A befitting memorial for about 267 martyrs, who laid down their lives guarding the country along the Indo-China border in the post-independence period, will be inaugurated on Saturday. The memorial, which has been named 'Watershed', used to describe the border in military nomenclature, will be inaugurated at Sherathang, some 5 km ahead of the Nathu La border pass.

 How many people know that the word Satyagraha was coined not from a flight of poetic inspiration, but as a result of a newspaper advertisement? At first, Gandhiji borrowed Henry David Thoreau’s phrase “passive resistance” to describe his movement against the unjust laws of segregation in South Africa in the 1890s. But he soon found the term inadequate to define the facets of the movement: commitment to non violence, empathy for the enemy, absolute transparency, willingness to admit mistakes publicly and an attachment to the truth. In his quest for a phrase that would successfully evoke these aspects, Gandhiji made what I know to be his sole foray in the realm of advertisement. He announced a small prize in his journal Indian Opinion and solicited names for the movement from his readers. In response, his nephew, Maganlal Gandhi came up with Sadagraha (insistence upon goodness) which was amended to the more lyrical Satyagraha – Insistence upon truth.

For a major part of his life, Gandhi equated truth with God. While rejecting traditional notions- God a benevolent controller of human affairs, as the supreme creator- he wanted to give God a local habitation and name. It is significant that he elevated truth to that status. And Satyagraha became not merely a political, but also a spiritual act. He evolved from this complex idea, a system that stirred India and astonished the world. Gandhi’s first Satyagraha took place long before, in 1893- when he was forced out of the first class carriage in South Africa because of his color, but he neither succumbed nor reacted violently. This spontaneous civil resistance was his shortest but probably most significant Satyagraha. The resistance that he started alone soon spread and he became a leader of 13,000 Indians in South Africa. An English newspaper compared the minority’s first revolt- the burning of government issued identity cards, branding them as second class citizens- with the Boston Tea Party that started the American Revolution.

On Gandhi’s return to India in 1915, Satyagraha found a greater cast of actors and a much wider theatre for putting up acts of resistance. The first Satyagraha movement was in Champaran, by the Indigo farmers who were forced to work in impossible conditions and the second, in Kheda in Gujarat, against unjust taxes. On March 12^th 1930, Gandhiji and his 78 followers marched to the ocean of Dandi to defy salt taxes. By the time he reached, thousands were marching alongside him. Even after his arrest, his followers continued picketing salt-works in large numbers. Defying all notions of mob-mentality and mob-violence, they faced police brutality without either fleeing the scene or revolting.

Gandhi’s last Satyagraha was his saddest & greatest. After a lifelong battle against oppressive regimes, this battle was against own people; at the time of partition. As people perished in horrifying acts of violence, Gandhi moved around on foot in Noakhali, bringing solace to those who suffered and sanity to those who were about to inflict suffering. In Calcutta, protesting against violence on August 31^st 1947, Gandhiji went on a fast that pushed him to the verge of death, but also forced the warring factions to abandon their fights and weapons. The fruit of Gandhiji’s struggles were not merely in his victories. What he achieved during conflicts was equally significant: he brought Indian women out in the streets to participate in the movement, he attacked the evil of untouchability, he brought the Indian village and its problems in focus, and promoted harmony between Hindus and Muslims.

One of the most electrifying chapters in the history of Satyagraha was written by freedom fighter and Gandhi’s follower- P.S.Sane, also known as Sane Guruji. In 1947, he went on a fast unto death, till the doors of the temple of Pandharpur were opened to untouchables. Gandhi, concerned about his health and upset by the timing of this fast, requested him to withdraw. But Sane Guruji did not relent. He respectfully wrote back to Gandhi, that in this case he could uphold the Mahatma’s principles only by disobeying his word. To me, this gesture of Sane Guruji represents the highest fulfillment of the concept of Satyagraha: The spirit of Satyagraha is beyond everything-even the command of its originator and greatest exponent.

