Victory and the long road ahead

In the first week of January 2021 a teacher couple from South Tyrol went missing Whether I have wanted to or not I have had to follow news about their disappearance regularly Itrsquos either on the daily broadcast or in the newspaper There was the possibility that their bodies were thrown into the river An elaborate search beganWeeks later the womxnrsquos lifeless corpse was found The son remains under suspicion His fatherrsquos body remains missing There is some comfort to be drawn from the fact that authorities continue looking that their search doesnrsquot seem yet to end My family here tells me that according to the law here there needs to be a body in order for a person to be convicted of murderI wonder sometimes what it would be like if in India there could be similar levels of attention to the unspeakable violence enacted upon womxn trans and Dalit bodies Given that so many of these atrocities are statesanctioned would the public scrutiny lead to a decreased crime rate Sometimes I feel sure that so much of the systemic violence is enabled by a populace that has lost touch with its critical faculties Wersquore like a nation of zombies the only ones who are still alive are the people actually fighting on the streets the farmers staging their protest against everything that is at stake and risking it all for themselves and for the rest of the country that doesnrsquot seem to care enough or is privileged enough to cast judgementOn Wednesday as my Facebook and Instagram wall erupted into frenetic celebration of Priya Ramanirsquos acquittal in the defamation suit that had been slapped against her by MJ Akbar instead of joining in I found myself suddenly puzzled by the whole affair Yes it was unarguably momentous that she was found not guilty But given all the testimony that had been supplied by womxn he had molested what happens to him Is there no price that he must pay considering everything he put so many womxn throughWhen one takes time off to pause and reflect on the meaning of the case and the language of the ruling itrsquos hard not to feel angry At the end of two years of fighting is this all we achievedmdashthe courtrsquos recognition that a womxn has the right to speak out against an abusive act even years later and that a manrsquos reputation doesnrsquot protect him from being called out for abuse It really feels like something that should have been so basic should have been a given If anything we should be ashamed Irsquom so tired of celebrating when the lsquolawrsquo is upheld especially because so much of the violence against womxn and oppressed castes is sanctioned by the legal frameworks It is often punitive towards the marginalised I remember clearly how afraid womxn were of the defamation suit filed by a celebrated upper caste male Indian artist and the resistance many had towards speaking out In a way this case sets precedent but primarily for womxn who have the resources to take on a fightThe premise of feminism is simple Empowered womxn empower other womxn This also means that we are not free unless everyone oppressed is free It binds our personal salvation to that of womxnkind In that sense our work is never done until we have arrived at a space of truly reparative justice This means that we have to be alert and critical at all times especially in moments where we feel elated about victories It means we need to continually keep ourselves in check never take even our own positions for granted and that we constantly examine our biases and our prejudices and work to do better and be better It is exhausting because our triumphs are often quite few and can be easily overturned in a country full of bigoted Brahminical patriarchsOur battle is intergenerational And tragically given the scale of atrocities against womxnrsquos bodies particularly Dalit womxnrsquos bodies we cannot afford to pause We must always find ways of resisting the way the mainstream normalises caste atrocities It is on all of us to ask for better governance to demand it by virtue of us believing in the equality our citizenship rights affords us The moment we look at developments more critically the more obvious it becomes how our rights are being pitted against us We must never allow caste and class hegemonies to divide feminist interests We have to work harder so that our sisterhood evolves into something radically intersectional so that our outrage or joy is not limited to the defeats or triumphs of some categories of womxn Selfwork is thus urgent and lies at the crux of feminist practiceThere is immense reward in all this critical reflection because living a feminist life involves daring honesty selflove and empathy towards oneself and towards others But the flip side is understanding that we are signing up for relentless intellectual emotional and spiritual labour We must learn to practice equality in what enrages us transform this rage into a fuel without losing sight of our joy The word womxn is the most recent of several alternative political spellings of the English word woman It is used to avoid perceived sexism in the standard spelling and to be inclusive of transgender women and nonbinary peopleDeliberating on the life and times of Everywoman Rosalyn DrsquoMello is a reputable art critic and the author of A Handbook For My Lover She tweets RosaParxSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper