Aheli Moitra
If you have been following the Game of Thrones, you will have noticed how the wheels have tumbled and turned. It was as though the whole series was designed to move towards this plot: women taking over the reins of small principalities and large kingdoms.
In Westeros, women are faced with patriarchy—positions of power, land and all other inheritance belong to men. Knowledge is also the domain of men. Education for women is per chance, if they have an interest in it, or if a dominant male shows special affection. Mostly though, they are beaten and abused; bought and sold into sexual slavery. Yet they slowly take over power through their vision, courage, instincts or treachery.
Would they be able to retain this power? Will they help majority of the women in their kingdoms to rise to positions of power?
Hard to say, but women leaders in action provide the basis to other women (and men) for imagining a different future. Even as some work to change the system, others equip themselves with the skills required to lead the people.
A revolutionary leader recently narrated the tale of what happened when women wanted to join the armed Naga struggle for self-determination. The men told the women that they would be of more help if they stuck to the paddy and jhum fields. The women persisted. They were then asked to lend their support to ancillary services—you can cook for the men and take care of the sick and the injured, the women were told. The women refused. They had borne the brunt of violence when villages were attacked and they had a simple dream: to fight alongside men in the movement for a free Naga nation.
So they did. They were trained in warfare, walked through hilly, rainy, unconnected terrain, carried heavy arms and took bullets when required. They even provided additional services to the nation. They married and reproduced future citizens, professionals and revolutionaries—sometimes they stayed back to take care of the infants, sometimes they went back to the jungles leaving their children in the care of relatives. This required courage, commitment and focus of a different kind.
Little more than a decade back, the women’s council of one of the Naga national groups commemorated the contribution of women in the movement with wooden sculptures. The sculpture shows a woman in action, kneeling on one knee, carrying a basket on her back, strung over her head; the basket contains a pot, probably carrying a communal resource: water. Whether they remained on the field, in the household or joined the army, women have contributed to the sovereignty of the Naga people in unimaginable, and unheard of, ways.
Unlike the Game of Thrones, the stories of Naga women upholding the spine of Naga sovereignty are hardly known. It is time to encourage women leaders to start telling their histories; once known, they can provide a new imagination of the shared future.
Known stories can be shared at moitramail@yahoo.com
