Mr. Martin died a peaceful death they said. There were no signs of pain or agony. His wife gave her condolences and came down to sit beside her son. When almost everyone was about to go, a man went up to the podium and called attention to him. It was as if they knew him from somewhere. All of them had seen him some time, somewhere.
When that man read out Martin’s note, everyone was moved. They somewhat understood where this was going. He knew the actual Martin. For everyone, Martin was the ideal male role model. He led the ideal life as social norms defined it.
Nobody really believed it when the letter claimed he never truly loved his wife. Everyone thought they were the ideal couple. But his wife didn’t seem surprised. She appeared to have known bout this all along. His kids appeared to be experiencing a life-changing shock. The scenario goes back to the 1960s.
He told it all in his letter. Martin had his first crush in his college days. “I realized I was unique after I lived in the men’s dorm. I still wasn’t able to speak it aloud.”Being gay in those years was not considered natural. He felt loneliness creeping over him as he thought he could never find love.
He never felt attracted to girls, when everybody around him was. For the longest time, he believed something was wrong with him. There was no representation for somebody like him, there was no validation.
In front of his parents and friends, he explained how he was able to act normally. What would one do if you were unable to communicate but were confined within your body with your brain still functioning? How can you maintain your sanity when everyone you know and love cannot see you? He claims that as a young boy, he had a weird coma. As his mind started to work again, he was left with nothing but his own thoughts. He was confined and had nothing to do except think. Additionally, they weren’t exactly pleasant ideas.
“Nobody will ever be kind to me. I’ll never be loved by anyone.”
And of course, there was no way out. You are doomed, he believed.
He concluded that leaving his ideas behind was his only choice. According to conventional conventions, he continued acting normally. Even though he had a crush on a boy in college, he nevertheless made friends with a girl, She fell in love with him and the two of them eventually got together. Even though he had no idea why he was deceiving himself, he was aware that something was wrong. He continued living in his cocoon, He didn’t know that coming out was really an option. He married the girl and had two children, but he always felt incomplete. When he told his wife one day, she didn’t really believe him.” You can’t be gay”, she said in response. It was a challenge rather than a command. She implied that he was definitely not gay.
But by expressing that, he felt better. He didn’t care if she believed him or not. He got to hope when he saw advertisements for a gay Bar. He started going out and meeting new people, people like him. He met different people, He met a man who was very different. He was quite older but Martin’s world slid when he was around him. Martin began to have feelings toward him. He could sense movement all around him. He felt like himself for the first time. The man reading the letter wiped his eyes and said, “yes, that was me.”
He realized what it was like to be joyful and in love for the first time. He was too delighted to give it much thought, even though he knew what he was doing was wrong for his family. He then began the relationship in private. His family could never know about this. Alongside his daily responsibilities, he did enjoy this. Later, he was promoted to manager at work.
He was really skilled at living a double life – but still, he knew something was missing.
All he wanted to do was live freely, and come out. But he knew in his heart that he was powerless to do so. He lived his life, took care of his obligations, and retired early. He remained faithful to his partner and carried out his marriage vows till the very end. But he had split apart somewhere between social pressure and love. He led a normal life for so many years, but what others didn’t realize was what was going on inside his head. Others watched in surprise as Mr. Martin’s true love wiped his tears stepping down from the podium. All were wondering how a seemingly flawless man could be so sad for years and realize that true happiness was found elsewhere and still couldn’t enjoy it to the fullest.
This article will be focused on awareness about the ‘T’ in ‘LGBTQIA’ which stands for Transgender.
The first step involved to be an ally to the trans community is to be aware of some facts and definitions. The word ‘Transgender’ is an adjective denoting or relating to a person whose sense of gender identity does not correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender identity is the internal sense of being male, female, or something else, for trans people does not match their birth sex. A transgender woman was labelled as male at birth but has the gender identity of a female. A transgender man was assigned female sex at birth but identifies as male. Some transgender people don’t identify with one gender exclusively or no gender at all. These transgender people are often described as being “non-binary.” Another term that is sometimes used to describe people in this category is “genderqueer.” The opposite of transgender is cisgender, people who identify as cis conform to their sex at birth.
Another important piece of information is that gender identity is not the same as sexual orientation. The latter term is used to describe a person’s innate preference for romantic or sexual relationships with men, women, or both sexes. Heterosexual/straight people are attracted to members of the opposite sex. Homosexual people (gays and lesbians) are attracted to people of the same sex. Bisexual people are attracted to both men and women. Transgender people may be straight, gay or lesbian, or bisexual. The flag that represents the transgender community was designed by American trans woman Monica Helms. It is a light blue, pink and white pent-colour pride flag.
