The following lines, towards the end, stand out for perhaps helping one understand modernity (and possibly feminism)
Modernity involves more than sin. It demands irreverence. How many urban young women chop off their hair, or choose not to procreate, or dine out alone? How many, despite their modern garnishes, believe in prospering alongside, and not through, a man?
He also mentions that India did not have a visible firebrand feminist movement. He is right and the most popular feminists that I remember in recent times is Arundhati Roy. But perhaps they have decided that it is better to focus on social work and broader social problems in India than feminism of the western variety.
Update: For an alternate/diametrically opposite view of this article, go to young feminists
3 comments:
Isn't it strange that a country that produced female leaders of the stature of Mrs. Gandhi, is still struggling to come to terms with recognizing its female population as having a mind of its own that doesn't need external regulation!
I'm not much of an Arundhati Roy fan though I did like her novel 'The God of...'. She pretty much fans the waves of divisiveness and then rides those waves with her rhetoric...merely an opinion, hehe
Well, infact it is even stranger that the country (and the region) which has a recent history of extreme feminine suppression managed to have strong women leaders like Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Sheikh Hasina, Chandrika Kumaratunga etc.
Arundhati Roy is provocative and I admire her courage to challenge the traditional hierarchy. It is not something which happens very often in our parts of the world. :)
Another view:
http://youngfeminists.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/indian-feminism-101/
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