Ashutosh Varshney's column: A new political language has emerged in favour of women

Addressing young women in Pune during the 'Students' Goonj programme a few days ago, Rahul Gandhi said that in India, the ideal woman is put in three categories, she is seen only as a daughter, wife or mother. Rahul further said that there is nothing wrong in being seen as one of these, but it cannot be your only identity. Many women are excellent professionals, whose ambitions and dreams go beyond these traditional roles. But their efforts to achieve their goals are often filled with the obstacles that society and the thinking that drives it in front of them. It is necessary to fight against these obstacles and this thinking and remove them. Amidst the loud applause of the female audience, Rahul's last message was: 'Break the cage, end the patriarchy.' So far, such things have been heard continuously in academic seminars and conferences around the world. But as far as I know, this is the first time they have been brought into mainstream politics in India. The academic and political mainstreams are often two distinct parts of social and political life. In the Ivy League universities of the US, the thinking of 'MAGA' has little or no effect. In India, JNU has also often been considered a different world. With the exception of Kerala or Bengal (when the CPM was in power in the state), the political culture of JNU has had little match with the national mainstream. The record of the Delhi School of Economics (and Sociology) has been something similar — its role in mainstream politics has rarely been equal to its intellectual brilliance. So Rahul Gandhi's move against patriarchy is new and different. To ensure that the call to abolish patriarchy is not seen as something intellectual imposed from above, which has nothing to do with the everyday life of women, Rahul's way of articulating in Pune was quite different. He presented it not as a political speech straight out of the high academic world of a university, but as a big mass event. Many young women were invited to the stage. Almost all of them were girl students or young women who had recently completed their studies. They spoke about their studies and other goals and also about the obstacles they face. Among them were women from both the city and the village. Some were speaking English well, some in Hindi and some in Marathi. Some were from upper-middle-class families; One was a tribal woman and one was the daughter of a sanitation worker from a small town in Maharashtra. The sanitation worker's daughter had studied at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi and wants to become a journalist, but she is repeatedly told that she cannot become a journalist, she should think about marriage. All the women spoke in such a way that the ill effects of patriarchy on everyday life could be understood. He explained how difficult it is to go to schools outside the village; How unsafe public transport is, whether buses are full or empty; How social media is used to embarrass and pressure them. Not just by trolling by writing, but also by tampering with pictures and videos; Due to the thinking that undermines women lawyers, legal cases are not given on merit but on the basis of gender; How FIRs are filed against them for exercising freedom of expression as citizens and it is said that women cannot be given so much freedom of expression. The purpose of this program was not just to explain an idea through examples. The purpose of this exercise was deeply political. After the victory in Bengal, the BJP's political influence had increased a lot. But the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) movement — especially the Jantar Mantar protests — has changed the political discourse in the country. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Rahul Gandhi is trying to gain an edge in the political debate. There are many assembly elections in 2027 and students and women are arguably an important voter group. So far, the kind of things that were heard in academic seminars and conferences have been brought into mainstream politics for the first time. It has to be seen what effect the message of ending patriarchy has on women. (These are the author's own views)