Reproductive Health Matters

An international journal on sexual and reproductive health and rights

ISSN: 0968-8080 (Print) 1460-9576 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/zrhm20

The gendered imagery and women's leadership of

Hindu nationalism

Amrita Basu

To cite this article: Amrita Basu (1996) The gendered imagery and women's leadership of Hindu
nationalism, Reproductive Health Matters, 4:8, 70-76, DOI: 10.1016/S0968-8080(96)90303-1

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Amrita Basu

Unlike most nationalist movements, which invoke gendered images of women while repudiating
their activism, Hindu nationalism has encouraged the emergence of severalprominent women
leaders. This paper focuses on three of the most powerhrl women within Hindu nationalism:
Vijayrae Scindia, Uma Bharati and Sadhvi Rithambara. Havingrenounced their own sexuality,
these three women have used their religious aura to achieve their political ambitions. Locating
themselves outside the domain ofpolitical power, they speak from a position of moral superiority.
They convey the message that women can assume activist roles without violating the norms of
Hindu womanhood as they themselves have done. While Hinduism and Hindu nationalism may
have provided them the opportunity to pursue their ambitions and develop their capabilities as
women, they have not gained a deep understanding of gender asymmetry or the limits of their
own powerbecause they are women.

INDU nationalism emerged from the the aim of destroying the mosque and laying the
Indian political landscape in the 1990s. At foundation for a Hindu temple for the deity Ram.
the broadest level of generalisation, the Although the major leaders of the movement
decline of the paternalistic state in the were arrested and the mosque saved, two years
advent of economic liberalisation, and the moral later Hindu nationalists completed their un-
decay of Indian political life created space for the finished project and in December 1992 destroyed
growth of xenophobic militancy. Politicians and the mosque, marking the culmination of a long
political parties have become less accountable to movement around this issue. Both processions
their constituencies and find it less necessary triggered serious Hindu-Muslim riots in many
to conceal their desire for power. It is in this parts of north India,l which were orchestrated
context that the Ram Janambhoomi movement by the BJP combine. The effect of these riots was
developed. to isolate, intimidate and cripple the Muslim
Leadership of the Ram Janambhoomi community while bringing new strata of Hindus
movement rests with the Rashtriya Swayam- into the BJP’s electoral fold and consolidating
sevak Sangh (RSS), a cultural organisation the party’s strength. Although at the present
formed in 1925 whose major objectives have time political expediency dictates moderation,
been the promotion of Hindu culture and Hindu nationalists would undoubtedly revert to
ultimately the creation of a Hindu state. The RSS violence if they felt it would advance their
is parent body, among other groups, to the electoral ambitions.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a political party,
and the Vishva Hindu Parishad C.VHP),a religious
organisation formed in 1964. Together, these Using Hindu women to justify anti-
constitute the BJP combine. They have Muslim violence
functioned in a virtually interchangeable fashion While the BJP is deeply patriarchal in important
and have continually sought to fuse religious and respects, it has sometimes advanced women’s
political concerns. rights in order to fulfil its overriding objective of
In October 1990, the BJP organised a isolating and vilifying the Muslim community.
procession through India to the historic 16th The Hindu nationalists’ attitude towards
century mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, with women’s sexuality cannot be termed wholly

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 Reproductive Health Matters, No 8, November 1996

