From: iview-AT-technologist.com
Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 08:50:28 -0800
Subject: Re: Dowry Conference: Feminism/Leftism


Rinita Mazumdar wrote:

> 
> It is my belief that since women's question came to India with the
> rat-race of laissez-faire economics, a distinction between the
> civil/political (public/private) is slowly emerging; and as the latter
> concerns the mainthrust of feminist politics, it seems that in the
> enthusiasm to create a ``civil society'' via rousseau/locke
> what we see is (theoretically) a dialectic of the women question
> within the ``safe space'' of bourgeois a-politicalness.
> 
> Partha is a very old friend and I know how much he has written on this
> subject. So his credibility is not questionable, his politics
> is in the terrain of ``civil society''. People like him and
> me now-a-days have no space to speak from.
> 
> No wonder by making women's question ``public'' the right-wingers are
> the only ones giving the subaltern some space to speak from.
> 
> Rinita


I wonder what is more to the point, despite each western philosopher who
seems to have been the source for one form of political power in the
west or another, thus allowing a formulation of western patriarchy -- I
think what is more to the point is wherefrom rose the *Indian*
patriarchy?  The downtrodden, abused, battered, and forgotten women and
children within the Indian context are so not because of western
philosophers and their political offshoots, but because of rank
injustices within the Indian patriarchy.  That *that* patriarchy has
been bowing to the west for captivating self-serving reasons in a
prospering global consumer economy should in no way keep dissenters
silent.

I don't see why you feel you and Partha have no platform from which to
speak.  Do you mean that you are both looking for a "safe" place for
such discourse and dissent?  If you have grounds for saying something, I
think you must say it despite the political powers that wish to prevent
you.  Have your own conference and invite innovators and soothsayers who
damn the patriarchy.  That is the mark of a revolutionary, of course.  
However, there is no safety net for those outside of the patriarchy,
period.  A patriarchal legal system will prosecute to maintain the
status quo.  Western status quo is maintaining Big Business interests at
any cost.  "Women's Question" has no place in it, as any patriarchal
gatekeeper will tell us.  The question is:  Is this justice?

-Manjusree