Feminism
as a consolidated movement against the discrimination of women is a powerful
social movement against patriarchal values and self-fashioning of cultures that
implicate themselves on certain markers of identity. The body, as Judith Butler
theorizes, always takes on a form that is obviously an effect of ideological
repetition. The forms and performative gestures of gender do not attend to a
human being ‘naturally’, but constitute a vast body of pre-existing
potentialities that are quickly acquired as a person grows up. The body then,
does not remain merely a site for the application of external power, but is
simultaneously formed by power. In this light, it is interesting to see the
leakage of power in the vast continuum of human history in the form of women
emerging as ‘a’ great fighter against ‘a’ powerful force. But these are
profane, nonetheless. The sacred is always Virgin Mary, or some other figure of
humility or motherliness, and a Rani of Jhansi thus ‘emerges’ from the depths
of consciousness to reclaim a structural freedom from discursive formations that
was denied originally (all pun intended to the original sin).
But
now the profane seems to have become the sacred. One of the most aesthetic
expressions of this reclamation is the not the emergence but the consolidation
of the position of the women combatants, who have fought alongside men in
battles. The sprouting of these individuals in history is also very important
and this article will deal with both the aspects of writing about the emergence
of woman combatants- the individuals in history who enjoy legendary status in
the imagination, and the ones who are changing the apparatuses of imagination by
making the acts of valour ‘natural’.
Throughout
history, we see many individual women who have been valiant fighters and have
become legendary figures and sources of inspiration for other women. Rani
Abbakka of Ullal near Mangalore is one such woman who fended
off the Portuguese on several occasions. The Portuguese by the 16th
century had most ports of the Indian Ocean in their firm control. Another
similar figure, Queen
Mangammal of Madurai fought many kings ranging from the Mughals to
the Marathas to several other small kings who refused to pay the annual tribute
and declared rebellion against her. She was able to suppress most of these
rebellions against her kingdom and ultimately proved to be a much greater ruler
than her husband. Mai
Bhago was also a great fighter against the Mughals and saved her
Sikh community from the hands of the Mughals. In this way she resisted
conversion to Islam. Examples of such brave fighters from other cultures are
also present and should be hailed as great. The
Celtic queen Boudicca fought against the Romans in Britain. It was
customary for the Celtic kingdoms to train their daughters in sword-fighting
and other similar activities. The other examples from ancient history are Chilonis
who was a princess of Sparta and had married Cleonymus who
was not allowed to accede to the throne and was sent away from Sparta. He
attacked his homeland, but the queen Chilonis along with her lover Acrotatus,
was able to defend her land. There are more examples of such brave women
fighters which can be found here. Joan
of Arc is also known for her bravery when she fought for France in the
Hundred Years’ War. Recently,
S.P. Harish and Oendrilla Dube have shown that there was 27%
increase in wars when a woman was in power in Europe between 1480 and 1913. The
explanation is that there was a greater division of labour when the queen was
in power. This means that the queens were keener to place their spouses in
official positions and be free to think about wars and aggressive foreign
policy in general. On the other hand, when the king was in power, he would be
less inclined to place their wives in official positions and so would have to
manage both the state affairs and foreign policy, which would have been a very
difficult task. This theory is open to debate, but nonetheless is the
illustration of instances where women have tried to break free from existing
paradigms of identity formation.
If we
look at more recent history, we can find more and more women becoming
combatants and active participants in wars, revolutions and uprisings. Constance
Markeivicz was an active participant in the Easter rising
against the British Empire. She was also able to hurt a British sniper and put
into solitary confinement and the only one out of the 70 women to have met this
fate. Blaanca
Canales, the Puerto Rican nationalist was involved in an armed
uprising against the United States in the year 1950, when the United States
passed a bill that made printing and publishing a crime by law. Celia
Sanchez, the life-long partner of Fidel Castro, was
a great revolutionary, who led many combat forces and was the main orchestrator
of the 1952 coup of the Batista government when more than 80 fighters were
brought to Cuba in order to make the coup possible. During World War II,
Lydia Lydvayak became the first woman in history to score an aerial kill.
This was made possible by the fact that the Russian army decided to recruit
women aviators.
Carrying
on the tradition of women engaging in armed struggles, the most important turn
has been in the last five years. With the Arab Spring and the subsequent rise of
the ISIS, a large number of women have come out to defend themselves and their
countries. The ISIS is a death cult and has transformed the very notion of the
nation-state by showing that the nation-states cannot protect their citizens.
