Most of the images my mind conjures up when I think about India are drawn from things like Forster's A Passage to India or, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. I imagine the crowded streets, the river Ganges, or one of the Gandhi family. Of course, what little I've managed to pick up from scattered bits of literature, history, or film barely begins to scratch the surface of India. There is an India we may not think of, the India outside of the cities, and it is this India and the struggles of a group of women that Amana Fonanella-Khan depicts in her new book Pink Sari Revolution: A Tale of Women and Power in India.
The central focus of the work is the case of one Sheelu Nishad, a young women raped by a local legislator and then accused of theft and imprisoned by the local police. It is here that we first meet the formidable Sampat Pal, the woman who formed the "Pink Gang," a brave group of women who dress in pink saris and agitate against corruption and wrongdoing, whether it is protesting for a better road (rather humorously, by shaming a local magistrate by saying the road was no better than a field, and then proceeding to plant crops there), or acting against those who are corrupt or violent. An outspoken and intelligent woman, Sampat was never shy in voicing her opinion, a tendency that nearly saw her murdered in her old village but has generally served her well. Seeking strength in numbers, Sampat gathered a group of like-minded women in her village who were tired of being bystanders in the happenings of life. Together, wearing their pink saris as a uniform, they've grown into a movement that works towards a better life for women, and the poor, in the province. The province of Uttar Pradesh, where the Pink Gang began, is surely one of the most poverty-ridden and corrupt places in India, even by the standards of so-called "emerging market" nations. The province is occasionally referred to as "India's Wild West," and here politicians and policemen are even more corrupt than usual. It is a place where caste discrimination, though officially prohibited in India, still reigns, and the lives of women are particularly harsh. Some may question their tactics, which have included assaulting men with their batons, including policemen. But in a place where justice must generally be purchased, I would assert that they are justified in using unusual and extraordinary means to achieve their ends. It must also be admitted that there is something deeply satisfying in reading about an abusive husband being insulted and beaten by the Pink Gang in turn--it seems in fact a small price to pay to get a man to stop beating his wife.
As the narrative progresses, Fontanella-Khan deftly incorporates stories that illustrate the development of the Pink Gang from just a few members to over 20,000 as of 2008 and the journey of Sampat Pal herself. Some others have criticized this book as an overly sunny portrait of the Pink Gang and their leader, but this seems to me an unfair criticism. The author is certainly quite taken with Sampat Pal, as many are and will be after reading this book, but this isn't merely a panegyric to a courageous woman. The stories that the author chooses to included (surely just a few among hundreds) paint a balanced and complex picture of the leader of the Pink Gang, from successes, to dealing with problematic members, to her struggles in deciding whether to enter politics herself as an extension of her work to make life better for those in the province.
Take the time to read this book; whether you think that you will be interested or not, this woman's story deserves to be heard. It is also an inspiring, and ongoing, story that should be a lesson to us all. No matter what the obstacles are, no matter the level of corruption or resistance in our way, if we want to make a change we have an obligation to get up and fight for it. If one woman can start a movement to make life better in the most backward and corrupt province in India, what then is our excuse for inaction?
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