The Operation Sindoor name and logo typify our fascist, misogynistic society, where women are vilified and humiliated if they don't toe the patriarchal line
Everyone heaved a sigh of relief as tensions between India and Pakistan eased, even though it was a mediated ceasefire after three days of heightened conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations.
There remain many controversies regarding the number of people killed and the jets, drones and missiles downed on either side and also whether places of worship and civilian areas had been targeted.
Both countries have their own stories. One will never know because, in a war-like situation, even news reporting turns frenzied and vitriolic, and things might tend to get exaggerated.
I am not going to discuss those, except to say that they played a negative role in the history of journalism and threw media ethics to the winds; such media coverage had shades of warmongering full of hate and jingoistic nationalism.
Government narrative
What I want to discuss is the narrative built by the Indian government in the name of avenging the widowhood of Hindu women — in the name of the counter-terrorism retaliatory attack, Operation Sindoor.
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'Sindoor' means vermilion — a bright orange or red powder applied by many Hindu women in the parting of their hair as a symbol of their married status, it being more popular in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat.
The logo designed for Operation Sindoor highlighted a sindoordaan, which is a little box containing the red powder. The spilled red powder in the logo might even look like oozing blood.
For sure, it would have served to create a kind of deep emotive appeal in the traditionalist Indian psyche.
Invading privacy
Not only this, just after the attack on tourists at Pahalgam, in Jammu and Kashmir, the image of a newly married woman with bridal red bangles, sitting in mourning beside the body of her dead husband, was being flashed on all TV channels. The news footage invaded videos on social media as well.
“The media showed a total lack of sensitivity and scant respect for the privacy of the woman," noted Usha, a teacher from eastern Uttar Pradesh.
"But later, when the woman (Himanshi Narwal) issued a statement appealing for peace, she was badly trolled. What respect does the saffron troll army have for women? Why is the same national media quiet on this matter? Is this not a contradiction? Women are used, but are not allowed to speak,” said Usha.
The case of Himanshi
Himanshi Narwal had been married only a week before the tragic attack in Pahalgam. She had come for her honeymoon with her husband, Lt Vinay Narwal.
Later, at a blood donation camp held by the Narwal family on the 27th birthday of Vinay, Himanshi was quoted as saying: “People going against Muslims or Kashmiris — we don’t want this. We want peace and only peace. Of course, we want justice. The people who have wronged him should be punished.”
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These words did not seem to fit into the emotive (patriarchal) narrative of the media and the right wing — the narrative of a “wronged Hindu bride” widowed at the hands of “Muslim terrorists”.
So, the troll brigade descended to the level of conducting a smear campaign against her, assassinating her character and labelling her “anti-national” and a “sympathiser” of the killers. Some even questioned her grief and spread misinformation to tarnish her image as a woman. This was highly misogynistic.
Protests by feminists
Feminists from India and Pakistan gave vent to their grief and indignation. In a joint statement signed by several women’s groups and personalities and released on May 11, they said: “When Sindoor becomes a war cry, it erases and weaponises pain, and reduces women to bodies on which the masculinist nationalist fantasies of conquest, violence and rape are mounted.”
Yet, this is not the first time that women have been vilified and humiliated. For the troll army, whether it was Vinesh Phogat last year or Himanshi today, fascist misogyny is the name of the game.
We were also witness to how popular singer and independent influencer Neha Rathore, and an assistant professor of Lucknow University Dr Medusa were targeted for their comments on social media on the Pahalgam attack and charged with sedition. While Neha was given bail by the high court, Medusa’s case is still under investigation.
Other women under attack
What is irking the powers that be?
Dr Madri Kakoti, alias Dr Medusa, is a popular social media commentator and satirist who had just argued that asking a person his religion before killing him is an act of terror, but so is lynching a person after asking his religion, and denying someone a rented house on the ground of community.
Later, there were ABVP-led protests against Dr Medusa in Lucknow University, which were followed by a show-cause notice issued to her by the university administration.