Courtesy: IT-Volume XXXII 12/2007

"We grow up being told that we can be anything, do anything. We get a good degree and get ourself into our chosen career. By our mid-20s we are on a six-figure salary, forging a path in a male dominated world. We own our own flat, our own car, we look great and we feel great, we sleep with men – experimenting physically and emotionally – before finding the right one. We hit 30. By 35 – because we can’t spare the time now – we will decide that we want babies. We’ll move to our downtown apartment, be a fabulous mother, while running a couple of businesses or heading a corporate. Oh, and we will write a novel. An autobiography. "

Whether it happens to you or not, the truth – that you are free to live your life this way – is telling. Sixty years back, your sisters asked for laws and rights to be on equal footing with men. Forty years back, they made tentative forays into the world of work with little help from husbands and a lot of support from mothers, sisters and sometimes mothers’-in- laws. Your “new feminist” sisters during ‘80s and ‘90s focused on dowry deaths, rapes and uniform Civil codes. In the new millennium, you have assimilated all the battles that liberated you to assert your personal choice.

Statistics show that young women are taking charge of sexual choices, including the freedom of delaying sex and to say “NO” and be “more like men” in terms of sexual experiences and multiple partners. A sex survey by a top notch consulting organization captures this attitudinal change. If in 1978, premarital sex was unacceptable to 75% unmarried women in the metros, in the new millennium one- quarter confess to regular sex, one-third read erotic literature and half go on dates. In 2003, over 50% asked for equal pleasure in bed, 42% knew their G-spots well and to 57% orgasms were important. By 2005, 69% wanted as much sex as men, 66% fantasised about different positions in bed and 42% thought nothing of having premarital sex. In a long march from the 70s, over 66% approved of extramarital sex in 2005.

But sexual liberation hasn’t arrived in a vacuum. Changes in personal lives have glanced off from changes in public lives. Careers are now blooming. In 1950, there were 14 women pursuing higher studies per 100 males in India. The ration now is 68:100 (Report by the Consultative Committee of Parliament, 2006). For every five men, there is one woman in an income generating activity in urban India. Women account for 25-30% of the workforce in the software sector. In Pharma, they comprise a fourth of the workforce. In IT-enabled services, the ratio stands at 1:1. The number in banks has gone up by over 40% since 2002. Of 2, 00,000 service sector vacancies filled via job portal naukri.com in 2005, seventy thousand were women; a quarter of three million resumes on monster.com belong to women.

But the battles are not over yet. In many ways, the options presented to women are really, new demands. Professionally, many operate as if they were men. At home, they do most of the housework. Does having it all mean doing it all? Not really. “I think it’s a very significant shift”, says Urvashi Butalia, publisher of Zubaan Books, which promotes women’s writing. “It testifies women’s desire to be able to interact on an equal footing both in public and private spheres”.

It is nearly sixty years since Simone De Beauvoir wrote that one is not born a woman, but becomes one. In that time, the nation has taught some of its women that they choose to become women however and whenever they want. 

We can each arrive at our own definition of what a woman is, even if that definition is purely personal.

Courtesy: IT-Volume XXXII 12/2007

This day in 1962; soldiers of 13 KUMAON regiment, under the command of the legendary 

Maj. Shaitan Singh fought valiantly to "last man - last round".Maj. Shaitan Singh & 

his men stood their ground till dead & defeated by the Chinese onslaughts. Only 10 men 

of the 124 valiant were alive though handicapped severely in various forms. The history 

of the KUMAON is alive with the ferocity of the epoch REZANGLA battle where there was no 

sign of panic or withdrawal under signs of certain defeat. Accounts of those who visited 

REZANGLA, three months later stand testimony to this as "the dead soldiers were found in 

their trenches, frozen stiff still holding their weapons & grenades in their hands. Broken 

LMG bipods, and some men holding only the butts of their rifles while the remaining weapons 

had blown off, bore witness to the enemy's vicious fire. The grateful army honored 

Maj. Shaitan Singh with the highest war time gallantry of Param Vir Chakra. The mortal remains 

or whatever was left of the 114 soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice could be recovered only 

after three months.

THE TRIBUNE

P.S:

As a war widow, I felt the need to write this, since my husband also was commissioned into the KUMAON Regt.