Table Of ContentGender In the Hindu Nation
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feminist fine print
Gender in the Hindu Nation
ASS Women as Ideologues
Paola Bacchetta
~
I i
UNLIMITED
Gender in the Hindu Nation
was first published in 2004 by
Women Unlimited
(an associate of Kali for Women)
K-36, Hauz Khas Enclave, Ground Floor,
New Delhi- 110 016
C 2004, Paola Bacchetta
ISBN: 81-88965-02-2
Cover design: Visual Vibe
All rights reserved
Typeset at Print Services, B-17 Lajpat Nagar Part 2,
New Delhi 110 024, and printed at
Pauls Press, E 44/11 Okhla Phase II, New Delhi 110 020
Contents
1. Hindu Nationalist Women as Ideologues
Tbe Sangh, the Samiti and their differential
concepts of the Hindu Nation 1
2. •All Our Goddesses Are Arm~. n
Religion, resistance and nwenge in the life
of a militant Hindu nationalist woman 61
3. Communal Property/ Sexual Property
On n!presentations of Muslim women
in a Hindu nationalist discourse 93
1
Hindu Nationalist Women
as Ideologues
The Sangh, the Samiti and their
differential concepts of the Hindu
Nation1
IN
an earlier phase of scholarship on Hindu national
ism, women sometimes surfaced as symbols or as vic
tim-bodies whom 'communalist'2 males saw as part of
their mission to protect or avenge. Today, since women
have been more widely recognised as militants in 'com
munal' violence, it is often assumed that they act on the
basis of their male counterparts' ideology. Here, I hope
to dispel that notion for women have created, and their
activism is supported by, a speci~cally feminine Hindu
nationalist discourse. In what follows, I unravel one such
discourse, that of the Rashtra Sevika Samiti (hereafter
the 'Samiti'), and view it in comparison with that of its
male counterpart, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(hereafter the 'Sangh'). The focus is on a thematic which
for both is highly gendered, the 'Hindu Nation'.
This dismantling and comparative process has sev
eral functions: it should disclose the constitutive and
thematic elements, of course; it should also reveal the
differential modes in which men and women appeal to
their own gender and are called upon to insert them
selves into the same 'communal' conflict; finally, it should
foreground internal mechanisms whereby Hindu nation
alist discourse is fractionalised (here, along· gender lines,
but similar operations work to reach other sectors of
society) while retaining unity enough to achieve ulti
mate common objectives.
The discursive unity is provided by a framework
elaborated by the Sangh-the Samiti ideologues frame
their own construction process within its context. They
use some (but not all) of the same symbols and signifiers,
and create some of their own. They are, indeed, pro
foundly related; yet, the two discourses simply canhot
be reduced to one. Between them there are zones of
2
Hindu N•tlon•ll•t Women •• Ideologue•
convergence, of non-antagonistic divergence, and of
complementary difference; and there are points of an
tagonistic difference.
The convergence is perhaps most evident. It can be
explained by what Nicole Claude Matthieu refers to as
the direct mediation of women's consciousness by
men.~
Here, Samiti ideologues reproduce elements of the
Sangh's discourse in their own words, without modifi
cation. Areas of non-antagonistic divergence and com
plementary difference can be understood in terms of
Gramscian modes of refraction.• Here, the Sangh's dis
course, which occupies the dominant position in rela
tion to that of the Samiti's (socially, politically and in its
more extensive elaboration), is imperfectly assiµillated
by it, and imprecisely reprcxluced. Other divergences are
the result of the Samiti's thematic expansion, horizon
tally, into areas unexplored by the Sangh, reflecting the
separate concerns of women and men, and their differ
ential locations within a gender asymmetrical society.
The antagonistic points are more difficult to under
stand. I attribute them to the Samiti's creative use of
structural and subjective factors, and the Sangh's atti
tudes of acceptance, fgnorance and sometimes
devalorisation of the Samiti's discourse. By structural
elements I mean the organisations' positions within their
interrelations: each is somewhat autonomous, has de
veloped somewhat separately, although the Samiti is
technically subordinate to the Sangh. They also position
themselves within the Hindu symbolic: it encompasses
a range of representations of each gender that ideologues
can draw upon, and to which diverse interpretations
can justifiably be assigned. Despite this potential, the
Sangh's ideology leaves little space for women-actors to
3
GENDER IN THE HINDU NATION
exist, and so the Samiti, in order to craft a Hindu nation
alism which women can relate to, is obliged to exit the
realm of the Sangh's discourse at some points. It is not
surprising, then, that most of the antagonisms originate
around questions of feminine and masculine identities,
even if they extend into other domains.
Briefly, then, what I am arguing is that because of
· these differences, when women and men struggle for
what they collectively call a 'Hindu Nation' they do not
necessarily have exactly the same entity in mind. This
will be the subject of the rest of the essay, but first, a
few background notes are necessary in order to
contextualise my discussion.
The Sangh and the Samttl:
some hlstorlographlcal notes
Until recently, the Sangh was perhaps most known
outside India for its implication in the assassination of
Mahatma Gandhi. Today, it is notorious for its role in
the wanton demolition of a sixteenth century mosque,
the Bahri Masjid in Ayodhya, in December 1992.
The Sangh was founded in 1925 in Nagpur,
Maharashtra, in a context of 'Hindu-Muslim' riots, the
national movement for independence, and low-caste
protest movements (which historically have been promi
nent in Maharashtra). The founder and first
Sarsanghchalak (Supreme Leader), Dr. Keshav Baliram
Hedgevar, played a key role in provoking 'communal'
riots in the area.s He was also a peripheral member of
the youth group of the Congress which functioned as
an umbrella for a range of nationalisms. He left, follow
ing disagreements on goals and tactics. The Congress
advocated an all-inclusive, secular Indian nation, and
4
