Coloniality and the Muslim Woman in a Hindutva State

Abstract

The history of Indian feminism is intertwined with the history of colonialism, and the colonial salience of gender and race (religion and caste). By using a decolonial lens, I throw light on gendered colonial harms that have been largely ignored in the historiography of feminism. From Shah Bano until Shaheen Bagh, I argue that Muslim women were used by the Hindu far right, precisely as colonisers use native women – a target of violence and sexual assault or a helpless damsel waiting to be rescued from the backwardness of Islam. The past decade in India has seen growing tension between the majoritarian Indian state and minority populations, frequently brought to bear in discrimination, and structural and material violence against minorities, like mob lynching and the political rhetoric of the fiction of ‘Love Jihad’. This has shown the perilous position Muslims face in India today. I argue that the Shaheen Bagh movement was a turning point in recognising the Muslim woman’s voice and impact on the politics of today. In this research, based on interviews with feminists and activists, I propose using the Shaheen Bagh case study to look at Muslim women’s agency in a new light. I expand the idea of feminist agency from a movement of resistance to one conceptualised as a powerful political voice, albeit with a protective shield. I see the Shaheen Bagh movement as the maturity of feminism, where Muslim women, a marginalised group of people, led from the front of a civil disobedience movement. Shaheen Bagh would be remembered as a Muslim women’s movement, but it inspired feminism for all.