing the masculinity venerated by
proponents of Hindutva.

Mukti Mangharam tries to view the Ramayana through a feminist and queer lens,
attempting to subvert its current desexualisation by popular renderings. She insists
that the notion of dharma in Valmiki’s Ramayana is complicated by presence of pre-
marital,queer and extramarital love.Valmiki,she argues, acknowledges the female sex-
ual power as represented by Sita, which enables a very powerful feminist reading. Sita
is a key player in the enactment of her sexuality and is not a passive object.

Draupadi is another mythical character deployed for feminist agenda. Pratibha Ray’s
novel “Yajnaseni” is a fiery argument against patriarchy. The protagonist, Draupadi,
resents the manipulation of women as pawns for political gains, the hypocritical stan-
dards of upper-caste morality regulating women’s sexuality and perpetration of sexu-
al violence.Ray tries to urge women today to emulate Draupadi’s mode of vehement
protest against rape rather than Sita’s inward mode of protest.Mahasweta Devi’s
“Draupadi” (2006) highlighted the intersecting axes of caste/class/religion that op-
press women through the tribal protagonist. The latter, continuing the Naxalite
struggle after her husband is killed, launches an affront on the patriarchal codes of
honour and the state’s exercising of brutal power on the marginalised. Also, unlike
Mahabharat’sDraupadi hailing from a royal background, she cannot be saved from be-
ing raped, thus, drawing attention to the class-caste dimensions of sexual violence.

Rashmi Luthra argues that the ‘appropriation and reworking of traditional narra-
tives has been an important strategy for women to interrogate dominant ideologies
and articulate resistant ideologies’ [Luthra:2014:3].Gail Omvedt cites the example of
eco-feminist movement which utilizes religious symbolism, such as Prakriti/feminine
nurturing force within Hinduism to project women as superior.

The Jnana Prabodhini in Pune has even been training women to perform all sam-
skaras since 1997. The organisation claims that the scriptures describe women as
‘shuddah, poothaah, yoshitho yajnaayaimaa’—roughly translated, it means pure, wor-
shipful, blessed practitioners of yajna.

Simultaneously, several organisations striving to protect rights of Muslim women

have mushroomed. The Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan and the Muslim Women’s
Rights Networkfocus on reforming personal laws and matrimonial rights. Bader Say-
eed,a lawyer, approached the Madras High Court with a Public Interest Litigation de-
manding a stay on qazis issuing triple talaq/divorce certificates. They are seeking a
codification of Personal Law (Sharia) Application Act,1937, which will lead to accurate
interpretations of the Sharia on matters of divorce, alimony,polygamy,etc. They be-
lieve that the Quran is gender-neutral and dynamic, negating the need for the Uni-
form Civil Code. Following the Shah Bano case which witnessed a miscarriage of jus-
tice due to faulty interpretations of the Sharia, Zeenat Shaukat Ali insisted that
women must acquaint themselves with the religious texts so that they can reclaim
their rights granted within Islam [Kirmani,2011: 15]. The Bharatiya Muslim Mahila An-
dolan explicitly engages with Islamic texts, driven by the idea that this strategy will
help mobilize women, not alienate them. It also does not support a Gender Justice
Law demanded by another organisation, Awaaz-e-Niswan which aims at substituting
the separate personal laws.

Organisations like Awaaz-e-Niswaan and Bharatiya Muslim MahilaAndolan strive

for reform within the framework of the Muslim Personal Law Board, looking at scrip-
tural sources of gender justice. They initiate dialogues among the community, espe-
cially engaging with the Ulama, and negate the idea of an oppressive Islam, insisting
that the prevailing patriarchy was established on a selective interpretation of the
Quran. They also offer marriage counselling to bereaved women and organise legal
awareness camps in the slums against anti-women fatwas. Women’s organisations too
vociferously voiced their outrage against polygamy, unilateral divorce and demanding
right to property as well as to initiate divorce proceedings. In 1918, the All India Mus-
lim Ladies Conference passed a resolution against polygamy. President Sharifa Hamid
Ali launched a drive in 1930 for delegate divorce, ensuring that women can initiate
divorce without losing their mehr.

The All-India Muslim Women’s Rights Network deals with issues concerning impact
of communal rights on Muslim women, emancipatory role of state and reform of
Muslim Personal Law. In 1999, it documented and analysed the diverse civil and family
laws applied to Muslims. All India Muslim Women’s Personal Law Board also encour-
ages Muslims to self-interpret the Quran, adapting their religious beliefs to their
everyday life. [Schneider:2009:14] STEPS, headed by Daud Sharifa Khanam, questions
the Jamaat’s authority (traditionally headed by men) to decide matters concerning
women—- divorce, dowry, domestic violence, custody. It accused police stations of
referring women’s complaints back to the Jamaat. Hence, they intend to replace the
extant Jamaat with one consisting of women members. They currently plan to erect a
mosque exclusively for women and open a centre for research on Islamic jurispru-
dence.

CRITICISM

The attempt to fuse feminism with religion has been criticised as well. Rajeswari
Rajan is sceptical of the tendency of not just left secularists and Hindu nationalists
but also feminist theologians to portray Hindu Goddesses as empowering role mod-
els. Often, it is assumed that since Hinduism has a tradition of worshipping Goddess-
es unlike other religions, it must be espousing a matriarchal worldview. However, Ra-
jan argues that the Goddesses are often used as references to sanction behaviour of
women who diverge from the mandated norms. Moreover, worshipping Goddesses
has never translated into any material improvement in the lives of women. Rajan ar-
gues that a certain version of feminism ‘pre-empts western feminist demands even as
it simultaneously aggrandizes the scope and politics of that tradition and co-opts
women’s agency for its own ends’ [Rajan,1998:5].

Goddess-inspired Hindu feminism, Flavia Agnes points out, can alienate women of
minority communities. KanchaIllaih drew a divide between upper-caste Goddesses
and Goddesses worshipped by lower classes. Through the example of Pochamma,a
village deity, he buttresses the point that the latter are not bound by traditional gen-
der roles, sans gender, caste and class affiliations.

Urvashi Butalia, Tanika Sarkar and Paola Bacchetta too argue that feminism which
revolves around Goddess role models has communal undertones. In organisations like
Rashtra Sevika Sangathana, through the appropriation of images of fierce warrior
Goddesses like Kali, Hindu women are geared to carry out the xenophobic,militant
Hindutva propaganda against the ‘other’. As such, it alienates women from lower-
caste and minority religious communities. Therefore, feminism has had an uneasy re-
lationship with religion, fraught with uncertainties and myriad contestations.
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