Becky B devotes some (much needed?) attention to the gang:
What is so amazing to me is the anomaly that the leader figure represents. Not only that one woman could be so unabiding to the expected norm, but also that she can mobilise hundreds of women to fight for her causes. As I said in my last post, it’s hard to agree with the use of force; that’s certainly not the way Gandhi did it. But when people are hungry and corrupt officials are selling off food intended for the poor, does that make force justified? Sounds just like the scenario of British colonialism in India.
( Italics mine).
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This gives me a chance to refer to a blog I like. Chris Blattman discussed this in
http://chrisblattman.blogspot.com/2008/01/vigilantes-versus-vindicators-women-in.html
and refers to a paper of Promita Sanyal:
“This reminds me of a somewhat less sinister manifestation of collective action in South Asia. Paromita Sanyal is a doctoral student in Sociology at Harvard, and is one the job market this year. Her research looks at women’s micro-finance groups in Bangladesh and finds that these women’s groups have begun to take on a new power in their communities, such as intervening in situations of domestic violence, even when the victimized women are outside of the group.”
This is heartening to hear. The plight of women in India is pitiable. Any news of their empowerment is heartening. May the balance in power between men and women be restored soon. It is in everyone’s interest.
I also feel that respect is something that comes from within us. If we disrespect women, especially the women in our own household, we are likely to disrespect other people for a variety of reasons, cast, religion and money being just other catalysts that enable this evil to flow through us.
Saurabh