Do women who hear and read and study about gender imbalance actively question it and fight it in their personal lives, asks activist and Chancellor of Kerala Kalamandalam Mallika Sarabhai.
“When we talk of women’s studies, we seem to talk about it as though it is another species out there. I find that strange because we are really our study,” she said, delivering the valedictory address on the last day of the 17th national conference of the Indian Association for Women’s Studies at Government College for Women, Vazhuthacaud, here on Sunday.
Ms. Sarabhai said she had tried to use the performing arts, film, and video to take what women’s studies scholars studied to people who were not in academics. A question that arose then was how did women who heard each other in conferences or read what the others wrote make a difference since questions about gender, caste, and poverty were still being raised as had been decades ago. ““How do we treat in our own lives the reality of being a woman? Academics can only become practice if we practise it and use it as a menu for change.”
She questioned if women had the courage to bring down masks and introspect if they were part of the problem. No longer could they afford to ‘pontificate’ about what should happen. “We have to make it happen now without fear,” Ms. Sarabhai said.
If women did not seize the truth, they would be “lost, stripped like the women in Manipur, paraded, used, chewed and thrown away”, she said. Adherence to gender, caste, and religious norms was preventing change, and allowing a fascist government to rule the country.
Ms. Sarabhai also referred to the alleged attempts by the Governor to inject “RSS agenda” into the State universities, the resistance to it, the removal of vice chancellors, and finally appointment of subject experts as chancellors, including her appointment as Chancellor of Kerala Kalamandalam.
She also spoke of how as a performer she could reach people beyond their walls of prejudice, in a way that was acceptable to them, and made them think. In a country so steeped in religion, she realised she could not challenge mythology, and so had to find a different story of mythology to tell.
Planning Board vice chairman V.K. Ramachandran who chaired the valedictory said this was a particularly critical time for any social science organisation to be functioning in the country.
“Any organised campaign in favour of revival and protection of tradition is a campaign against women, particularly in a country where tradition of gender oppression is so deeply embedded in society. These are the challenges before the IAWS.”
He expressed confidence that the IAWS would join with progressive and secular sections and academics to use its expertise to solve these problems.
