THE Sangam at Allahabad is in more ways than one a symbol for Uttar Pradesh. Known all over as a venerated spot where three holy rivers – one now ‘invisible’ – converge, it today resembles a muddy puddle. As the legend goes, the gods and the demons churned the ocean, each holding one end of the Great Snake, Sheshnag. The churning yielded both nectar and poison. The wily gods ensured that the poison was consumed by the indestructible Lord Shiva himself and that the pot of nectar was carried away by one of their own. While it was being spirited away, a few drops of nectar fell into the Sangam. It is the promise of immortality held out by this small stretch of water that draws innumerable pilgrims to its banks every winter.

This Kumbh, there have been a spate of reports about the filthy condition of the Sangam water which is now highly polluted with human and other excreta and every kind of waste imaginable. It is almost as if some drops of the poison swallowed by Shiva have also found their way into it.

But it is the metaphor of the churning that is most apt for Uttar Pradesh today. The political situation in the state is a result of the incredible social churning that it has been witnessing in the years since the late 1980s. To stretch the metaphor, while one end of the rope is caste mobilization, the other is religious mobilization and the churning has thrown up more of poison with a splash of nectar thrown in. This is most true for women in the state.

The statistics, whatever the tall claims and false information supplied by all governments that the state has experienced, provide a glimpse of their misery. The National Crime Bureau underscores that the state has the highest incidence of crimes against women, in particular dalit women in the country, accompanied by very low rates of prosecution and conviction. Afflicted by the highest rate of maternal mortality in the country, nearly 40,000 women die in childbirth every year. The latest NFHS reveals little progress in establishing and outfitting PHCs since the last survey.

On women’s education, the figures are pathetic. While enrolment rates for girls have registered some progress, the dropout rates remain high and escalating. Such statistics can help us understand how the politics of Uttar Pradesh, combined with the withdrawal of the state from whatever service it was providing the poor and women, has ensured the deterioration of their life conditions but not the dimensions of the brutality to which they are subjected and the regularity with which they find the doors of justice bolted in their faces.

In Uttar Pradesh, the1989 Lok Sabha elections witnessed a huge mobilization of the OBCs, led by the yadavs, and the Muslims along with some sections of the scheduled castes behind the Janata Dal in alliance with the BJP with its hold on a big section of the upper castes. Though all these sections were united in their opposition to the Congress Party, the reasons for their affiliation to these very different political parties were also very different.

The Muslims joined the OBCs in supporting the Janata Dal because they felt betrayed by the compromises made by the Congress Party at the Centre and the state on the Babri Masjid issue. The OBCs themselves, while voicing their opposition to these compromises, had their own agenda of replacing the upper caste domination of the levers of power, both political and administrative. The upper castes who fell in behind the BJP were motivated not only by their disillusionment with the Congress on the issue of political corruption but even more by their belief that the BJP was a party that would protect their interests and hegemony as also keep the Muslims in ‘place’. Needless to add that the interests of the women members of their castes and communities was of no concern to anyone.

 

The BSP, a party led by members of the chamar community who comprised its earliest and most loyal adherents, publicly announced its intention of capturing state power for the scheduled caste population in alliance with other backward and oppressed sections of society. The consolidation of scheduled caste votes behind the BSP, first noticed so dramatically when its leader Kanshi Ram polled an incredible 30,000 votes in the Allahabad by-election that pitched V.P. Singh to the centerstage of Indian politics, increased in this election too. Despite the fact that Kanshi Ram’s trusted lieutenant was a woman, Mayawati, gender issues found no place in the BSP agenda either.

It is instructive to look at the number and variety of governments that UP has had since that crucial year of 1989: Janata Dal and then its break-away, Samajwadi Party (SP) 1990-91; BJP 1991-1992; President’s Rule 1992-95; SP+BSP 1995-96; BSP+BJP 1996-97; BJP+defectors 1997-2001; President’s Rule, BSP+BJP, SP 2001-2005.

This period has also seen several Lok Sabha elections and three rounds of local body elections. Each bout of elections sees caste and communal mobilization reaching a feverish pitch, resulting not only in caste and communal consolidation but, paradoxically, in their fragmentation too. Hindu consolidation runs parallel to caste mobilization within Hindus; caste consolidation is shaken by the religion; within castes, sub-castes mobilize; within the OBC fold, dominant backward castes jostle for supremacy; smaller, most backward castes begin their own mobilization and are periodically subsumed or co-opted; and, within Muslims too, the process of caste and sectarian groupings has begun. The state has also experienced several incidents of communal rioting in this period.

 

All these processes impact on women mostly adversely. It is true that the assertion, first by the backward castes and then the scheduled castes, has brought about a great awakening among their ranks, including among women belonging to these sections. Equally that the reservation for women in the local bodies has made all political parties form not only women’s wings but also encourage the formation of women’s wings of all caste-based organizations that have proliferated throughout the state. This reservation has simultaneously brought thousands of women out of the confines of home and purdah (of all kinds) and into the public domain. They have taken to the electoral fray with enthusiasm and courage and are now visible at rallies, meetings and all public events.

