Bundelkhand in central India, a region notorious for its rebels-turned-armed bandits, is witnessing a new kind of rebellion with an unusual cast of characters. These are the pink sari-clad women of the Gulabi Gang, who use words as weapons to demand their rights, submitting petitions and haranguing corrupt officials. They travel long distances by cart and tractor, bus and train, to wrest justice for women and Dalits, undeterred by sneering policemen and condescending bureaucrats. Based on this real life story, documentary filmmaker Nishtha Jain has made Gulabi Gang, a documentary borrowing the name of the group as her film’s title.
“I first heard about Gulabi Gang in 2009. What intrigued me was their location – rural Bundelkhand, one of the most backward areas of our country where women are much oppressed. Majority of the gang members are unlettered and that was also true of their leader Sampat Pal. I found Sampat Pal amazing, she’s completely self-taught and had the courage to break away from her in-laws to do the work she’s doing now. I thought if these women, despite all their disadvantages can rise against injustice, so can anyone. It would be an inspiring tale to tell. So I decided to go and meet Sampat Pal. Within days of observing her at work, I realised that the reality was more complicated than I thought and that was good for it as it would make for a more nuanced film,” says Nishtha whose documentary is bagging awards across the globe.
Founded by Sampat Pal Devi, 43, an unlettered mother of five in 2006. Gulabi Gang now has a strength of thousands of rural women in pink saris journeying from one town to another in Bundelkhand district of Uttar Pradesh to create awareness among poor and neglected men and women about their rights and to fight for their rights that have been violated, or try and bring justice to victims who are no more. Sampat Pal was married to an icecream vendor when she was 12 and had her first child when she was 15.
Once, in 2006, Sampat Pal saw a man beating up his wife brutally and no one turned a hair because domestic violence was a given in Bundelkhand, and both men and women had internalised it. Sampat Devi appealed to the husband to stop beating his wife. But the man abused her right back. She came back the next morning with five other women armed with thick sticks and beat up this man till he began to beg for mercy. The news of five women beating up one man spread like wild fire and women from neighbouring villages soon came to her asking for help. She asked most of them to join in and Gulabi Gang was born. “The colour pink does not have any religious nor any political association and is neutral in every way. Therefore, we chose pink and took the colour as part of the name of our ever-expanding group,” says Pal.
Gulabi Gang has stopped several child marriages, forced the police to register domestic violence cases and marked out the dowry death of a young woman which the in-laws, with the connivance of the police, passed off as ‘suicide.’ The families initially did not like their women to become social activists in a real sense but they come around in due course of time. There are a few exceptions when a woman drops out because a family member is a part of the investigation. The group, which the Indian media portrays positively, was reported to have 20,000 members as of 2008, as well as a chapter in Paris, France.
Bundelkhand is marked among the poorest of the poor in the district of Uttar Pradesh. But that has not deterred Sampat Pal to lead and form this movement though there are instances of some members dropping off for various reasons. It is growing everyday, in strength, in numbers and in its success with most of the issues it takes up a fight for or against. Today, it has a membership of thousands of women who are constantly on the move, investigating the suspicious death of a young woman the family has labelled ‘suicide’ or, protesting against the land-grab of a poor farmer by local politicians while the police looks the other way. Killing of women is a common reality. They do not get reported because most families choose not to file reports with the police. Some of them do not file reports because they are involved in the killing. Others do not because they know that the police will do nothing and most of them are corrupt. Most cases are usually mutually settled by the families and with the help of the police.
Pal has become a ‘history sheeter’ in a manner of speaking. There is a long list of criminal charges against her that includes unlawful assembly, rioting, attaching a government employee and obstructing an officer in discharge of his duties. She was once forced to go underground. But along with her group, she has scored several victories. In 2008, Gulabi Gang ambushed the local electricity office for withholding the supply till the common people gave bribes of sexual favours just to get the supply restored. Wielding sticks, a group stormed the office building and roughed up the staff. The supply was restored an hour later like magic.
Why “gulabi” and why pink? “There were few colours left to choose from”, explains Sampat Pal. “Most of the colours are associated with political parties like white is Congress, orange is the BJP, blue is the BSP, green is Islamic, red is communist,” she adds. The best part of this group is that their crusade is not only against atrocities against women and the oppression of women. They also cover injustices heaped on men such as landgrabbing by vested parties from the very poor, who are forced to run from pillar to post for legal solutions they cannot afford. Women learn physical skills like lathi-charging to equip themselves for physical fight, if and when called for.
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Shoma A. Chatterji
The writer is a freelance journalist, film scholar and author. She has authored 17 published titles and won the National Award for Best Writing on Cinema twice. She won the UNFPA-Laadli Media Award, 2010 for ‘commitment to addressing and analysing gender issues’ among many awards. She is currently Senior Research Fellow, ICSSR, Delhi researching the politics of presentation of working women in post-colonial Bengali cinema 1950 to 2003.[/column]