A problem of perspective

Over the past two centuries the developed world has evolved a single dimensional worldview. Advances in technology and living standards have glossed over and in many places erased, the regional and class differences that characterised the world for previous generations. This is particularly obvious in countries like Australia where the national ethos has an ingrained commitment to egalitarianism. A view compounded by the dominant Christian belief system with its underlying conviction of personal and social equality. Westerners react to India as a paradox, an enigma, an absurdity.

India is a complex, multidimensional and truly multicultural society which outside observers with their one dimensional worldview become completely confused. A population of almost one billion and a history of over 4000 years has developed with a belief system that institutionalises social difference and inequality yet underpins the world's largest and most vibrant democracy. The western visitor sees the complexity and confusion, the high rise apartment blocks being built next to the slum but fails to comprehend the rich and important connections between these seemingly irreconcilable establishments.

To appreciate India a good starting point is any intersection on any day in the city of Jaipur1. The traffic will come to a halt at a red light and wait. Vying for position are hand carts, cycle rickshaws, auto rickshaws, bullock carts, camel carts and a plethora of buses, trucks and cars, not to forget the occasional elephant. The light turns green and the whole procession, blaring horns and contesting every iota of space moves on in a sea of seeming chaos. Compare this with any intersection in Sydney where the traffic halts on red in a uniform and ordered way, waits for green and proceeds in a single orderly line. Each vehicle inspected, registered and certified up to the latest standard. A truly modernised and homogenized procession.

In India the 21st century has a strong presence but also has the rest of human history. Progress in the sub continent has not entailed the replacement of the past. Middle class High School students stop in McDonalds on their way home and talk (in English) about the latest movies and what they will do on the weekend, while outside the blacksmith, on the side of the road repairs tools, pots and motorbikes with a hand forge and hammer. A truly multi layered society where the centuries coexist. A fusion of past and present.

The power of Shakti

The western conception of the divine is fundamentally male. The Christian tradition out of which the west developed, sees God as the Father and as the Son. There is little doubt in western language and iconography about the link between power and gender2. This is not so in India. In the Hindu cosmos the Divine can appear in many forms and female avatars of the divine are envisaged as exceptionally powerful.

Shakti refers to the female form of God and has been an integral part of Indian culture for thousands of years. Lakshmi, the Goddess of good fortune pours wealth and kindness on her followers. Kali, Goddess of destruction with her collection of severed heads, skirt of severed arms and necklace of skulls ensures the constant obliteration that is necessary for rebirth. Durga, the invincible slayer of demons who came into being because only a woman could destroy the forces of evil, is the divine form at its zenith.

Hindu children grow up in a culture where divine power is a woman riding a tiger and holding a weapon. Consequently there is no spiritual taboo that prohibits women from holding power as God herself is often a woman.

A misogynistic heritage, Purdah, Child marriage, Dowry and Sati

Despite the integration of divinity and the female, Indian traditional society was inherently misogynistic. Social institutions such as purdah, child marriage, dowry, and sati created a culture where women suffered considerable oppression. Purdah, ensured the exclusion of women especially those of high caste from social and political life. Child marriage, often of young girls to older men forced women to fully focus their lives on their families from puberty onwards. The Dowry made daughters economic liabilities that brought pain and suffering to the family while Sati made women realize that they were only reflections of their husband and deserved no other existence. Social isolation, subject to and dependent on males was for millennia the norm for Indian women. It is not surprising that recurrences of these traditions do still occur and in some areas may still be "acceptable". Just as farmers today drive their bullock and camel carts into town, discussions between families produce agreements to marry their children in the traditional way involving a payment from the girl's family3 and there are regular reports of violence and murder committed against brides whose price is not seen as right.4

The case of Roop Kanwar5, the Rajasthani widow who "immolated" herself on her husband's funeral pyre in 1987 reverberates today in Jaipur where the final judgment on her ‘murder' case is still only three years old. As recently as August 2006 a sati was reported in Tuslipar village in Madhya Predesh.6 Not surprisingly this case has been treated as a suicide by the police.

Purdah, the seclusion of women, is still evident in the practice of widows entering ashrams to spend their lives in constant prayer. The women of Vrindravan7 still echo their thousands of daily incantations to Krishna, cut off from the world since their husbands' deaths. It is easy for righteously indignant western journalists to visit India, uncover horrific, archaic and shocking acts against women and make them into news items. The scandal of the isolated sati, the tragedy of the ostracized widows, dowry murders8 and female feoticide all make great feature articles. This is however not the whole picture.

Power Politics and Panchayats

For the past 60 years India has been the world's largest, active and vibrant democracy. The success of India as a nation rests on the values of equality, freedom and representative government. The level and intensity of political debate across the country is astonishing.9 Indians take their democracy seriously. Local, regional and national issues dominate the press, the street corner and the media. The problems of gender equity are always on the agenda ensuring a healthy debate on all of the topics mentioned previously.