But the price that women in the state are paying for these achievements has so far been heavy.

The logic of caste and communal mobilization and the conflict and violence that they engender adversely impacts on all women. Criminals are no strangers to politics in the state. They have always had a presence in both the ruling and other mainstream political parties. But when they take on the role of caste and community leaders at times of mobilization and conflict, they assume tremendous importance and hegemony. Their criminal acts find a large number of defenders and any action taken against them brings their caste or community (or both) brethren into the streets in their defence. Their own crimes and those of their followers against women go unnoticed, unopposed and escalate. The domination of the political space by criminals also reduces the availability of public spaces to women whose confinement now finds a new justification. Crimes committed within communities too are hushed up even more than earlier. Conversely, inter-community crimes are used by political leaders for political gains but dropped after this has been achieved.

 

Caste and communal mobilization also ensure that women are targeted to settle scores. Since women are the repository of family and community honour, violating them physically serves as an act of community revenge. Mayawati’s ascension to the chief minister’s chair, for instance, is always accompanied by attacks on poor, vulnerable ‘Mayawatis’ in the villages. Conflict between castes is accompanied by horrific violence being inflicted on women of the weaker caste, usually dalits. Incidents of stripping and parading of naked dalit and lower caste women who often have their faces blackened and even their noses cut off.

During an attack on kanjars (dalits) by kurmis (OBCs) in Fatehpur district that occurred in the SP-BSP regime, at least three kanjar women were cut into small pieces and then burnt. In another incident in the same district, a thakur picked up a little dalit girl by her feet and dashed her brains out after killing her mother and grandmother who had dared to file a complaint against him under the SC/ST Act.

 

Violence against Muslim women during communal conflict is well-documented and UP is no exception. Kanpur, Lucknow, Bulandshahar, Saharanpur, Gonda, Meerut, Eta, Pratapgarh and Mau have all witnessed communal killings while the eastern districts around Gorakhpur, stretching from Azamgarh to the districts bordering Nepal, have been turned into a communal cauldron by the Gorakhpur BJP-supported MPs, earlier Avaidynath and now Adityanath. In all situations of communal violence, women are the worst sufferers; they lose their homes, husbands, sons and often suffer physical violation and violence themselves. I discuss below one such case.

A Bench of the High Court, UP, issued the following judgment on 21 September 2006: ‘…Communal riot took place in May 2005 in Mau district of UP …A detailed review of the incident which gives rise to the present petition is required and for that purpose a transcript, in English, of the first information report by Shahina Parveen, the 15 year old daughter of the applicants, would be in place.

To, the SSP, District Mau

Sir, It is submitted that the applicant Shahina Parveen daughter of Mohd. Muslim… The age of the applicant is about 15 years and she is a student of Class X. On 15.10.2005 around 12 o’clock in the noon, a mob of around 100 persons armed with knives, lathis and hockies entered the locality and started looting and burning the houses… The mob pursued us …and forced open the door of our house. Thereafter …Mohd. Muslim requested the rioters with folded hands that they had caused no harm to them and they should have mercy on them. The rioters, thereafter, barged into the house… The applicant and her younger brother ran out of the house and tried to escape but the rioters waylaid me near the house. They tore off the applicant’s clothes and made her virtually bare… The applicant ran inside the house, covering herself by her dupatta but the following persons laid her down and had forcible intercourse with her under threats of killing her (names of accused given, all belong to the other community). The following, thereafter, had forcibly intercourse with my mother before my eyes while the mother kept crying…

‘The two applicants… have come to this court saying that they have been making efforts to get their statements recorded under Sec. 164 Cr.PC by the CJM, Mau and have been to his court five times, on various dates, but the investigating officer did not turn up and the Magistrate did not record their statements… in view of the pronouncement of the Supreme Court… to the effect the Magistrate is not supposed to record the statement of a witness under Sec. 164 Cr.PC unless sponsored by the investigating agency (therefore the court cannot intervene in this aspect)… The girl who lodged the FIR had earlier filed a petition… in the High Court that the investigating officer is conniving with the accused… Mr. Justice Vinod Prasad passed the following order (instructing the Magistrate to record her statement and to transfer her case). It will be seen that despite the order of this Hon’ble Court, no progress has been made in the investigation and the investigating authorities have not taken steps to get the statements of witnesses recorded under Sec. 164 Cr.PC.’

The court then went on to transfer the case to the CBI but there has been no further hearing.

Shahina Parveen had sent her letter to me. It is written in Hindi on pages torn from one of her exercise books. It is a heartbreaking document written in terror but also with a lot of courage. After I took the matter up with the district authorities, they arranged for her medical examination, took possession of her soiled clothes and registered her FIR. This was done by officers who had been sent to Mau to restore peace. Once this was done, they left. So why was justice denied to Shahina by the SP government, committed as it is to secularism and in the light of the fact that her assailants belonged to the Bajrang Dal?

