Phogat her silver and Imane Sharif the pure celebration of her victories.

Illustration/Uday Mohite

To be celebrated as resilient can be lonely.

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To be praised for resilience is the certificate of participation the world gives you for surviving its prejudice, narrowness, mediocrity and resulting injustice. Standing in spite of the world, not simply in the glory of you.

Vinesh Phogat knows this-many times over. Justice has eluded or been patchy in response to the protest she spearheaded against sexual harassment of wrestlers by Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. The episode has revealed that the system acknowledges such women when their achievements and medals serve its grandeur. When they demand fairness and support it is seen as effrontery—a challenge to power, not a right to justice—and invalidated at every step.

Conspiracy theories aside, to read........

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