Against this vicious idea, women have stood up from Yemen to Syria to Iraq and
many other middle-eastern states. The Yazidis are a people that have been hated
by the ISIS and have been the victims of the most brutal of human crimes
possible. A big salute is due to the women
fighters of the Yazidis who have named themselves the “Sun Ladies”. They
were the rape victims of the ISIS and were witness to the devilish nature of
the Islamic State, where mothers even threw their babies off the cliffs and
then jumped themselves in order to die in a better way. Alfred
Yaghobzadeh has masterfully captured the plight of the Yazidi
women fighters, most of who even deny that they were raped by the ISIS
militants because of the culture of shame. The photographs taken by him have
delved into the resilient mentality of these women and also others like the
Kurdish women fighters, who had saved the Yazidi women from the ISIS. This
solidarity between the Yazidis and Kurds was an effect, in a sense of the
formation of Rojava, or the small sub-states in Syria by the Kurdish minority
and that have been targeted constantly the Syrian government. Many men had
fled, but around 16000
fighters had stayed back in Rojava to fight the ISIS. A basic
principle of the Kurdish struggle was
gender equality. The YPJ or the women’s wing of the army, was
born out of this principle. Rehana
became an online celebrity when she killed 100 ISIS militants in Kobane,
one of the worst sufferers of ISIS attacks. The Iraqi Kurdish women’s army, known
as the Peshmerga (those who face death) had also been active in
parts of Iraq that were controlled by the ISIS. The Christian minority in Syria
has also produced female fighters in north-east Syria who fight alongside the
Arab and Kurdish fighters against ISIS. Umayyah
Naji Jabara, an Iraqi politician was killed in a combat with
the ISIS. She was personally leading the combat when she was hit by a sniper. A
Canadian woman, one of the very few from the western states to have joined
the fight against ISIS, is an example of voluntary participation in the war
against terror. She is of the view that the Kurds have displayed extreme gender
equality in this struggle and women have been treated very well.
In the
Indian context, apart from Rani Abbakka and Rani of Jhansi, there are several
other women in Indian history who have been great fighters. In the ballads of
north Malabar, for example, we have the legend of Unniyarcha, who saved her
village from the Moplahs in the 16th century. Even before the formal
rebellion against the British had started at a large scale, Kittur
Rani Chennamma was involved in a fierce struggle against the British when
they did not accept his son as the heir to the throne but instead wanted to
annex the kingdom. In Awadh, for example,
the wife of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, Begum Hazrat, with the help of a number
of associates provided the longest and the toughest resistance to the British
after the sepoy mutiny took place. The begum ruled for 10 months as a regent in
Lucknow and died in Nepal in 1879. Rani Laxmibai, or
better known as Jhansi ki Rani does not need much elaboration here. She fought
against the British after the repeated appeals against annexation were
rejected. But she fought her fiercest fight in 1858 when she had to flee from
her fort to Gwalior, before she was finally overpowered by the British. Another
great example from this period of Indian history would be Jhalkari Bai,
who was a part of the army of Jhansi and was trained in swordfight. Azizun Bai
and Uda Devi are also remembered as legendary fighters in the 19th
century. Moving forward from the 19th century, new forms of rule and
power demanded new forms of resistance. The
provisional Azad Hind government during the Indian Independence Movement
was formed in Singapore. During the world war, when the army of the Azad Hind
was aiming to overthrow the government, Laxmibai, or Captain Laxmi was leading
the Rani of Jhansi regiment.
Recently,
the Secretary-General of the United Nations praised the peace-keeping unit of
the Indian
police force that works for the UN. Their work in Liberia, especially
during the Ebola breakout has been praised. This police unit of the UN entirely
composed of Indian women police officers is the first of its kind. To give such
other examples, Yamin
Hazarika made it to Indira Gandhi’s security team from Assam. She had
cleared the police service examinations but was appointed in DANIPS (Delhi,
Andaman and Nicobar Islands Police Service) Sanjukta
Parashar is regarded as the first IPS officer from Assam, because it is not
clear whether Yamin Hazarika was ever promoted to the police forces. She
has been fighting the Bodo militants and has killed 16 of them and has arrested
over 64 militants. But this is not the only reason why people respect her
so much. She is known to be a very humble person. She holds a PhD in US Foreign
Policy from JNU. Every six months, around 5000 women graduates take various
examinations for the posts in the Indian army. They have achieved various
laudable feats and are ever-growing, showing how the Indian society is
changing and more women are coming to the forefront. The army is generally,
however, reluctant in appointing women officers, but the
ITBP is a glaring exception. It has employed female veterinarians in their
ranks. They have also expressed the desire to employ 30% women in the general
duty cadre. Valour has also been exhibited by women
like Vinaya Patil, who is the wife of Flight Lieutenant Shashikant Damgude.
She joined the IAF after her husband died. The first woman to be awarded the sword
of honour is Divya, who made great contribution to the Indian army and is a
source of inspiration for other women. Lieutenant
Kiran Shekhawat became the first woman to die on duty. She was on a Dornier
aircraft which went down. Apart from these individual feats, some structural
changes are also taking place. Indian Navy has expressed
the desire to recruit more female flyers. Sapper
Shanti Tigga is also an inspiration for other women. She is in fact the
first lady jawan among the 1.3 million-strong defence forces. She has time and
again outperformed
her fellows, all of whom are male. She is a widowed mother. The
most positive development this year, however, has been the recruitment of three
female flying officers. As mentioned above, too, the IAF had been asking
for more female recruits and this was made true by this latest recruitment.
Despite
such positive developments, both in the Indian and global context, the
debate whether women can be good combatants and a force to reckon with, is far
from over. The main concerns of the army officers, in
India too, among others are the issues of psychological complexity, which
might prove to be an obstacle in the way of the women participating in combats
and also the fact that they would, for example, not be able to carry other male
officers when they are injured, and hence seriously hindering the relief
measures. While these concerns may be true, the women are also hopeful that
they would be able to bring about a change in the dimensions of the
relationship with male officers. Concerted efforts can be taken up for the
purpose of training the women well. But that needs a lot of will power from the
society.
(Co-authored with Suvankur Sukul)