Secondly, we must acknowledge their struggles. Being a marginalised community, they’ve been oppressed and discriminated against for the majority of recorded history. Trans people are denied equal access to key social goods, such as employment, health care, education and housing. They’re marginalized in society and one of the weaker sections who are at risk of becoming socially excluded. Daily experiences such as not having separate toilet facilities; they have to use male toilets where they are prone to sexual assault and harassment and having to fill up application forms that use sex and gender interchangeably. The exclusion and discrimination have extremely affected the mental health of transgender persons. Stigmatization of gender-nonconforming and transgender children and youth is amplified in the educational system, which mirrors the rest of society in reinforcing strictly binary and patriarchal gender norms. Transphobia exists, which causes a lot of distress to trans people. Transphobia manifests itself in different forms, for example, physical attacks, discrimination in the workplace and negative media representation. Apart from it all, trans people also deal with gender dysphoria in many cases. It is a condition that causes distress and discomfort when the gender you identify with conflicts with the sex that you were assigned at birth.
Lastly, we should express our openness and acceptance. The majorities of Transgender people learn to cope, particularly when they have the support of family and friends, and participate in Transgender organizations and social networks. Thus it is crucial to vocally support and fight alongside them against the discrimination they face. Normalise introducing yourself with your pronouns and not make assumptions about others’ pronouns. Be respectful and mindful of phrases or terms that are gendered. Also, consider donating to organizations that support and aid transgender people. Wish them a happy pride month, with a gentle smile!
“Loving yourself is the greatest revolution,” proven by the LGBTQ+ community just by doing the most mundane thing: fighting for love,
Love-a language misunderstood and mistaken. Hence, the month of pride brings to us the opportunity to know and explore the lengths of magnitude people have gone to for the sake of love.
Many consider the month of pride to just mean the celebration of sexuality, but Pride Month is an entire month dedicated to the uplifting of LGBTQ voices, a celebration of LGBTQ culture, and the support of LGBTQ rights. Throughout June, nationwide, there have traditionally been parades, protests, drag performances, live theatre, memorials, and celebrations of life for members of the community who lost their lives to HIV/AIDS. It is part political activism, part celebration of all the LGBTQ community has achieved over the years. Hence, the community knows the actual struggle for this piece of joy acquired.
Over the years, celebrating Pride has grown, not just in numbers within the LGBTQ community but also in popularity. This is wonderful but also presents a few problems. While people stand by watching corporations selectively jump on the bandwagon for a few weeks, the LGBTQ community has to live the truth and support each other all year long.
The month is a monograph of mixed emotions, perspectives, and celebrations—celebrations of not only emotions but also of people, their struggles and joys; mourning their losses and applauding their accomplishments. Although in reality, just a month could never be enough to acknowledge the profundity of joy and sorrow, this one month does sure serve its initial purpose of spreading awareness. ‘The biggest idealism about pride is about hope’, The purpose of this commemorative month is to recognize the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals have had on history locally, nationally, and internationally.
They say LGBT people are not people, they are just an ideology. Living in a place where people are dehumanized, we, as individuals, community or not, have to find ways to help, support, and fight for basic rights.
In conclusion, to me, pride refers to the freedom of expressing one’s true self—one that has been masquerading beneath government policies fuelled by orthodox societal norms—specifically those about homophobia—for a very long time. Pride Month and celebrations aren’t just about watching drag queens throw t-shirts from a float or buying items with a rainbow on them. Pride matters for many reasons beyond this and is much more than a few events in the summer. Activists and campaigners have certainly played a crucial role in bringing about what can be seen as a major turn of events in terms of the increasing numbers of egalitarian and human rights cuts across communities throughout the globe. It means celebrating the victories of what the community has achieved so far and also a revolt against what we’re still being deprived of. Thus, pride is and will be a ceaseless fight.
Occasionally, when I lay down and closed my eyes, I used to feel like a skatefish in pisciculture. Bleak lifelessness around me – a world drained of joy. They only saw in black and white, do you realize?
The funny thing is, I swam around. I floated around like a little plastic toy, discarded into the vast ocean by some rich spoilt kid. As light, weightless, and wasted. I felt my fins and tail as I traversed the water, the strong current against them.
My teachers had always told my parents that I was a queer child and that I daydreamed too often. Maybe they did get some part of it right, but I never dared to make the pun evident. Who are dreamers but lost souls, right?
