Roar of the tigress: Meet Shiv Sena's 'dashing and daring' women

A victory celebration by Shiv Sena workers at Anand Nagar in Thane in February 2012 PicSameer MarkandeIts 745 on the evening of Sankashta Chaturthi a day that calls for women in Maharashtra to keep an upvas which is broken after seeing the moon It makes sense then that in the last oneandahalf hours Anita Mayekar and her colleagues havent even had a sip of tea or coffee Yet as she trudges along Lady Jamshedji Road in order to get home on time to make the mandated modaks theres no sign of fatigueShe and her colleagues are distracted by a young man a seller of artificial jewellery Hes just got a new collection of bangles and jhumkas and the women stop to check them out A few minutes later they are back on their way greeted by regular nods of acknowledgement Everyone knows us here and once people know you are with the Sena you also avoid unwanted attention Mayekar adds a minute before turning right for her home a few hundred metres away from their shakha on Bal Govind Das Marg in Dadar WestLadies of the aghadiM bole to main mahaan hoon Hi bole to main himmat wali hoon Aur La bole to main laakhon main ek hoon If it were possible to summarise nearly 11 years of research in three lines then this quote perhaps comes closest to capturing Chicagobased academic Tarini Bedis work surrounding the Mahila Aghadi Shiv Senas womens wingMahila Aghadi members at the Govind Das Marg Shakha in Dadar Manisha Kayande seated at the rightend corner the party spokesperson says the strength of the Aghadi is around 50000 PicsSneha KharabeBedi now 44 years old was born in Chennai and moved about the country along with the transfers of her father a government employee In Mumbai Bedi who studied at Forts JB Petit School and later Cathedral and John Connon School and finally St Xaviers College lived largely in Colaba Yet she says I never met a Sainik during that time even though I knew about the party and its politicsThis is perhaps why when she decided to pursue a doctoral research the assistant professor at the Department of Anthropology University of Illinois who wanted to study the engagement of gender and politics returned to Mumbai to study the women of the Shiv Sena Women Sainiks she believes occupy a unique position as it is one of the few political outfits in the country where women have been mobilised as party workers since inceptionJogeshwari candidate Shivani Shailesh Parab campaigning through haldikumkum in February 2010 PicRane AshishBedi whose research has now been published by Aleph as The Dashing Ladies of Shiv Sena Political Matronage in Urbanizing India says over the phone Unlike the womens wing of other parties where theres a clear distinction between men and women the Shiv Senas practices are quite progressive She attributes this to the inclusion of people from the lower middle and agricultural classes where the patriarchal normative standards applying to women are less stringentSena shakha boards give equal prominence to the shakha pramukh male head and the shakha sangathaka head of the Mahila Aghadi says Manisha Kayande 53 who juggles her responsibility as a Sena officer with the responsibilities she has held for the last 22 years as an assistant professor at Parels MD CollegeKeeping the dashing goingEveryone knows that I know how to kill you how to blind you with chili powder I can face anything But I am loving If you inquire here everyone will first say that Munde is very loving but she is dangerous That is what I want them to think because that is what gets my political work done Everyone knows that I am daring and dashing that way Bedi quotes the motorcycle riding Bala Munde party leader in the district outside PuneDr Neelam Gorhe a member of Punes Legislative Council for three consecutive terms recalls that in 2012 she started getting lewd calls at night after her mobile number was written on the walls of Pune airportGender equality in the Sena extends to even the militant nature of the party Not for a second demure mdash or the stereotype of the ideal Indian woman mdash the group of over 30 women here with an age group ranging from mid30s to mid50s becomes even more raucous when we bring up the word dashing In true Sainik style even as they insist on speaking in Marathi they offer a synonym in their language mdash Rana Raagini ie women from the battlefield Women who will neither tolerate injustice nor an insult to the Sena flag They dont shy away from admitting to legal trangressions either The cases against them they wear like medals Kayande says Every Sena leader whether big or small has at least 10 cases against them There is no fearRohita Thakur a 48yearold shakha sangathaka draped in a lime green sari with a printed border stands up Three years ago she says she was protesting outside Sena Bhavan against NCP leader Ajit Pawar the thendeputy chief minister for his If there is no water in the dam how can we release it Should we urinate into it remark I was burning his effigy The police were there and I got picked up But I wasnt afraid We have got used to it now she addsDr Shubha Raul who works with the health wing of the Shivsena party arrives at meeting at BorivaliThe violence the women insist comes with context Vandana Todankar 38 who has been with the Mahila Aghadi for 12 years talks of incidents of domestic abuse If we catch a man beating up his wife we give him one or two jhaapads she adds Another chips in Whats the point of watching the woman die We may as well take action now This sisterhood of sorts extends to providing emotional support as wellWhile speaking of a former corporator Bedi writes of how Srilata Kane once spent every day for three weeks with a junior party worker Malini who had lost her husband to a heart attack Shock made it difficult for Malini to eat drink or stand up without stumbling