#ChoosetoChallenge: 8 Women who opened up doors for other women

Recently, women across India celebrated a landmark ruling by a Delhi Court. The court acquitted journalist Priya Ramani in a defamation case filed by former union minister MJ Akbar—in 2018 Ramani had accused Akbar of sexual misconduct. The judgement sets a strong precedent and strengthens the fight Indian women have been waging, protecting women from being dragged into legal battles only because they stood up to powerful men. The judgement recorded for posterity this: “Women cannot be punished for raising their voice against sexual abuse...cannot be punished on the pretext of criminal complaint of defamation. Right of reputation cannot be protected at the cost of right of life and dignity for women as guaranteed in the Constitution.” Millions of women, and men, across the country cheered the judgment. Ramani had risen to a challenge. This year, the International Women’s Day theme is calling upon the public to #Choosetochallenge. It is both a clarion call, and an everyday affirmation, to challenge the status quo, to call out gender bias, to break the glass ceiling, to demand equality, to expose predatory behaviour, to speak truth to power.How you choose to challenge is up to you, but it’s a power and a privilege many of us enjoy thanks to some trailblazing women who challenged the system in their time, and their situations, when no one had done it before them. Savitribai Phule and Fatima Sheikh: Paving the way for women’s education About 173-years ago, a 17-year-old Dalit girl chose to challenge the system. She set up schools to educate girls, despite severe backlash from society. Savitribai Phule is the reason Indian women could get an education, find a voice, and dream of a better life. She is the reason you and I enjoy some of the privileges that we do today.. For this, she was pelted with stones, her critics threw cow dung on her as she walked to work. But Savitribai remained undeterred. medium81313245Savitribai had a friend and ally, Fatima Sheikh, sister of the man in whose house the Phules took up residence. Little is known of Sheikh today, barring the fact that she is one of the first Muslim women teachers of modern India. She was also involved in founding two schools in Bombay in 1851, attended by children of all religions and castes, and spent hours counselling parents who were hesitant to send their girls to school. medium81313267 Not everyone set out to challenge the system. For many women, it was a matter of survival. For some others, the only way to channel their rage at the physical, mental and social violence they faced. Caste, class, gender—women have fought at various frontiers. Here are other stories that shook society.Kuriyedathu Thathri: A scandal that ushered in reformShe was born Savitri, the daughter of a Namboodiri brahmin in Kerala in the late 19th century, at a time when Namboodiri women, called antharjanams—the indoor people—lived a life caged in tradition. The Namboodiris were on top of the caste hierarchy, rich landlords and scholars, who kept their women closely guarded and veiled—a system designed to protect their virginity and keep them ‘pure’ and subservient to the men. The Namboodiri women could not even be seen by men—which essentially meant that little girls and women spent their lives in the dark corners of the illams, the grand homes of the Namboodiris. They were bound by strict rituals and customs, tied to the kitchen, and raised to birth offsprings for their husbands. Raised under strict patriarchal supervision, Savitri grew up into a beautiful young woman, and was married at 18 to a man in his 60s. It is unclear how the couple split, but the popular belief is that her husband abandoned her after she objected to his bringing prostitutes home. It is also not clear how Savitri came to use her body against the misogynistic society she inhabited. Did her sexuality bring her a sense of sovereignty, or was it her unabashed pursuit of pleasure? Or was it a rebellious act of revenge against the inequalities she experienced? Savitri’s beauty and charms are said to have captivated several men, who visited her, until one day she was recognised as an antharjanam.The year was 1905, and the scandal rocked the Brahmanical society of the day. A trial of an antharajanam, known as Smarthavicharam was ordered by the King of Kochi. An antharajanam whose chastity was doubted was almost certainly excommunicated. The men party to the “sin” would almost always use the influence of money to wriggle out of trouble. Savitri knew her fate, but even as she admitted her ‘guilt’, she demanded a fair trial that also punished the men she had been with. She named 64 men with meticulous details of the date of their visit, and birthmarks that identified them. Her act shook this rigid, orthodox and powerful caste that had used the narrative of purity and piety to retain its stranglehold on Kerala society. It is rumoured that the king shut down the trial after Savitri pulled out a ring in lieu of the 65th name—was she about to name the King of Kochi as a man guilty of consorting with an antharajanam? Priests, teachers, artists, high-ranking government officials are all known to have been named by Savitri. A society that had thrived on repressing its women, grappled with the rot in its system exposed by one of its own. The tremors spread far and wide and the king of Kochi is said to have stopped the unjust trials. medium81313305The men were excommunicated, large families came to ruin and Savitri disappeared.Yet, in her short life, a young woman had challenged centuries old orthodoxy and held a mirror to her society. Unbeknownst to her, she caused an ancient, discriminatory and unjust system to break down and accept reforms.Nangeli: An act to reclaim her body abolished Kerala’s ‘Breast Tax’Imagine living in a time when women, of certain castes, did not have the right to cover their breasts. In 19th century Kerala, the kingdom of Travancore imposed an outrageously regressive tax called the Mulakkaram, or Breast Tax, on lower-caste women who wished to cover their torsos with a top cloth in public. The practice