Some secular and leftwing student outfits, however, rallied in solidarity with Dr Medusa. Talking to The Federal, Shivam Safeer, an Uttar Pradesh All India Students Association leader, said student groups held a joint protest in the Lucknow University campus.
They also handed over a memorandum to the vice chancellor, demanding the withdrawal of the show-cause notice and restoration of democracy in the university. A second protest by students and women was thwarted by the police.
Curbing dissent
A similar incident took place in Delhi, where Supreme Court lawyer Amita Sachdeva filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime South Division on April 29, accusing satirist Shamita Yadav, also known as “The Ranting Gola”, of anti-India propaganda after her video critiquing the government’s response to the attack was shared widely.
Also read | Operation Sindoor: Why the name, and 'using' Col Qureshi, is problematic
Speaking to The Federal, a former vice-chancellor of Lucknow University, Prof Rooprekha Verma, said: “We have witnessed so many such incidents. Voices of dissent are being curbed. A young girl like Gulfisha (Gulfisha Fatima, a student activist from Delhi, who belonged to a family of meagre economic means, has been in jail. There is no freedom of expression. Investigations against Neha and Dr Medusa are still on. Who knows what is in store?”
Trolling Col Qureshi
But this is not the end of the story. Col Sofiya Qureshi, appointed Armed Forces spokesperson during the conflict, was humiliated at a public meeting by a minister in the Madhya Pradesh government, Vijai Shah, who called her a “sister of the terrorists”.
Whatever be the government’s idea behind appointing both Qureshi and another woman officer, Wing Commander Vyomika Singh as spokespersons, a section of the Sangh Parivar was finding it difficult to digest, more so Qureshi, who could not fit into their macho majoritarian psyche.
While it is to be expected that the powers that be would make emotional appeals to the people and use emotive symbols to whip up war frenzy, progressive and peace-loving women’s organisations from India and Pakistan defied the dominant trend and came out against the patriarchal and communal spin attached to this effort, as if it was a war to avenge widowed Hindu women and to protect women’s sindoor in general.
Disturbing narrative
It is this narrative which is disturbing, and is therefore subject to stern criticism by all sections of progressive women.
Feminists from India and Pakistan, while unequivocally welcoming the ceasefire and condemning the Pahalgam attack, said: “The targeted attacks deepened the communal divide between Muslims and Hindus in India and were exploited to incite hatred, fear and calls for collective punishment.”
They further went on to say: “It is the women, including as mothers, daughters, sisters, wives, who are left holding the unbearable weight of grief. Instead of respecting and sharing it, it has been weaponised and policed — especially when it refuses to follow the script of hate.”
Border chaos
The statement recounted the pain of women crossing over to their countries at the Attari-Wagah border, where Indian and Pakistani women with the “wrong” passports were forced to hand over their children to their husbands, causing “unfathomable distress to themselves, their children and their families”.
The statement further said: “We denounce the war economy that thrives on violence and destruction, and the deeply patriarchal structures that fuel and sustain it. War is never the solution. We call for a dismantling of power structures that sustain violence. The logic of war, rooted in nationalism, toxic masculinity, and colonial-era borders, must be rejected.”
These feminists also demanded a joint investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice and to prioritise and engage in dialogue and diplomacy to resolve differences. Some of the prominent signatories to this statement are AIDWA, Saheli Women’s Resource Centre, Women’s Action Forum (WAF), Pakistan, Aurat March, Lahore, Pakistan and prominent individuals from India, like Lalita Ramdas, Ritu Menon, Kavita Krishnan, Pamela Philipose, Uma Chakravarthy, Nivedita Menon, Urvashi Butalia and Shabnam Hashmi.
Women and war
Women have always been primarily a peace-loving constituency and are never inclined for war and its associated violence. Some women’s organisations have defied the mass frenzy for war and have come out and appealed for peace, even when such an appeal was politically very difficult and almost considered treachery.
But events have exonerated their position. Both the governments of Pakistan and India showed maturity by stepping back from brinkmanship and agreeing for a ceasefire, which is exactly what women desire.(The Federal seeks to present views and opinions from all sides of the spectrum. The information, ideas or opinions in the article are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Federal.)
