This paper revisits some feminist positions on nation and nationalism while reflecting on the ongoing protests of female wrestlers in Delhi against their sexual assault and violations within the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). The female wrestlers have garnered support from different constituencies, including male wrestlers, Women’s groups, farmers, Khap Panchayat chiefs of U.P., Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, homemakers, and non-mainstream media.
The dominant discourse surfacing in this fight is ‘daughters of the nation’ assaulted by a very dominant politician- Brij Bhushan Singh, who has many criminal cases filed against him. Moreover, the ruling political party is blamed for supporting Mr. Brij Bhushan through silence and non-condemnation. Interestingly, different participants in the protest in solidarity with the female wrestlers are deploying the idioms of the ‘daughters of the nation (desh ki betiyan) and the question of their izzat- aawru (honour), humiliation of matr shakti (maternal power) and samman (integrity) and on rare occasions, dushkarm (sexual violence). These idioms are described within feminist literature on nationalism and gender as a trap for women. When the strategies of dominance and rebellion are increasingly framed in culturalized terms, women are often required to carry this burden of representation (Yuvul-Davis). If women seeking support from different constituencies adopt this feminist line, they might be in danger of losing their wider support base. Can we then use Saba Mehmood’s framework of virtuous “agentic” moral women under religious practices in understanding the above protest when the female wrestlers themselves reproduce a moral language of desh ki betiyan and desh ka samman?
The paper discusses these apparent contradictions within women’s protests against sexual violence in India and South Asia.