was to be followed soon after a girl attained puberty and the amount of tax she paid was decided by the size of her breasts. Such taxes on the lower castes who were among the poorest in the social hierarchy, were meant to keep them in debt, and stripped of sovereignty over their own bodies. medium81313379 What changed this was the defiance of one woman.Nangeli, born of the Ezhava caste in Cherthala, refused to leave her breasts uncovered. Eventually, the tax collectors arrived at her doorstep to collect their dues. An indignant Nangeli instead cut off her breasts and offered them on a banana leaf. The taxmen fled the scene and Nangeli bled to death. It is said that stricken by grief and as a final act of protest, her husband jumped to death in her funeral pyre.The outcry following the incident led to the abolition of the Breast Tax. And though Nangeli did not make it to the history books, the land where she lived came to be known as Mulachiparambu, or the land of the breasted woman. Kamala Sohonie: Paving the way for women in ScienceMost of us know Prof. CV Raman as India’s first Nobel laureate. Dr Kamala Sohonie, a biochemist and India’s first woman to earn a doctorate in science, also recalled him as the man who turned down her application for a research fellowship at the (now) Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, on the grounds that women were not considered competent enough to pursue research.Indignant and outraged at the deep-rooted biases against women in the scientific community, Sohonie protested, holding a Satyagraha outside Prof. Raman’s office. She was eventually allowed—with certain conditions: That she would not be a regular candidate but on probation for the first year, that she would work late hours if needed, and that she would not spoil the environment of the lab, which implied that the onus of not being a ‘distraction’ to the men lay on her.Sohonie later admitted to feeling insulted, but soldiered on and accepted the “conditions”. She joined IISc in 1933, and completed her Masters with distinction. Fortunately, her dedication and, accomplishments changed Raman’s stand on the entry of women into the institution, and several women were admitted by the institute a year after her entry. Sohonie went on to earn a PhD from Cambridge in 1939—the first Indian woman to earn a doctorate in science—and returned to India, inspired by the freedom struggle and to contribute to scientific research here. She contributed significantly to research in nutrition science, held several senior positions at scientific institutions across the country, and led the charge for women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) in India. Her research on Neera or palm sap, which she found to be a rich source of Vitamins A, C and iron, and an inexpensive supplement for malnourished tribal children, was recognised with the Rashtrapati Award.Nilima Ghose: Leaping across barriersIn 1952, two women were part of the Indian contingent that participated in the Summer Olympics held at Helsinki, Finland. Nilima Ghose and Mary D’Souza did not win any medals, but still made history. The two athletes were the first sportswomen from newly independent India, to participate in the Olympics. medium81313415Ghose was only 17, and had spent her childhood training to be an athlete. At Helsinki, she participated in two events—the women’s 100 metres, and the 80-metre hurdle. She ran in the first heat for the 100 metres sprint, thus becoming the first Indian woman to participate in the Olympics. D’Souza ran in the ninth heat. Neither could make it to the next round.While it is believed that Ghose did not participate in any track-and-field events after her Olympic stint, her teammate Mary D’Souza went on to build an illustrious career as an athlete and hockey player and was presented with the Dhyan Chand Award in 2013. medium81313427Not much is known of Ghosh after the Olympics, but the 17-year old in shorts did much more than leap over hurdles on a race track. She broke the systemic barriers and jumped the patriarchal fence designed to keep women away from sport and paved the way for Indian women to compete at international events. Chinmayi Sripada: A song for every womanIn 2018 Tamil singer Chinmayi Sripada revealed on Twitter her experience of being harassed by lyricist Vairamuthu, a national award-winning artist and a Tamil icon.The #MeToo movement was sweeping over urban India and women were sharing stories of sexual harassment by men at workplaces, creating the space for other women to speak up. The movement nurtured a culture of believing the survivor and giving them the space to share their story, while questioning victim blaming and shaming, which has been the default setting in our society to a woman sharing a story of oppression.Yet, for Chinmayi, life changed after she mustered up the courage to name a powerful, politically connected man of the Tamil film industry whose art, and songs, were tied to Tamil pride. While she received some support from both women and men, and relief from the Court in the face of bans, she also encountered abuse for speaking out. Yet Chinmayi stood her ground, and supported survivors. After her disclosure, her work dried up, the Tamil dubbing association terminated her membership and cancelled projects she had bagged, she told The Hindu. She was also terminated from the primary membership of South Indian Cine, Television Artistes and Dubbing Artistes Union, on apparently flimsy grounds. She was heavily trolled, slut-shamed and abused online. medium81313550Chinmayi has remained strong, in the face of harassment, supported other women survivors and highlighted similar treatment being meted out to members of the WCC (Women in Cinema Collective) in Malayalam cinema, who were all out of work for having spoken up.Not giving work was a clear message to the women—if you speak up this is what will happen to you. She and the others shone a light on this blatant backlash.But as Chinmayi revealed in an interview a year after her disclosure—however difficult it is to keep going, one has to be relentless.The story was first published on March 8, 2021