My room used to be no different from my terror of a thought loop. It was almost like a black hole, everything sucked you in, and you lost your nature. You know, like the universe is no longer to be governed by the Laws of Senses. If absurdism gets narrowed down, the only thing defined in it would be human hypocrisy. They ask you to love and then say you are not supposed to. They preach to you to be true to yourself but accept only sugar-coated lies. I know.
My school was no better. It was not like my friends were any kinder. Their images flickered in and out of my daily life like a television channel on a poor signal. Despite being left with all these people around me, I was permitted only to use one bland, broken communication device. Will they ever know me for who I truly am? And then I’m in the pond again, my form obscuring my vision. Would it have changed who I am? Would I have forgotten who I was? I am glad you were there through all this.
At times I used to feel like this life was a conspiracy. But then you told me about the other colorful, joyous worlds I could spiral into when I was lost. Maybe all everyone in such a wicked world as mine needs is an ally. Things did not seem as hard. I finally had the courage to stand up for myself. You were not right by my side physically, true. But you were with me, in your heart. That is more than anything I wanted or needed. All this suffocation of shutting myself inside is finally off my shoulder, and I just wanted to say thank you.”
People are often just scared to speak up for themselves. They have to realize that what makes them unique is everything about them- their age, gender, identity, sexuality, interests, and whatnot. The pride community is not for today’s relief or tomorrow’s comfort. It is a movement for as long as it takes. And it is home. To love is human, and to love is divine.
“Genders are like twin towers, earlier there were two but now it’s just a sensitive subject”. This is exactly what is wrong with our perception of gender, gender in itself is not a sensitive or confusing subject but it is our arrogance that makes it so. The fact is straight-forward, gender is not a discrete spectrum but rather a continuous spectrum of human identities. It is nothing to be afraid of or to be disgusted with but rather a change that should be welcomed with warmth as it is this change of gender identity that accommodates fellow humans as humans.
Disagreers would often say how earlier there was no mention of LGBTQ ever and gender was binary. But that’s exactly where we go wrong, if we were to broaden the time upto which our “earlier” extended, that is, if we go back to the ancient world, there was never any mention of LGBTQ because there was no concept of heterosexual or homosexual relationships. There was no “us” and “them”, it was only “us” and it was all about loving who one liked. In fact, same sex-relationships were highly common in Mesopotamia. In ancient Mesopotamia, god Enki is said to have created a third-gender as servants for his daughter, thus, the non-binary gender was recognised thousands of years ago as the third gender. The Almanac of Incantations contains prayers for both opposite and same-sex marriage proving how gods even blessed same-sex relationships.
Records dating back to 600 BCE refer to same sex-relationships in China where it was believed that the upper class lover would dignify the lower class lover, bringing prosperity into his life. Chinese literature is home to several poems and anecdotes on same-sex relationships, one of these known as “the cut sleeve” tells how emperor Ai was resting with his lover Dong Xian who had fallen asleep on Ai’s robe. Instead of waking up Dong Xian, emperor Ai instead cut off his sleeve so that his lover could sleep peacefully and went to attend court in a disheveled state. Isn’t this a very wholesome story? There is nothing wrong in bringing back a tradition that can be home to thousands of such wholesome stories.
Back in 1250 BCE, the Indian law code, Manusmriti treats both same-sex and oppsite-sex relationships equally and the Kama Sutra references the third gender too. While the third gender (Hijra) is marginalized in present day India, there is nothing in ancient scriptures that marginalizes them. Our culture is undoubtedly one of the richest cultures in the world and we should be proud of it. While we talk of returning to our traditional values, it is still a taboo to talk about same-sex relationships. While the ancient Indian culture never stigmatized same-sex relationships and transgenders, “modern-day” Indian culture does, surprisingly, same-sex relationships in India were made illegal by a colonial era law establised by the Britishers. Now, in modern-day British culture, same-sex relationships are being welcomed as an indication of a more “modern”, self-aware and educated society. Irony lies in the fact that our society was always more welcoming and wholesome for the third gender and same-sex relationsips.
Thus, talks about pride month shouldn’t really trigger us or make us feel uncomfortable, rather they should act as a reminder of our ancient culture that made India the richest country at one point of time, home to the strongest empires and housing the most diverse and rich culture. Hence, as an Indian we should proudly talk about same-sex relationships and rights for the LGBTQ+ community. In the end, it is all about loving who you like as love knows no gender.
Ahmedabad or Amdavad is a city in the western state of Gujarat and the only city in India to be listed on world heritage sites. It is also called the Manchester of the East, but funnily Kanpur is also called the same however Ahmedabad lost a lot of its mills to competition from other places due to which many had to shut down rendering around 40-50,000 people jobless.
