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Persecuted for Celebrating Female Sexuality By - Rina Mukherji Rina Mukherji has spent more than one a half decades (17 years to be precise) in the Indian print media. She has written on practically every topic under the sun- business, politics, science, gender issues, child rights, the environment, films, literature, public health and human rights so far. She has worked for several national newspapers in Mumbai and Kolkata, and freelanced for nearly all major newspapers and magazines in the country. She also holds a doctorate in African Studies, and has several academic articles to her credit

Female Sexuality has always been outside the pale of all that is considered decent and above board in the Indian social milieu.

A still from Anjali Monteiro/ K Jayashankar’s documentary film, 'She Write' on the fight being put up by three women poets for writing in celebration of the female body, and the pleasure of physical love. The analogy attempted is to illustrate what marriage in India has normally come to mean-the throwing together of two humans-puppets who are churned through life as per societal norms as if they were clothes in a washing machine.

It is not as if it is a theme unexplored. There have been women like Andal and Muddupalani who have written about longing, physical and emotional love in the past. Mirabai’s songs also explore the same theme. But then, Mira and Andal were Bhakti saints who lived outside the pale of contemporary medieval society, while Muddupalani was a courtesan from the 17th century. In fact, the publishing of Muddupalani’s Radhika Santvanam in the early part of the last century invited such a strong uproar that its echoes are felt to this day.

When Ismat Chughtai dared to write on lesbianism in her Lihaaf , an obscenity suit was slapped on her.

Perhaps, this can explain the recent persecution of Tamil poets Kutti Revathi, Sukirtharani, Salma and Malathy Maitri for having explicitly written in celebration of the female body, and the pleasure of physical love.

Ironically, the campaign has been spearheaded by men who think nothing of penning the bawdiest film lyrics for public consumption. These men have not only called on the public to slap these poets, but have even talked of burning up these women for their transgressions!!

To understand these attacks, one must realize that the movement for women’s rights in India has always steered clear of the “physical”. The fight has always been asexual, with all focus being targeted towards securing educational, economic and political rights. Moroever, unlike in the West, women’s rights have always been secured through male intervention or the high-mindedness of male leaders. There have been no women ideologues in the class of Germaine Greer, Nancy Friday, Camille Paglia or Simone de Beauvoir who have called on women to be proud of and take charge of their bodies.

Since our political and economic rights came courtesy our males, every achievement has always been in keeping with the traditional norms of propriety and yardsticks set by the prevalent social patriarchy. Most significantly, our conditioning has been such that the most articulate and well-educated woman shies off from expressing the innermost physical and emotional urges of her soul.

In such a scenario, it is all the more creditable on the part of these four poets to have not only refused to buckle down under pressure, but having come together to form a group-Anangu (meaning Woman in Tamil) to fight back the persecution and continue to write in a manner they have always wanted to.

When one realizes that Salma is a Muslim woman from Thuvarankurichi who was forced into an early marriage by her parents, with her education rudely interrupted as punishment for daring to go for an adult film with her friends( with suitors expressing wariness for her love of Marxist and other revolutionary dialectic) while Sukirtharani is a Dalit schoolteacher from Lalapet vilage, the courage of these women impresses us even more.

When Kutti Revathi demands the space a woman needs to mature, or Malathy Maitri demands a level-playing field for women, it is easy for us to identify with her poetry. The truth that these women have unhesitatingly expressed continues to draw critical acclaim, which is self-evident from the number of journals and publishers ever willing to publish them. The election of Salma as Panchayat President is also a significant achievement that speaks volumes on the public adulation she enjoys.

Ancient India may have enumerated Sringara Rasa as one of the heads under which erotica could be written; but 21st century India can never accept erotica composed by a woman.

One only hopes Anjali Monteiro/ K Jayashankar’s beautiful documentary on the fight being put up by these women-She Write succeeds in securing the rights women have always coveted but never dared speak of.

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