 

In UP, secularism, social justice, and caste equality have become words more or less devoid of any content, deployed only for sectional mobilization for votes and political power. It is more important to make a community feel that its interests will be protected by sloganeering and by giving some of its members importance and a share in the spoils of political power than doing something in its interests, especially of the poor belonging to this community and even more its voiceless, marginalized women. Other factors are also at work.

During the Mau riots, an SP MLA with a serious criminal record, was accused of having helped the rioting to spread. This placed the SP government on the defensive. Also many of its members belonging to the majority community were no different from other rioters in their behaviour. So several considerations led to the fact that Muslim community’s losses were not publicized. Certainly there was no electoral gain to be made from getting involved with Shahina’s pain. Since the Muslims of the area habitually voted for the SP, electorally it was felt more important to placate at least some members of the majority community.

Communal conflict also makes heroes out of criminals such that their respective communities perceive them as saviours. This, naturally, adversely impacts women. In a recent incident in Allahabad, two young girls studying and staying in a madrasa were gang-raped on the night of 18th/19th January. The local MP and MLA, both of the SP, are notorious for their criminal activities and happen to be Muslims. They did everything in their power to protect the rapists who were ‘their’ men. Only because of the intervention of womens’ groups including AIDWA, was this thwarted, the girls’ case registered and their assailants arrested.

 

Communal mobilization also increases the hold of fundamentalist religious leaders on their respective communities and since they hold rather regressive views on gender and are reluctant to accept any autonomy for women, this further reduces women’s status and deprives them of their rights. The fact that fatwas by ‘self-proclaimed’ clerics are taken seriously is illustrative; the Imrana case is a particularly dreadful example. But this phenomenon is not restricted to the minority community alone. The BJP government on coming to power in 1991 inserted the following sentence in the social science textbooks: ‘Ever since women have received legal rights, domestic discord has increased.’ The BJP government in the state strongly opposed the passage of the Domestic Violence Bill arguing that it would introduce discord in the family. In the name of Hindu culture, Bajrang Dal vandals regularly impose behavioural and dress codes on young girls, often resorting to violence. The Sangh Parivar’s patronage of superstition and anti-women rituals and beliefs have a most deleterious and insidious effect.

It is claimed that at least under BSP rule dalit women receive some protection. While the party did initiate some general programmes that benefited dalits in the villages, little changed on the justice front when Mayawati was sworn in as chief minister. During her last stint in power an infamous Government Order was issued to every police station in the state with instructions that the SC/ST Act was to be implemented with great circumspection and that complaints of rape made by dalit women were to be registered only after they had undergone a medical examination. This placed dalit women at a disadvantage as compared to other women for whom this was not an essential requirement. The GO was probably passed to placate her then ally in the government, the BJP.

 

During Mayawati’s first stint in power, a pasi (dalit community) woman, Soniya, from Ketmai village, Fatehpur, went all the way to one of Mayawati’s rallies in Lucknow and gave her a written complaint saying that she had been raped by the henchman of a feudal criminal of the area. Mayawati gave instructions to register the complaint in the Lucknow kotwali itself and promised Soniya that the BSP minister from Fatehpur would visit her the next day. On visiting her village a few days later, Soniya told me that she waited with all her neighbours near the main road for the minister. Late at night, they saw the flashing red lights and heard the sirens of the minister’s motorcade. They stood up, trembling with excitement and hope, but the motorcade flashed past them without stopping. The very next day a complaint under Sec. 420 (filing a wrongful complaint) was filed against Soniya in the local thana.

 

It is difficult to describe the conditions of Soniya’s village. Five year plans, independence, the Constitution of India – all these mean little. The able-bodied men had all run away to Punjab for work. The women, children and old people left behind lived in terrified silence. Mayawati’s accession had kindled some hope which was soon extinguished. It was only after many demonstrations by AIDWA that Soniya’s attackers were arrested and the pall of fear over the village broken.

UP politicians invariably claim that the kind of politics they practice is essential for their survival. Fortunately, women and poor people in the state are beginning, but only just beginning, to understand that such politics threatens their very existence. It is likely that nothing much will change for them after the next round of Vidhan Sabha elections by May this year. The caste and communal divide in the state will ensure that women will, by and large, vote in the same way that men in their families do. Caste and communal identities have, for the moment, subsumed gender and class identities. This means, tragically, that since women do not vote as women, on womens’ issues and agendas, they themselves are not part of the agenda of mainstream political parties in the state.

Women’s organizations and political parties like the CPI(M) have to do more to change this state of affairs. They must not only campaign effectively on issues that impact on the lives of people but also take up social issues like dowry, female foeticide, caste oppression and communalization and organize struggles around them that draw in masses of women and poor people.