Simple facts speak volumes. The current President of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil (above left) is a woman who has had an active political life since first being elected at State level in 1961. She has served as leader of the state opposition, a member of the Rajya Sabha (Federal States' House) and Lok Sabha, (House of Representatives), and as a Cabinet Minister at both State and Federal levels.

In 1966 Indira Gandhi was elected Prime Minister, only the second woman to take power in a modern state. Gandhi held power for almost 16 years often in controversial circumstances and was eventually assassinated. However the fact that democratic India produced one of the most powerful female world leaders of the 20th century cannot be disputed. Indira proved that India was capable well before any European or American country, to accept and affirm leadership by a woman.

Gandhi belonged to the elite. The western educated, only daughter of India's first Prime Minister10 had been groomed to succeed her father. Her four terms as Prime Minister proved that women could reach the top and wield power in India but did little to change the lives of women at the village level. Perhaps their power at the ballot box needed a little extra nudge?

The reformation of local government in 1993 with the 73rd amendment to the constitution, sponsored by Indira Gandhi's son Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, has transformed the place of women in positions of power at the grassroots level.

Panchayats (Councils of five) are the traditional form of local government in Indian culture. Rajiv Gandhi's innovation was not just to have them empowered to act at the local level but to ensure that women had a minimum of 33% representation in each council. This made participation in political life obligatory for women and ensured that men had to include women in everyday community decision making. Fourteen years later the panchayat system is dynamic, effective and popular.

"The revitalization of the panchayat raj in India has had a strong impact. Within a short timeframe India now has 250,000 elected panchayats with 3.2 million elected representatives (more than Norway's population) including over 1.2 million elected women.11"

Panchayat raj is a highly structured and formalized system of participatory democracy. Representation is demanded at the village level (gram panchayat), the Takula (cluster of villages or town) level (panchayat samity) and at the district level (zilla panchayat). The jurisdiction of the panchayats specifies 29 areas of responsibility including agriculture, education, health, irrigation, sanitation and social welfare. This bold devolution of powers to citizens from the central government with its inclusion of all minority groups and empowerment of women has transformed political life across the sub continent. Observers have noted that women have taken primary responsibility for 16 of the 29 specific areas.12 The inclusion of women in real power sharing in a very practical and visible way, making day to day decisions on fundamental issues has had a significant impact on Indian society and culture.

Women on top (Globalisation and the New Indian Woman)

India has experienced intense and prolonged economic growth since embracing the free market and globalisation in 1992.This has created immense wealth, and a new middle class of between 200 and 300 million people. The new rich have aspirations well beyond those of their parents and grandparents. This is especially true for women. The above billboard can be seen along highways in many parts of India. One in Agra on the road to the Taj Mahal stands in stark contrast to the image of Mumtaz Mahal's tomb. The devoted wife and mother who died giving birth to her thirteenth child at the age of 34 symbolises the ideal woman of previous generations but not that of the 21st century.

The young middle class woman of today has access to careers, expects to be independent, reads Indian versions of Cosmopolitan and Vogue and anticipates marriage to be an equal partnership. She has control over her fertility in a practical and simple way that is denied to many in the west.

Advertisements abound in newspapers and magazines for the i-pill, a morning after pregnancy prevention that can be taken 72 hours after sexual contact. Available over the counter without prescription from pharmacies all over India at 75 rupees ($2) the i-pill takes the shame, stigma and stress from women who prefer to keep their personal lives personal.

The image of the woman on top goes beyond the billboard for Levis. Increasingly women are taking control in businesses and organizations all over India. Nischinta Amarnath and Debashish Ghosh13 outlined 21 women who had become Chief Executive Officers, Managing Directors or Senior Partners in major Indian companies. They profiled 21 successful women in their book, "The Voyage to Excellence", (Pustak Mahal, 2005). Indian women had reached the top of the corporate ladder in banking, media, chemicals, and fashion. Obviously in the Indian corporate world women are making enormous steps in what is no longer a man's domain.

It is not only in India that Indian women are making their mark. Mira Nair and Gurinder Chadha have become household names through their films and women like Arundathi Roy and Anita Desai continue to make an impact on the literary world. It may come as no surprise that Fortune Magazine nominated Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi Co. as the most powerful woman in the corporate world in 2006.14 Indra was born and educated in India and spent her early working life in Kolcata. While she is now a U.S. resident (in India known as a Non Resident Indian), she maintains strong links with her motherland, appearing on television and doing interviews. She is an obvious role model for aspiring Indian women. When asked about her priorities in a recent program on women CEOs in India she answered,
"Mother, Mother, Mother, wife"15.

A new set of parameters for the new Indian woman.

Over half a century ago Jawaharlal Nehru devised a means of measuring a nation,
If you want me to tell you what a nation is like ... tell me the position of women in that country.
- Jawaharlal Nehru
By any measure, his children and grandchildren have done well.