conservative. They do not oppose Hindu has extolled the elevated position of women in
women’s rights to abortion and birth control or Indian society and concluded that women’s
seek to regulate women’s fertility. Nor have they primary responsibilities are to their families.’
adopted conservative positions on pre-marital Mohini Garg, all-India secretary of the party, has
sexuality, adultery or remarriage of widows. echoed these thoughts:
They are, however, obsessed with Muslim
sexuality and preoccupied with the supposed We want to encourage our members not to think
strength, virility and aggression of Muslim men. in terms of individual rights but in terms of
They depict Muslim men as over-sexed and responsibility to the nation.‘3
advocate rigorous measures to control Muslim
family size, prohibit polygamy and punish rapists.
The BJP has made the raped Hindu woman Three faces of women’s leadership
symbolic of what they consider to be the Although Hindu nationalism is ultimately a
victimisation of the entire Hindu community. deeply patriarchal project, it has fostered activist
What makes this symbol so effective is that it roles for women around the Ram Janambhoomi
recalls the violence that women routinely suffer. issue, providing women such as Rithambara,
Paradoxically, by according recognition to Bharati and Scindia with opportunities to
violence against women, the BJP pays a back- advance their personal and political agendas.
handed tribute to the Indian women’s move- Sadhvi Rithambara and Uma Bharati are single,
ment. Recall that the catalyst to the emergence of militant young women from modest back-
a nationwide feminist movement was the rape of grounds and mark a striking departure from
a tribal girl in 1979. By castigating violence most female leaders in South Asia. Vijayraje
against women, the BJP co-opts a major feminist Scindia is prominent in the VHP and former vice
grievance. president of the BJP. The differences between
The BJP’s most progressive stance con- her background and that of the two other women
cerning women is its support for a uniform civil are intriguing.4 While Vijayraje Scindia is a
code on matters governing the family, which is member of an affluent, upper-caste, princely
presently governed by religious law. The civil family, Sadhvi Rithamabara and Uma Bharati are
code that the BJP envisages is designed not only from relatively poor, lower-caste, rural families.
to gain women’s support for the party but also to Vijayraje Scindia, who has long been active in
highlight the repressive aspects of Muslim law. party politics, joined what later became the BJP
The acid test of their stance, however, is whether because of her disillusionment with the Congress
women stand to gain from this new code. party; in contrast, Sadhvi Rithambara and
Because it seems to be modelled after Hindu law, Uma Bharati were afforded their first oppor-
in its present form the code would be unlikely to tunities for political activism through the Ram
benefit Indian women significantly. Janambhoomi campaign.
While women leaders in the BJP pay lip Even the personal appearance and de-
service to women’s oppression in public meanour of these women is strikingly different.
speeches, the BJP women’s organisation has not Vijayraje Scindia is an elderly matron who
organised around issues like rape, female feticide dresses in white, as is customary for widows, and
or dowry deaths, which are the real violence radiates an aura of piety and sobriety. In
women confront in their everyday lives. Instead, contrast, Sadhvi Ritharnbara exudes a passionate
these leaders emphasise women’s roles as dutiful rage that is said to have instigated riots in many
wives and mothers. Mridula Sinha, national places where she has delivered public speeches;
president of the BJP women’s organisation, said: Uma Bharati is a spirited, extroverted woman,
who seems to revel in the role the press accords
‘. . . for Indian women, liberation means liberation her of the ‘sexy sanyasin’ (a person who has taken
from atrocities. It doesn’t mean that women religious vows, including vows of celibacy).
should be relieved of their duties as wives and However, unlike most South Asian women,
mothers. ’ who achieve political prominence because of
their relationships with influential men, Scindia,
Top-ranking BJP national leader KR Matkani Rithambara and Bharati are relatively inde-

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pendent of men in both their personal and their ascetic life style, which in turn connotes
political lives. There is another striking similarity sacrifice, martyrdom and selflessness. In short, it
between them that is critical to the project of is difficult to imagine that people who eat, dress
Hindu nationalism - all three women are celibate. and live simply could be corrupt, ambitious or
Vijayraje Scindia is a widow, and Sadhvi cruel.
Rithambara and Uma Bharati are sanyasins If male pracharaks are highly respected, the
(SaoWi means celibate). Their chastity heightens status of female sanyasins is even more elevated.
their iconic status for it is deeply associated in Hinduism considers women’s sexuality to be
Hinduism with notions of spirituality, purity and both powerful and dangerous5 Conversely, a
other-worldliness, qualities that make these celibate woman is freed from numerous social
women reliable spokespersons for the future conventions and restraints and can, for example,
Hindu nation. openly denounce the political class. Scindia,
Hinduism enables renunciation, which may be Rithambara and Bharati may inspire particular
especially liberating for women since it allows a confidence in that they appear to have been
rare opportunity for escaping domination by forced into political activism by their religious
parents, husbands, and in-laws, while at the devotion. Having no apparent axe to grind and
same time according women a position of moral no apparent personal ambitions, they situate
superiority. Renunciation - both sexual and themselves as the moral guardians of (Hindu)
material - exercises enormous moral force in society. As deceptive as this may be, all three
India. Its most important exponent historically, women are deeply concerned with moral
Mahatma Gandhi, could unify diverse regions, questions and deeply troubled by the erosion of
castes, religions and classes because he seemed moral values in the political sphere.
to transcend their particularistic loyalties. The One of the central themes that runs through
nationalist claims of pracharaks (preachers) of Rithambara’s speeches, for example, is the
the Hindu nationalist RSS similarly rest partly on notion that India has lost its moral bearings. If

