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A few weeks ago, the government of Chhattisgarh organised a fashion show to showcase indigenous textiles. What was really on display, as intended by the state, were the models used, who were surrendered female Maoist fighters.

As pictures of former fighters in make-up walking the ramp went viral and the Internet disturbingly termed them “Naxal-baddie” (a play on Naxalbari and the popular internet slang “baddie” which is usually used to refer to a stylish or highly confident woman), the mainstream media rushed to heap praise on the effort.

Few bothered to interrogate the women’s participation in the context of the enormous power the state wields over them as surrendered fighters. As women who live in police rehabilitation camps and who were granted amnesty from prosecution by the state, did they have any meaningful opportunity to refuse? Some of the women have since confirmed to The Wire Hindi, that they were taken to Raipur on the pretext of giving them sewing lessons, and were then tricked into walking the ramp. 

Most people would acknowledge that the parading of surrendered troops is an act that is meant to demean and demoralise. Do make-up, stage lights and the surface resemblance to an Internet aesthetic otherwise associated with empowerment transform the same act of parading surrendered troops into a symbol of empowerment? The general inability of the public discourse to see this and call it out however forces us to ask a deeper question: caught between Hindutva’s patriarchy reinforcing ideas of “nari shakti (women power)” and the extreme individualism of Instagram compatible choice feminism, are we losing the ability to recognise patriarchal oppression itself? 

Hindutva and ‘nari shakti’

The blurring of the lines between the family and the state in exercising patriarchal control over Hindu women has been a feature of the Indian polity in the last decade, most visible in the so-called “love jihad” cases.

Young Hindu women in consensual relationships with men of another faith are often reported to Hindutva organisations by their own families. The organisations, working at times with police, lynch, threaten and arrest the men and coerce the women into returning to their families. At times these groups operate even when women have simply left their home to avoid forced marriage and live independently.

While honour killings in India are not new, the enactment of anti-conversion laws in multiple states has meant that the women, instead of being able to reach out to the state to protect their individual liberties from the assertions of families are now faced with the state acting as the enforcer of patriarchal family control. 

This line of control also works in reverse. In internet doxxing cases, for example, Hindu women who put up photographs with men of another faith are doxxed and “reported” by right wing organisations to their own families who are expected to reassert control over them.

Also read: Sukma Women Who Gave Up Maoism Say Chhattisgarh Govt ‘Tricked’ Them Into Ramp........

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