Rahul Gandhi in Pune: "Break the Cage!" "Smash the Patriarchy!!!"

[Sukla Sen]

<https://youtu.be/61WUM1Zv-mE>

(Please watch, especially, from:

I. 7.23 - 7.59 mins.

II. 53:24 - 54:07 mins.)

[7:24

The biggest strength of this country is the fact that our women should be independent.

7:32

Should stand for themselves. Should believe in themselves. You belong to nobody. You do not...

7:38

...belong to anybody except yourself.

7:43

[Applause / cheers]

7:44 You have a relationship with your father. You have a relationship with your brother. You have a relationship with your husband.

7:53

You have a relationship with your son. But you do not belong to them. You belong to yourself.

...

53:29 

Girls, this is India’s strength. You are the foundation of this country. You are the future of this country.

53:38 

You are beaten, frightened, threatened, and controlled by patriarchy.

53:47 

Together, we must end this patriarchy.

53:50

Smash the patriarchy.

53:53 

[Applause / cheers]

53:55 

And my message to you: a simple message—be loud, be proud, [sound of screaming], and fight for your space in society.

54:07 

[Applause / cheers]

54:10 

Hello, we will do it. I will do it, just do it. Hello, democracy is taking shape in the country today; it is taking shape today.]

The Bugle Is Finally Blown!

The story actually started, albeit in an undertone, with the commencement of the (magical?) Bharat Jodo Yatra. 

Rahul Gandhi, in the process of the Yatra, quite demonstratively hugging (unrelated) women across a very wide age spectrum — as an affirmation of mutual solidarity — immediately put the BJP trolls into action. Almost on cue. They launched ugly attacks by portraying these gestures as instances of gross lasciviousness. 

They evidently completely misread him. He remained absolutely undeterred, stuck to his ways and refused to explain himself. Almost unthinkable for a mainstream Indian politician. Ever fearful of voter backlash.

(Rahul Gandhi, like Modi, is just not risk-averse. Very much unlike his mother.)

He, on the other, determinedly breached a red line. Deliberately kept breaking a long-held taboo. 

The trolls had to eventually retire.

This was, as it appears now, his very own way of rather unobtrusively initiating a massive push to Indian women's "Pinjra Tod" campaign already underway. By way of a planful low-key subversion of the reigning norms of strict physical seclusion between the genders. Very much a prerequisite for women's all-round participation in public life.

(Here, it is worth recalling that just about a century back it required the moral authority of a "Mahatma", and no less, to open the doors, for the first time, for women's participation in public political life on a mass scale. Defying the highly taboo-ridden stifling social culture of India, then in place — in an incremental manner.

This so-very-audacious attempt is at least somewhat comparable with that.)

In the following months, he took special initiatives to interact with women — with diverse social backgrounds, and not just elite students. 

Now, finally, comes this open call: Break the Cage! Smash the Patriarchy!!! 

In the Indian context, a veritable Revolution! 

(Just mark the vocabulary he is using!)

It's significant that he chose Pune as the launching ground. 

It bears mentioning that it's the home turf of Mahatma Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule. Also of Justice Mahadev Govind Ranade. A very significant hub of social reform movements. Despite being a citadel of conservatism too. 

It's also an interface between the North and the South.

Let's see how it evolves. 

What sort of concrete programme is put forward. To translate attitude and enthusiasm into sustained result-oriented actions.

How it clicks beyond the limits of relatively enlightened and privileged urban young students.

(In passing, while Rahul Gandhi and the CJP are both jockeying for much the same political space, they are also, in a way, feeding into each other.

The two together, while treading their own distinct paths, have effected a clearly discernible shift in the political mood of the country. The second time since the Bharat Jodo Yatra, that first broke the jinx.)

Peace Is Doable