I went to Ahmedabad for a few days some time ago and I just can’t shut up about it. The old city of Amdavad lies on the eastern bank of Amdavad and is a walled city with around 12 gates which don’t serve much of a purpose other than being landmarks and a few looking absolutely magnificent.
The eastern side is congested and cramped with small roads, with shops everywhere. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that everything one could buy with money could be bought in this part of the city. Clothes, pipes, toys, bicycles, diamonds- Old Ahmedabad has it all.
There is a certain legend about the most bustling that a few centuries ago a woman was leaving the city in a hurry. When stopped at the gate by a guard and asked why she was leaving, she said “I’m leaving your king’s kingdom. I cannot stay here anymore.” The guard a little confused, asked her to promise to him that she’ll stay where she is as he has to go and ask the king about what had to be done. The lady promises.
And the guard never comes back. He kills himself. That lady was Goddess Lakshmi and she never left the city.
It is said if you have anything to sell and set up a stall or a shop, it would be sold within a day. Even if the thing is completely useless or devoid of value.
Teen Darwaza and the market around it. It stretches for a kilometre
The old city has the railway station at the heart of it, and various religious places sprinkled generously around it. Hindu and Jain temples and mosques all co-exist peacefully within a few 100 metres of each other.
Hatheesing Temple
Swaminarayan Mandir
Jama Masjid
The city is incredibly religious and it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that probably every street has its own temple or mosque.
This begs the question – why did this city experience such violent communal riots in 2002?
The answer isn’t so simple. And the riots in 2002 weren’t the only ones it had seen in its history. The old city has been seeing communal violence for the past 300 years. Yes, even before coming under British rule the city which boasts of having the Sabarmati Ashram has experienced communal riots and has seen almost 100 riots since independence and this city has had the most deaths in such violence across the entire nation.
This leads to people of the different communities having distrust towards one another and also led to segregation. Segregation led to people becoming self-sufficient in themselves and finding it difficult to mix with people from other communities which leads to the mistrust between them deepening. This also leads to development of stereotypes for all sorts of people. And this makes it easier for more such communal violence to take place.
The green represents the density of Muslim population in Ahmedabad
And even in the Hindu areas, people prefer to live with people who belong to the same profession or caste. Such neighbourhoods are called pols. These neighbourhoods have usually 2 entrances/exits and some secret exits to be used in case of emergency or violence.
Around 40% of Ahmedabad comes under the Disturbed Areas Act which is very controversial. According to this law, a person cannot sell their house to a person from some other community without the approval of the district collector to ensure ‘the property has been sold on their free will and at a fair market price’.
Even though the intent behind the law sounds good, it has been misused by some miscreants.
And what makes things worse is when the Chief Minister of Gujarat says “A Hindu selling property to a Muslim is not okay. Muslims selling property to Hindus are also not okay.” He added, “We have set this rule in areas where there have been riots to tell them (Muslims) that they must buy property in their own areas.”
Fortunately, the city hasn’t been through such violence for 20 years. But with the polarised and communalised environment, one can just pray for the best. Khushwant Singh writes in his 2003 novel ‘the end of India’- “…Gujarat’s capital, Ahmedabad, was built by a Muslim ruler in the middle ages. I noticed that milestones on the main highway leading to the city had dropped Ahmed from its name and made it into Amdavad.”
It is our duty to prevent this increasing communalisation that happens for political wins.
One way this is done is through re-writing history, exaggerating specific facts and situations to make the community they are trying to appease, look wronged.
While new ideas emerge with time leading to us viewing the history through a different perspective, however, this cannot be equated with the kind of re-writing fascist groups do nowadays. This shall lead to cultures losing their identity and uniqueness. People brought up in such an environment develop a closed mind and shall not be open to new experiences, people and things.
Such loss of cultural heritage will also lead to monotony which is something that is not synonymous with our country at all.
And at this moment, M.K Gandhi’s quote stands more relevant than ever.
‘No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.’
The feeling of love is one of the most beautiful feelings in the world. It’s a powerful emotion that can make us feel both happy and sad at the same time. The term “love” refers to an overwhelming emotion of heartfelt affection. But does it exactly define the true essence of Love?
I was about 15 or 16 years old at the time, and I was trying to figure out a lot of things in life. I was running late, especially for an Indian kid from a middle-class family who was expected to have figured out their life by this point. It was difficult for me to find significance in many things, but one day I came across something that made perfect sense to me. It was probably insignificant to most others, but it meant everything to me at the time. My life was turned upside down, and everything that didn’t make sense before began to make sense. I met a girl. She wasn’t perfect, but she seemed to be able to complete me.
