Personal is Political: Birth of the autonomous women’s movement

Once the Emergency is lifted the experience of the violence and curtailment of human rights
 sparks newly politicised groups. Women activists foregrounding the gender question formed women’s groups within movements and others left movements to form independent feminist organisations. Many groups were formed after the vigorous campaigns against rape. Declaring themselves autonomous from political parties and institutional funding, these groups were non-hierarchical in structure and practice.

The infamous custodial rape cases of the early 70’s, Mathura a 16 year old Adivasi teenager and six years later Rameeza Bee a 18 year old Muslim woman, sparked a nationwide outrage. Protests around impunity and the calling out of the collusion of the state legal and medical systems in convicting the perpetrators, led eventually to the amendment of the rape law.

Womens groups began to work on violence against women, both in private and public realms: expanding the notion of violence to include gender discrimination at different stages of womens life cycle, marital violence and dowry murders. In questioning patriarchy and asymmetries of power within the family as well as challenging how these are played out in the public realm feminists have played a major role in making violence against women visible and important to be acted upon.

The radical upsurge in political actions by feminists, across caste, class and regional locations, included an explosion of street protests shaped and attended by many. A burst of myriad cultural and political activities followed: feminist research, feminist publishing, street theatre in many cities, poster productions, writing songs, interventions in public spaces such as busses, and more

This was the vibrant and innovative ground from which the Yugantar film collective emerged.