As Malini had no close family in Mumbai it was Kane who slept next to her during the long nights of mourning fed her gently from a plate of rice and lentils raised a steel glass of water to her lips and sang bhajans to comfort herMahila Shakha Sangathak Deepali Sane speaking at the meeting on WednesdayShield against violenceIts been more than two decades since Dr Neelam Gorhe a member of Punes Legislative Council for three consecutive terms joined the Shiv Sena A doctor with a degree from Worlis RA Podar Ayurvedic Medical College Gorhe can recall the difficulties of a political life mdash lack of toilets in rural areas not having comfortable pandals and stones being thrown by the masses These she says are challenges that can be overcomeWhat she recalls especially is an incident in 2012 Some mischievous people wrote my mobile number on the toilet walls at Pune airport and I would receive lewd calls late at night When I found out about the origin workers from my party had the walls repainted she adds This prompt action is perhaps what women find most protective about an alignment with the Sena says Bedi Often the women in the Sena are heads of households and this becomes a protective shield against domestic or other kinds of abuse she addsVandana TodankaThe turmeric connectMuch of Bedis work she says was done in the background I introduced myself over the months at shakhas I didnt ask too many questions They never asked me about my politics she adds Soon she says she started getting invites to social events that often serve as networking platformsOne such key event she says is the haldikumkum ritual Beginning on Makar Sankranti which falls in midJanuary and extending to February women in Maharashtra head to each others homes where their foreheads are marked with turmeric powder haldi and turmeric powder in slaked lime which makes it turn red kumkumTarini BediThis is where the women talk to each other and share stories The gatta pramukhs often head to slums where all the local women come and put haldikumkum on their foreheads even the unmarried women and take the til gud offerings The pramukhs hop through several such events in one evening Those with the maximum amount of haldikumkum show it as a proof of their power she addsThe Thackeray auraMost women we met had found their inspiration in the party supremo as he is often referred to Bal Thackeray The balkadu that the cadre receives is important says Kayande using the metaphor of a bitter medicine given to infants to ensure good health Here its the instruction received from Balasaheb and now Uddhav What they say is an orderRohita ThakuYou are a Shiv Sainik you have to obey and be punctual If the meeting starts at 5 pm they are here on time For instance there was a local election and a corporator didnt reach on time He was pulled off the post in a second as because of his vote the candidate lost the chairmans election The partys orderis sacrosanctBedi says she attended several events where either Bal Thackeray his son Uddhav or nephew Raj who later formed the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena were speaking While she never interacted with them she wanted to understand the magnetism of their personalities through the eyes of the women who looked up to themA variety of backgroundsSitting in a rickshaw she has just hailed after stepping out of her Borivli West apartment building where she lives on the 12th floor 50yearold Dr Shubha Raul admits that many factors were in play when she got elected first as corporator and then as mayor Raul whose father a sportsperson was employed with the Indian Railways grew up in Dabhoi near Baroda in Gujarat an area that was so cosmopolitan she says she early on got exposure to different communities and culturesRaul too interestingly is an ayurvedic doctor and was practicising until she got elected as Mumbai Mayor in 2007 She says she would often conduct health camps in her area work that brought her in close contact with local Sena and BJP workers It was in 2002 she says that Sena workers asked her to join the party an offer that she says she initially rejectedI didnt know what a corporator was or what they did I would vote depending on what my family said But they kept pursuing the matter she adds Once she even ran away to Matheran to escape the persistent SainiksA word from her mentor and a call from Uddhav asking her to be ready as the party wanted an educated woman to contest from the seat Luck it seems was rooting for her First the constituency became reserved for women Then it became reserved for OBC all this helped she admitsHow has her political career changed her personally we ask I have become more aggressive she says As Mayor she barged into the citys hookah parlours clamouring for them to be shut down That there was no law at the time against their functioning didnt matter There had she says been complaints of them becoming addas for drug abuse We told the owners that we would bring in the laws but theyd have to shut down first she adds She has become angrier as well she says But without aggression often its difficult to get work doneLeaving a legacyIts the idea and opportunity to get something done to leave a political legacy mdash even if its just getting a toilet built in their area mdash Bedi says that encourages the women to continue with their work Its this political effectiveness that informs their daily livesBedi quotes Ragini Munde of Mumbai and writes When some work needs to be done Shiv Sena women never think what if something happens to me Instead the thought is whatever is going on there why dont I go and resolve it So I have been doing this resolving for some time now In this area wherever I go everyone runs behind me They all know me now Whenever anything goes wrong I am the first one to run there and do some dashingWith inputs from Chaitraly Deshmukh