My friends thought I was crazy and that I wasn’t making any sense, but at the time, their opinions didn’t matter to me. This girl was all that mattered to me. She was in my class, so I made it a point to speak with her daily and get to know her. She was incredibly sweet to me, and I always felt “PERFECT” when I was in her company. I was so delighted that I used to look forward to going to school, and when school finished, I was upset, but the anticipation of seeing her again kept me awake all night. I was genuinely happy and everything was just “PERFECT”, but I suppose nothing is supposed to be perfect in this universe.
I went up to the girl and confessed my feelings for her with a lot of courage. Her smile had vanished, and I couldn’t think of anything else at the time. I’d exhausted all other options and was simply hoping to God that she’d say yes. But it appears that the universe had other plans for me. She said “no”, and I didn’t know how to react to it. Everything just went blank for a moment and I didn’t have anything to say.
Everything that previously made sense to me began to disintegrate, and nothing appeared to make sense to me. Going to school was a burden, sitting in class was excruciating, and seeing the same beautiful face every day was depressing. I had blamed everyone up until this moment, and then I started blaming myself. Was it, however, entirely my fault? I’d only done one thing: I’d fallen in love. I had no idea how to communicate my feelings, and all I could think about was being rejected. My sorrow had turned to rage, and I couldn’t seem to settle down. The tension and restlessness were unbearable.
At this moment, all I could think about was blaming the girl, and my rage seemed to know no bounds. I simply wanted to express my rage, and I had painted her as the villain in this situation. I couldn’t accept the fact that she had rejected me, and seeing her made me feel horrible. Was she, however, the “terrible” person I painted her to be? She made a decision that she had every right to make.
At this point, I realised the issue was with myself and with society, which believes that if a person makes a decision for their own good, we label them as “bad” people if their choices do not coincide with our own. Every individual has the right to make their own choices, and we, as individuals in society, must respect those choices and learn to accept differing viewpoints. I felt it convenient to blame the girl because I had to learn it the hard way. “Consent” is something that transcends people’s and society’s opinions, so maybe I was supposed to be blamed at this point?
“Time is the finest healer,” as someone once said. I believe in my case, I just analyzed the situation and realised that sometimes not everything is in my control. That’s when I realised that not everything is supposed to make sense and that some things just “happen.” I believe that at this moment, I had made peace with all of my sadness, anger, and restlessness and that this helped me to escape from the situation.
Equality is a human construct, what may be perceived as equal treatment by one person may not necessarily be deemed equal by the other, thus, equality is just a term with a definition varying from person to person based on his or her interpretation of events, past experience et cetera. So, in simpler words, what’s equal for one may not be equal for the other. And this is where we begin our discussion on “Women in Engineering”- Equality or Partiality.
Arguably, between two sets of genders, one enjoys a greater share of representation in engineering, in fact not just engineering but in almost everything that is related to the word “money” or “food” or “livelihood”. It’s a representation that has sadly remained nearly constant for thousands of years. However, in recent years this partial representation has been declining, slowly but steadily. There have been many initiatives such as “Women in Engineering” to encourage equal participation of both genders in engineering. Has this come with a few merits? Yes, it has encouraged and improved participation of women in engineering. Has it come with a few demerits? Certainly, it has given rise to a feeling of inequality and partiality in the other gender.
As mentioned, equality is a human construct. It is evident from the treatment of women by society which is another human construct. For ages, human society functioned on the distribution of labor- with the men “working” and women working too, but domestically. It was never meant to be that way, it was always supposed to change and change it did, with women breaking social constructs and prejudices by stepping out to study, work and earn for their families. Ordinarily, this should not trigger anyone but trigger it did. Women suffer from prejudice everyday, whether it is in their homes where the parents prefer not to educate their daughter but wed her off to a man or the workplace where they suffer from under-representation and stereotypes. It is fairly common to see parents still being unsure about sending their daughter to college, families being skeptical about women working in the offices instead of helping at home. Even the workplace is often an unsafe place for women, with their co-workers stalking and harassing them. Under-representation of women often leads to them feeling out of place in the workplace. Jeers and remarks that would make them feel uncomfortable are common. It is therefore necessary to have initiatives such as “Women in Engineering” to encourage more representation of women in engineering as it is not the gender but the mind that decides how good an engineer a person is.
This initiative has undoubtedly improved representation of women in STEM, companies have started considering gender balance an important concern, it has allowed women to earn more and most importantly, do more.
Under this initiative, companies have started providing several benefits to women such as reserving a portion of the company’s workforce for women, competitions such as hackathons commonly have special awards for only women teams, there are scholarships specifically meant for women.