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 Reproductive Health Matters, No 8, November 1996

the political arena is synonymous with critical to the BJP combine’s attempt to reconcile
selfishness, she argues, the religious arena is diverse organisations and constituencies. While
synonymous with selflessness. Ostensibly - and Vijayraje Scindia presents herself as a seasoned
ostentatiously - locating herself outside the politician, Bharati and Rithambara reflect the
domain of political power, she is well situated to impatience of youth.
make such a critique. Her speeches imply that the Whereas Vijayraje Scindia appeals to the
present crisis is the product of modernity and declining feudal classes, Rithambara and Bharati
that things have deteriorated to the point where appeal to the upwardly mobile lower-middle
everything is now bought and sold, including classes and are vital to the BJP’s attempt to
‘the minds, bodies, religion, and even the honour eschew its elitist character. Both women serve to
of our elders, sisters, mothers and sons’. In a bolster the BJP’s fallacious contention that the
sweeping gesture she links commercialisation Ram Janambhoomi campaign originates at the
and cornmodification of labour with sexual grassroots level. Furthermore, their dismissal of
exploitation. The antidote to this evil, she says, is reason in favour of raw emotion provides a
intense political engagement combined with powerful affirmation of the BJP’s attack on what
asceticism, and the renunciation of both material it considers the Congress Party’s pseudo-
possessions and sexuality. secularism, rationalism and westernisation.
The fiery speeches of both Rithambara and The BJP has found the status of these three
Bharati have been reproduced as audio-cassettes women useful in mobilising dutiful sons into
and used by the BJP combine throughout the politics while keeping women out of ‘real’ power.
country as powerful tools to whip up people’s Although at times they are considered too loud
emotions. The popularity of Rithambara’s and ambitious, these women have never openly
cassettes reflects a widespread hatred of challenged the men who run the BJP. In fact,
politicians, which is rooted in turn in Hindu deep-rooted misogynism in the party has often
conceptions of the inferiority of the worldly frustrated the political ambitions of the women
domain of political life compared to the other- who join it. When Uma Bharati became
worldly domain of religion. These speeches and embroiled in a conflict with a senior party leader,
cassettes suggest that Muslims are now she was made the object of a rumour campaign
threatening to shatter the private domain of alleging that she was having an affair with the
Hindus by violating their sacred spaces and their party‘s general secretary.6
women. Hence, the most difficult question is why
In the riot-devastated communities where Rithambara and Bharati, who have themselves
Muslim women were raped and their children suffered as a result of their class and gender,
butchered, most Hindu women who were should advocate violence against a relatively
present expressed neither compassion nor powerless minority community. Although
remorse. Rithambara and Bharati might explain Scindia’s participation in the BJP might be
it in this way: Hindus are victims and by virtue of attributed to her princely background, it cannot
being Hindu, they can neither be communal nor fully explain why she has become a leading
aggressive. According to this perverse and exponent of militant Hindu nationalism.
tragic logic, the rape of Muslim women is not
‘real’ violence for Muslims can never be victims.
In the disembodied words of Rithambara, filtered The gendered imagery of Hindu
through a cassette recording: nationalism
Vijayraje Scindia said that her mother had died
‘. . . Hindus, who can never be communal, when she was a baby; the Hindu rashtra (nation)
are today being branded communal. had taken the place of the mother she longed for.
They [Muslims] murder with impunity When asked what had politicised her, Uma
And people are silent. Bharati spoke at length about the powerful
But we are defamed influence of her mother. Bharati’s father had
when we cry out in pain!’ died when she was eleven years old, leaving her
mother to support her and five older siblings.
The contrasts between these three women are Difficult as this would be under any conditions,

