Kerala under Pinarayi Vijayan is becoming a laboratory for the democratic self-assertion of women.
I
congratulate the two young women of Kerala –
Bindu and Kanaka Durga – who have, in breaking the
obscurantist, discriminative custom imposed on Sabarimala by
Brahmanical patriarchy, raised the banner for women’s liberation
and empowerment for all oppressed women in India. If the women’s
wall on the New Year day demonstrated the collective power of women
in Kerala, this act of exemplary bravery highlights its very source
–the awesome willpower of individual women, who will endure no
longer the oppression of obscurantist religious customs and
practices.
If
Gujarat under Narendra Modi was turned into a Hindutva laboratory,
Kerala under Pinarayi
Vijayan is becoming the laboratory for the democratic
self-assertion of women. It is significant that women are at the
forefront of this historic upsurge of resistance. I have no doubt at
all that women’s firm resolve and noble courage will stall and beat
back the invasion of Kerala by parivar mercenaries and anarchists.
It
is significant that the women who constituted the Navodhana wall of
resistance to fascist forces on the New Year day, the longest in
history, were predominantly Hindu. They are authentic Hindus, wise
enough to know that Hindutva is the greatest danger to Hinduism.
While Hinduism respects women, aggressive, male-dominated Hindutva
wants to keep them subjugated and degraded. The women of Kerala have
declared unequivocally that they will fight these regressive forces
to the finish.
I
appeal to all Indians to be in solidarity with the people of Kerala,
as they negotiate this difficult phase in their history. They are
being punished for the sinking fortunes of the BJP in its traditional
strongholds. The desperation with which the RSS and the BJP are
trying to infiltrate into Kerala is necessitated by their need to
compensate for huge erosion in their popularity in north India.
Kerala
is paying the price for Modi’s lust for power and the maniacal
desire to hang on. I have good reasons to believe that the Sangh
parivar will meet it with its Waterloo in ‘God’s own Country’.
Ironically, the slap on its face will be dealt not by a decorated
military leader, but the discriminated-against women of Kerala, who
have gained for themselves a voice and a mission that their
counterparts in India need to emulate.
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