However, as I had mentioned previously, it is not the gender but the mind that decides how good an engineer a person is, therefore, is it not unfair for companies to hire only women from campuses and for competitions to have awards specifically for “only-women” teams? Was not the motivation behind women in engineering to promote “representation” of women in engineering therefore why is it being used to completely exclude men from opportunities by reserving it specifically for women because after all it’s the mind that decides the engineer not the gender. Isn’t the present situation moving slowly towards the past with just a switch of genders? Earlier, the workplace was reserved exclusively for men and presently while the workplace is still male dominated, it’s being “reserved” exclusively for women. Shouldn’t participation in STEM be promoted by providing equal opportunities to both genders and select only the deserving? What must be understood is equal opportunities are provided and not reserved. The goal should be to “encourage” and “aid” participation in STEM and not provide a false sense of security to women regarding opportunities in STEM.
When we raise the question of equality and patriarchy running its hand, there’s the age-old argument of women not being drafted, of women not being a part of the bloodshed, and of women having an upper hand in wars.
While the current war in Ukraine has raised many such questions and many such heroes on the battlefield, it has also been an integral part in spotlighting the importance of having women be a part of the on-ground fight. Women make up fifteen percent of the Ukrainian army, so there are approximately thirty thousand women fighting against Russia in the same literal sense as men are. Together they pose a big threat against their opponent; no one sees them coming and the underestimation of women throughout generations always works out in their favour.
Last month, Heather Mac Donald’s WALL STREET JOURNAL OP-ED argued that “women don’t belong in combat units.” In it, Mac Donald makes four main claims: first, that women are physiologically incapable of handling combat; second, that women cannot meet physical standards; next, that the “inevitable introduction of eros” will erode unit cohesion; and, finally, that military policies should only be made to improve combat effectiveness.
While Mac Donald is correct in establishing the difference between the physiological aspects of men and women, an average is no reason to ban half of the entire population. Most average men cannot meet the basic eligibility standards to join the military either; applying Mac Donald’s logic to that fact and ceasing to allow any men into the armed services more clearly demonstrates her logic’s absurdity.
“You cannot make an omelette without breaking some eggs” is an old, but common army saying about how injuries and hardships are a part of the field, and they aren’t particularly biased towards women. Men suffer from the same brutal injuries in the warzone. Generations ago, men were the ones who propagated the idea of women as damsels in distress, in need of constant care and attention so their fragility remains intact for raising their children, but now when the tables have turned and women are demanding equality, it is the voices of the grandchildren, of the same men who deemed us unfit for war, who are accusing us of not playing an equal card in the hardships.
India’s armed forces began inducting women officers in 1992. Over the decades, they have been given combat roles in the air force. Women have been inducted as fighter pilots and have flown sorties into combat zones; The army is a striking exception. Indian men are not yet mentally schooled enough to accept women in commanding roles in the military, because for them, women are still shackled by the confinements of motherhood and childcare – a shackle placed by the same men in the first place.
“India’s national security narrative, is shaped, limited, and permeated by ideas about gender – with an overt masculine predominance and the structural exclusion of women”, says Akanksha Khullar, a researcher at Delhi’s Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies.
She says the gender disparities are “well reflected in institutional attitudes right at the top” and that “patriarchal notions are probably more ingrained in the army” than the other forces.
In 2018, former army chief and the current Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat told a news network that there weren’t any women soldiers serving in front line combat positions because “a woman would feel uncomfortable at the front line”.
He said maternity leave was an issue, women need more privacy and protection, and that India was not yet ready to accept “body bags of women” killed in combat. He also said that women need to be “cocooned” from the eyes of subordinate soldiers.
All of these, are issues caused by men, for the advantage of men. Men serve as a threat to women and their safety on every level playing field and then some, and instead of addressing the issue within men, the government, in its classic fashion plays its hand by imposing more restrictions on women, giving a louder voice and a freer reign to men to do whatever they want.
Women are not the ones asking for protection and comfort in the front line and with all of this, there also comes the hushed, unspoken predicament that women aren’t considered mature enough to make their decisions for themselves.
While it is true, that women if caught at the hands of the enemy, suffer a chance to go through more harrowing and brutal forms of torture such as rape and sex trafficking, the what-if of a hypothetical situation should not be the main clause for banning entire sex from serving in close combat and elite military groups. While it is also true, that it might be difficult for women to cope with the sheer physical strength required of combat, why deny the chance to women who actually can? the right of a woman to serve in any role in the armed forces must be equal to a man’s so long as the physical and qualitative standards are not compromised. if the military can’t abolish blatant sexism, they won’t see equality for many more years. The problem is pervasive and is often reinforced by those in upper command—a serious obstacle to overcome if the military as a whole is ever going to progress beyond these views.