73
Basu

matters became much worse when relatives rather than frogs, she assumes the tones of a wife
attempted to take over the family land, which her chiding her negligent husband. Their support for
mother was determined to retain. One day she prominent men in religious and political life not
set out on foot to appeal to the Chief Minister for only legitimates their roles but also bridges the
help. lt took her a month to reach Bhopal, some chasm between good citizens and devoted wives
3~ kilometers away. Bharati recalled: and mothers. At the same time, their use of
vulgar expressions and their ability to address
‘men she reached the Chief Minister’s men with familiarity and condescension
bungalow, she kept requesting appointments to transgresses traditional gender roles and
meet with him but he would not give her the time. expresses their agency as women.
For weeks she sat by the gate and watched his car These leaders’ public speeches seem to chide
come and go; he would not even look in her and challenge men while comforting and
direction. Finally she lay down on the road in inspiring women. They convey the message that
front of the gate and said that she would ratherbe women can assume activist roles without
killed by his car than sit there unnoticed. Ln the violating the norms of Hindu womanhood or
end the ChiefMinister sawher and helped her.’ ceasing to be dutiful wives and mothers. Indeed,
both Bharati and Rithambara themselves assume
In this account, the land figures not as an the activist roles they advocate for Hindu men.
abstraction but as the source of the family’s Most writers on the subject assume that
material sustenance; similarly, the link between nationalist appeals to defend the motherland are
the mother and the land is not figurative but real. directed at dutiful sons. However, this privileges
Thus, Bharati came to believe that access to the mother-son relationship over the mother-
power was critical to attaining independence as daughter bond. When asked what had politicised
a woman - for Bharati’s mother to full% her her, Rithambara said:
maternal responsibilities, she had to depart from
a conventional female role and fight for her rights, ‘If Shahabuddin has drunk his mother’s milk, I
Vijayraje Scindia, Sadhvi Rithambara and have also drunk my mother’s milk. ‘l
Uma Bharati have all transgressed gender roles
in both private and public domains. Unlike the Thus, while the pretext for her speeches may
vast majority of Indian women, none of these be to goad men into activism, she is suggesting
three women are economically dependent on that devotion to the motherland is as much an
fathers, husbands or sons; none of their inspiration to dutiful daughters as to filial sons.
identities are delined by their roles as wives and (Shahabuddin is a prominent Muslim politician
mothers. All three have realised considerable whom Hindu nationalists brand a ‘fundamen-
political ambition and yet maintained an aura talist’.) Both of these women mock Hindu men
of religious and nationalist commitment. Their and assert their own strength as women. When
experiences as mothers and daughters, victims Rithambara repeatedly states that Hindus have
and agents resonate within their gendered been exploited because of their selflessness,
appeals. passivity and cowardliness, she is restating a
Scindia, Rithambara and Bharati have all widely held grievance of women about men.
found within Hindu nationalism a vehicle for Bharati and Rithambara express fury at the
redressing their experiences of gender inequality rape of Hindu women - which they seem to
and for transgressing sex-typed roles. The assume is committed by Muslim men. There are
attribute that brought Rithambara and Bharati few issues that enrage Uma Bharati more than
into the public eye, namely their speeches, must sexual exploitation. She has spoken vehemently
have been liberating for them. Instead of being against the exploitation of women’s bodies in
enjoined as women to be decorous, they are advertising and the media and favours strict
praised for their good citizenship when they censorship laws to control pornography. Above
deliver loud, coarse, angry speeches. As women, all, she expresses outrage about rape:
they seem to have particular licence to speak
from emotion rather than reason. Thus, when ‘In my constituency, a 25 year old boy raped and
Uma Bharati tells Hindu men to act like lions killed a six year old girl and threw her body in the

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 Reproductive Health Matters, No 8, November 1996

well. The police are looking for him. I have As different as the styles of Bharati,
announced that if I find him, I will kill him myself Rithambara and Scindia are, an underlying
with my bare hands, and I mean it, I would. I think gender logic informs their positions. Were it not
that rape has declined in my constituency because for their engagement with Hindu nationalism,
people know how it enrages me. ‘a these women, would have been prevented by
virtue of their sex from achieving whatever gains
It would be myopic to claim that there is they have made. Hindu nationalism has provided
nothing of religion in these three militant women like Bharati and Scindia the opportunity
women’s nationalism. Hinduism provides a rich to develop their capabilities as women. In turn,
terrain for gendered nationalist imagery for it their popular appeal as religious and celibate
closely associates the land with female women and their ability to appeal to raw emotion
properties. Unlike many religions, Hinduism has served to promote the agenda of Hindu
rejects the notion that women are inherently nationalism. The costs are borne by the Muslim
weak and passive; instead it considers women minority and by those women who hope for a
often dangerous because they are powerful and more just and egalitarian social order.
vindictive. The varied personalities of the female
deities in Hinduism inspire a range of female
personae in political life and these three women Acknowledgements
militants all find inspiration in certain aspects of I am grateful for support for this project from the
Hinduism. Amherst College Research Award and the John D
Uma Bharati has said that her religious and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation. Earlier
training, which began when she was six years versions of this paper were published in the
old, provided her the opportunity for formal Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 1993;
education, extensive travel within India and 25(4):25-37 and Women and the Hindu Right,
Europe and an escape from both arranged Sarkar T and Butalia U (eds), Kali for Women,
marriage and her family. She denied that New Delhi 2996.
Hinduism was responsible for the oppression of
women:

‘In India, women are oppressed because people

are uneducated and deceived into believing that
religion dictates women’s inferiority. I am very
religious and I don’t believe that is what Hinduism
says. After all, look at Sita (the wife of Hindu deity
Rama). She did not always obey. Sita went her
own way and committed suicide in the end rather
than following her husband’s orders. So why
should women demean themselves?

References and Notes

1. The term riot is replete with India, 15 February 1992. 5. WadIey S, 1977. Women and the
notions of irrational, 3. Interview in New Delhi, 11 April Hindu tradition. Signs. 3(1):113-
spontaneous violence. In fact 1991. 25.
most riots in contemporary India 4. I interviewed Vijayraje Scindia 6. Indian Express, 19 February
have been organised, not and Uma Bharati in 1991. I met 1992.
spontaneous, often with the Sadhvi Rithambara and heard 7. Interview with P Nagarjuna.
complicity of governments and her speak on several occasions Sunday Chronicle. 5 May 1991.
political parties. but was unable to interview her. 8. Interview in New Delhi, 17
2. Statement to a group of women All quotes are from these December 1991.
journalists and activists in New interviews or cassettes that they
Delhi, reported in the Times of recorded.

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REtfUll Resumen
A j’d do bjen &autreS mO”vements A cliferencia de la mayoria de 10s movimientos
n-m- wi invoquent des images de nacionalistas, que apelan a imageries tradi-
femmes tout en &p&ant l’activisme de celles-ci, cionales de la mujer a la vez que repudian su
le nat$ona&m hindou a encourage l’emergence activismo, el nacionalismo hindti ha fomentado el
de plusiews dhigeantes de premier plan. surgimiento de varias destacadas dirigentes.
rdcle se concentre SLIT trois des figures Este ensayo se concentra en las figuras de tres de
feminmes les PIUSpuissantes de ce mouvement : la mujeres m&s poderosas de1 nacionalismo
Vijayraje Scindia, Uma Bharati et Sadhvi hind& Vijayraje Scindia, Wma Bharati y Sadhvi
Rithambara. Ayant renonce a leur propre Rithambara. Ellas han renunciado a su propia
sexualite, ces trois femmes se sont servi de leur sexualidad, utilizando al mismo tiempo su aura
aura religieuse pour realiser leurs ambitions de religiosidad para alcanzar SW ambiciones
politiques. Se voulant en dehors du domaine du politicas. Se han ubicado, adem&, fuera de1
pouvoir politique, elles se placent pour parler knbito de1 poder politico y hablan desde una
dans une position de superiorite morale. Leur position de superioridad moral. El mensaje que
message est que, comme elles font fait elles- transmiten es que, tal coma ellas, la mujer puede
memes, les femmes peuvent assumer un role asumir un papel de activista sin traicionar por
aCtiViSte Sans violer les normes de la f&nini&e ello la normativa de la mujer hindk Aunque el
hindoue. L’hindouisme et le nationalisme mndou hinduismo y el nacionalismo hindti les han
1eUr Ont peut-etre fourni l’occasion de pm.rs~vre proporcionado a esas mujeres la oportunidad de
lem ambitions et de developper leurs capacites luchar por sus ambiciones y desarrollar sus
en tant we femmes, mais elles n’ont pas acquis diversas capacidades coma mujeres, no han
une profonde comprehension de l’asym&ie des llegado a adquirir una comprension profunda de
sexes ou des limites impodes a leur pouvoir par la desigualdad entre 10s sexos y de las
le fait qu’elles sont femmes. limitaciones de su propio poder debido al hecho
de ser mujeres.

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