The third big moment in this journey was what came to be termed the second wave of women’s activism, which came about in the 1980s. It saw the emergence of autonomous women’s groups all over the country — groups like Delhi’s Saheli, and Bombay’s Forum Against the Oppression of Women. Saheli, which recently celebrated its 25th year of existence, has intervened in a broad gamut of issues that affect women directly: from rape and domestic violence to discriminatory religious personal laws.

Questioning authority and generally acting as trouble-makers, these women discovered, often paid great dividends. It raised public awareness, prodded a sluggish state and helped to critique a cynical criminal justice system. There was, for instance, the famous set of satirical letters penned by Saheli’s members to Rajiv Gandhi, when his government passed the retrogressive Muslim Women’s Bill. One went: “Dear Rajiv, The world has thought of me as the fountainhead of Fundamentalism. I realise in you I have met my Master. Your humble disciple, Ayotullah Khomeini.” It also got the message across to powerful multinational pharmaceuticals that India cannot be the dumping ground for dubious contraceptives which gravely threatened women’s health.

What is distinctive about these groups is that they have fiercely guarded their independence, not just from the state — they do not seek state power — but from political parties and international funding agencies. This provides them with a certain credibility and the ability to get involved in various forms of social action. Lack of an assured financial base and the dependence on volunteers rather than paid employees do, of course, bring with them their own uncertainties, limitations and structural weaknesses. Yet today if the country has come to recognise that women can be murdered for dowry, that there is no such thing as “consensual rape”, that women are often battered even within the walls of a seemingly happy family home, that homophobia is an affront to an aware and modern sensibility, it is in no small measure due to the efforts of these courageous collectives of women based outside the structures of power.

... contd.