Patriotism is the most sublime feeling and India breathes patriotism. But a vast majority of patriots don’t even know what they stand for. What drives this feeling? Since time immemorial, India has always taken pride in its cultural heritage and diversity, and yet, we are ready to trade it off. In fact, we are diluting it for reasons that we never ponder upon. With great honor, we celebrate Republic Day and Independence Day, but are we really independent?
The Constitution of India has always stood as the hallowed shrine of Democracy and yet we barely read anything beyond the preamble. My article from here on, though very easy to misrepresent, raises 2 major concerns- 1. Recognizing the colonial gaze.
2. Decolonialising India on an individual as well as community level.
So, the next set of questions that pops up is –
How do we recognize the loss of cultural heritage if we don’t even recognize its existence?
How do we research the ways we are still colonial?
The answer is simple but subjective. We tap into our own experience. People resonate with the country, and experiences resonate with society at large.
To explain this, let’s assume that every society has a core and it is fashioned in the form of concentric causation- with every fringe that moves away from the epicenter, the quality of commitment to the tradition deteriorates. The outermost fringe of society- which does not practice the tradition at all, does not live the experience in any way, is hoping to impose a system of the universal standard on the core practitioners owing to their inability to practice the discipline and experience themselves, thereby diluting the very foundation itself, as opposed to it being the other way round. This is cultural fascism and essentially what colonialism does.
In an idealistic scenario, assuming that it is theoretically possible to adopt a uniform and universal standard- it is important to take everyone’s input into account. There’s a certain degree of compromise that all of us are bound to make and a certain degree of retention that all of us are entitled to, and that’s how we realize what is core- what is important and what is not. This is, unfortunately, being muddled as moral relativism. That’s not how a system is imposed. Discussion and deliberation are important. When Colonialisation peaked in the 17th and 18th centuries, did anyone take into consideration the origins of other cultures? When you approach other cultures with a sense of benevolent condescension and try to fix them or with a sense of superiority- you infantilize other cultures. Universal standards do not translate into the universalization of one particular standard. At the very least, it means basic participation by the major cultures across the world.
It is amusing to think that a civilization that has lived far more than any other civilization wouldn’t have encountered this problem. And this is why, I am sure that we can emerge immensely powerful, provided we believe in our culture and learn from our heritage.
There’s a saying- “history distorts those who distort history”. And unfortunately in India, we’ve been robbed of accessing our history, our experiences, and what makes us a society. We do not talk about the massive psychological damage, dehumanization, disruption of society’s structure, and undermining of social traditions and of cultural heritage- all in colonial interest and many of the problems today including the persistence in some cases the creation of racial and ethnic and religious tensions that were a direct consequence of our colonial experience. It is rather rhetoric that our history books promote the fallacies of Aryan Invasion Theory and India as the world’s oldest civilization is barely talked about. If this isn’t colonialism, then what is?
Unaware of our own laws and customs and the diverse ethos, we haven’t been able to get rid of the “fixing” or “civilizing the natives” narrative. This ‘colonial gaze’ is so well internalized, that even after several decades of being “independent”, we still employ it in our ethics, rights, science, polity, and policies. We look at our own culture and social problems with this borrowed colonial apparatus.
In fact, India is in fundamental conflict with the idea of “Bharat” or the Indian civilization and it is evident everywhere: deeming Coloniality and modernity inseparable, the linguistic apartheid promoted by the state, the Collegium System of an Elitist Judiciary, and intrinsic corruption in every government body.
The sacrosanct foundational stone of this conflict is the Indian Constitution.
The British India Act of 1935 was the longest Act ever passed by the British parliament. It was a 4000 pages long binding document solely aimed at governing India with a sense of racial and intellectual superiority. According to Pt. Nehru, it was a charter of slavery. History suggests that the courts promulgated a new constitution and we became a republic in 1950 after it was accepted. But what we are unaware of is that ironically, the constituent assembly with no representation of the people of free India, used the same act as a template to formulate the constitution of the Indian Republic.
Contrary to popular belief, Sir Benegal Rao was really the framer or the writer of the constitution and not Dr. Ambedkar who was the chairperson of the drafting committee. While the committee only made suggestions, Sir BN Rao, ICS and the companion of the order of the Indian Empire, knighted in 1938 for his loyalty towards the British Empire, constitutional adviser to the constituent assembly 1946, travelled to various countries and presented the initial draft in 1948.
