Rise of right wing Sadhvis: The dubious feminism of Prachi, Niranjan Jyoti et al

Let’s be honest. VHP’s Sadhvi Prachi makes about as much sense as Baba Sehgal songs, Shaktimaan, Govinda’s shirts and other such phenomena that defy reason. The latest shot she fired at the world was aimed at Mahatma Gandhi, who she has dubbed a ‘British agent’. Gandhi is not the first to have irked Prachi. He has for company other perpetrators of great crimes — the Khans of Bollywood who marry Hindu women, Muslims whose fault is they are Muslims, and Hindu women who haven’t turned into baby-dispensing machines.

Prachi, at first blush, could have been a feminist’s delight — she holds her own against an overwhelming number of male colleagues in her own party, she is not perturbed by criticism from the said men and she is unhindered in her pursuit of what she thinks is right. Except, her idea of ‘right’ is hilarious and frightening in equal parts.

What is perhaps more interesting is how the likes of Prachi seem to have emerged from the woodwork after Narendra Modi’s ascension to power. She is one among a league of BJP sadhvis,  which also includes the infamous Niranjan Jyoti who decided that Hindus and Muslims were better described as ‘Ramzaadon’ and “Haramzaadon’ instead. Under pressure from the top leadership, Jyoti tendered a lukewarm apology, but she bounced right back. On her next outing, she decided to pursue her Hindu Rashtra agenda with greater subtlety and sang bhajans at a rally in riot-hit Trilokpuri. She also said, “Puri Dilli mein gaana hai, theek hai. Aur bhagwan Shyamsundar ka chakra sudarshan ke saamne jo aayega woh bachega nahi (Whoever comes before the chakra of Shyamsundar, will not live).”

The likes of Prachi and Jyoti are descendants of the original BJP sanyasin, ie Uma Bharti, who has thirteen criminal cases against her including two murder cases. Bharti was one of the most incendiary faces of the Ram Janmabhoomi campaign in the 1990s, and was one of the leaders that led the mobs during the Babri Masjid demolition — chanting slogans such as “ek dhakka aur do, Babri masjid tod do.”

Uma Bharti may be the most famous, but her ‘firebrand’ rhetoric is matched by her other saffron peers including Sadhvi Rithambra (most recently photographed tying a rakhi on PM Modi), the founding member of Durga Vahini. Alongwith Prachi and Jyoti, these women are ironically what constitutes rightwing feminism in India at present. These are strong political voices, who wield both power and influence on their respective followers, yet seek to demolish every founding principle of the women’s movement and the plurality of a democracy based on the principle of equality.

These are strong, outspoken single women who can go toe-to-toe with their male peers on the saffron right. They’re no shrinking violets who duck the spotlight, but, like Niranjan Jyoti, always eager to heckle and provoke, ever ready for a street fight.

Given that in its simplest definition, feminism is equality between genders, the country’s rightwing certainly seems to have managed to achieve a perverse version of it. These ladies would indeed be feminists, except for that pesky lack of female solidarity. Free and proud they may be, but they certainly don’t advocate that kind of libertine behaviour when it comes to their sisters.

While she may have her own opinions and political ambitions, Prachi views other women as baby dispensing machines who can be easily brainwashed — which is the assumption upon which the entire notion of a love jihad is based. When she suggested that Bollywood stars like Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan deliberately marry Hindu women to broaden their community, it was evident that she doesn’t attribute women with either intelligence or the freedom of choice.

The BJP sadhvi’s opinions about society and women’s roles in society are blatantly at odds with her own personality and behaviour, reflecting a dichotomy that ails female rightwing hardliners.

In her documentary, The World Before Her, Nisha Pahuja documented the functioning of the Durga Vahini, the VHP’s women’s wing. You are shown young girls practicing martial arts, tackling a male instructor and chanting slogans that reek of machismo. At one instance, the young girls are seen saying, “If you want milk, we will give you kheer, if you want Kashmir, we will slit your throats.”

The Vahini trains its girls in a violent brand of ‘valour’ usually associated with macho males.

The video also shows a senior Vahini member in Maharashtra delivering a lecture to the younger lot — her voice assertive, her tone blustering with confidence and her oratory engaging.

But what is she saying? “Marry off girls at 18. Because by the time they are 25, they become strong-willed. And then it’s impossible to tame them!”

She goes on to explain how education has made girls vain and proud. In a compelling voice, she thunders , “What is the reason, women run after careers like its everything they have got?”

A woman with a powerful voice — confident and assertive — the VHP leader is exhorting fellow women to be doormats. As this BBC report notes , the girls in these camps “are trained to be warriors and wives - they must be strong enough to break the bones of the enemy but docile enough to never question their husbands.”

So is that feminism? Or just one more handy role assigned to women by a patriarchical, regressive world? A role where all of a woman’s strength and ambition are channeled into hatred for others. No wonder, the BJP and its parivar is happy to front its women role models whose power never ever once threatens the men in charge.