If I could choose one visual – a poster, photograph, painting or even graffiti on a banner - that told me a thousand stories about the women's movement in India, what would it be? Would it be the Chennai-based dancer Chandralekha's dramatic and colourful posters and postcards? Or the anti-dowry posters from Delhi women's group Saheli? Perhaps the AIDWA poster of the property rights of women? Or the Bangalore-based Vimochana's arresting poster of a lone everywoman? Maybe the joyous ‘women hold up half the sky' from the Pune-based Aalochana? Or the gentle yet evocative poster by Mallika Virdi, Saheli, Jagori, Action India and Sabla Singh : Dukh tumhe kya to dega; tum dukh to todh do'?
Truly, I'm spoiled for choice. With more than a thousand posters that have been painstakingly collected by the feminist publishing house Zubaan as part of its Poster Women project, the wonderful visual telling of the contemporary women's movement which began in the late 1970s is a testimony to the vibrancy and creative expression of so many women and men who grappled with issues of rape, dowry, personal laws, sex-determination tests, property rights, sexual harassment, domestic violence or sexuality rights.
While the project is online (www.posterwomen.org), Zubaan has now published ‘Our Pictures, our words: A visual journey through the women's movement'. The book, authored by Laxmi Murthy and Rajashri Dasgupta, is an attempt to document not just the posters, but also the context of the struggles from which they emerged. The book seeks to be an educational tool and introduce younger readers and audiences to the issues and concerns of Indian feminism.
Plunging right into the central issue of patriarchy, the book outlines the first discussions within the women's movement over patriarchy, moving on to the more recent articulations of the third gender and of men and masculinity.
The rest of the book is divided into four major sections. Body Politics, the first, looks at the issues arising from the movement against rape, domestic violence, sexual harassment, health and desire. The second, Community Politics, looks at religion and personal Laws, honour crimes and religious extremism. The third, Societal Politics, examines political participation and citizenship and governance while the last, Politics of Access, discusses environment, and issues and the feminisation of labour.
Throughout, the visuals – the posters and photographs that captured the essence of the expression of women's organisations – illustrate the textual delineation of these issues. As a ready reckoner into the lived histories of women in India, the book also provides a completely different gaze from the predominant representation of women in mainstream media today.
It does discuss, all too briefly alas, the manner in which the representation of women in the posters veered towards the sari-clad, long-haired, dark-skinned and barefoot ‘mahila' till women's groups consciously tried to be more inclusive in their depiction of the Indian woman. But more on this would have been welcome, perhaps in another book!
(Geeta Seshu is an independent journalist based in Mumbai and has worked on the representation of women in mainstream media as well as on media freedom)