Even the constituent assembly was itself a colonial institution. There was no separate ratification body. Unlike countries like Brazil- there wasn’t even a referendum to consider the votes of citizens. The colonized elite who were subservient to the British Empire imposed this structure on the masses who were simply the passive recipients of the ordinance. How did we even arrive at “ We the people of India”? Most importantly- where is free India?
This can be easily understood in the following manner:
People’s representatives- Non-Colonial State/ Free State
Fix the people or teach discipline or moralize them- Colonial State
Now, the USA is considered a superpower and has one of the most efficient institutional systems in the world. It also has the world’s oldest written constitution. It’s a 4500 words essay in plain English ( 7700 words with amendments). The motto is that the constitution protects the citizen from the tyranny of a govt. It is the sovereign, not omnipotent. The father of this same US Constitution- James Madison believed in simpler language and natural rights. When we draw a parallel, we realize that not only is it against the basic principles, the most odious and disturbing feature of the Indian constitution is that the Indian Constitution is 150000 words written in legalese- the legacy of the British to subjugate India. What good is the law if the people can’t even understand it?
We got Independence in 1947 but if we look at the institution of the state- it is exactly the same as it was pre-independence. The Constitution is held as the ‘Law of the Land’ and yet has no roots in our land and no history of jurisprudence in our land.
According to the Government of India Act, the federal courts were set up, and “his majesty” decided his bench for law enforcement. The qualification criteria being: the person has to be 5 years judge of HC in British India or Federated state or a barrister of England or Northern Ireland of 10 years standing or a member of the faculty of advocates in Scotland of at least 10 years standing. I won’t be exaggerating if I say that exchanging “Federal” with “Supreme” and making a few tweaks gave us the idea of the Supreme Court of independent India which not only is inherently elitist but has a collegium system for the appointment of judges.
The Legislature continues to exist as Assembly and Council and the police as the Executive continues to thrive on the power of Lathi Charge. Linguistic Apartheid of the SC compels the usage of the English language. In contemporary India, owing to its colonial history, linguistic discrimination that is pushed by the State is the most severe and ordinary form of discrimination that people experience in everyday life- jobs, army, academia, social hierarchy, Supreme Court, etc. What justice will be served if 90% of people cannot even speak the language? Even the emergency proclaimed in 1975 used exactly the same act. All these reasons constitute the argument why this is not constitutional Morality but British Colonialism.
With corruption at its peak, the basic flaw in our institutional system is that the system is not based on the state servicing the needs of the people, but on imposing requirements. To bring more people into the formal economy- we need to dismantle the colonial idea of extortion first. Where getting a company registered is a Herculean task, an English-only IT-enabled GST cannot bring people into the formal economy. This is why the informal economy seems a good escape from colonial methods.
Power tends to corrupt. State tends to destroy. The state has no business to be in business. Limiting the state power by separating the power to legislate, tax, and spend and vesting them in distinct bodies is the key to a free market and economic freedom. Radical decentralization of the state is important. Longer the accountability loop, the more the potential for corruption, and the lesser efficiency is the delivery. Corruption is not the attribute of the morality of Indian people- it’s an attribute of the colonial system which is why privatization yields better results.
We also need to understand that Justice and Judgement are different. Free and Freedom are different.
Colonialisation did not just mean recession, poverty, hunger, and famines. It also meant the loss of our heritage. Our intellectual humility and the inferiority complex bolstered by colonialization have led to us disrespecting and dismissing Indian knowledge systems. We have been conditioned to believe that science has also emanated from the West and there’s only one way to look at it. Practitioners of our sciences, rich traditions and jurisprudence have either become passive or are so abysmally low that we try to justify the ancient sciences using modern science which by the way is minuscule in comparison to ancient science. We ridicule Ayurveda and term our menstrual practices as orthodox without proper scientific articulation. For ex: In the Sabrimala issue- despite the protests, the ruling was decreed upon.
As a historically knowledge-driven society, it is extremely important for us to take back the agency as to how we perceive knowledge and thereby get rid of the colonial apparatus.
With my article, I do not mean to justify the shortcomings of India as a society nor do I wish to bring every ancient practice into the present, but we must reassess the needs of our society. Delve for solutions within our culture before outsourcing them. The colonial state wanted to fix society but let’s not forget that society is our strength. Decolonization translates into the need to recognize and realize the true power of India as a civilization, and for that, we must acknowledge its existence.
It’s the acknowledgement that matters that reparations are owed and not how much or to whom it should be paid. ~Shashi Tharoor
Take pride in our motherland, celebrate the true spirit of being Bharatiya.
Fifth Pillar - VIT 