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Gandhi's 'Fallen' Sisters: Difference and the National Body Politic Author(s): Ashwini Tambe Source: Social Scientist, Vol. 37, No. 1/2 (Jan. - Feb., 2009), pp. 21-38 Published by: Social Scientist Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27644308 . Accessed: 01/04/2013 00:07
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Gandhi's
Difference
Tallen*
Sisters:
Body Politic > GO
One
of Mohandas Gandhi's key contributions to modern Indian O" was his active troubling of the masculine character of antipolitical life of and His promotion fasting imperialist politics. handspinning
activities typically carried out by women the Congress as mass nationalist tactics,
pu
^
of large numbers of
rendered All nationalist this re the same,
crucially on its simultaneous gendering of politics depended desexualization. The introduction ofwomen to a domain populated by men raised questions about how theywould interact, and Gandhi evacuated of sexual possibility. In a variety of contexts, then, he
fashioned a strictly anti-sexual mode of nationalist expression. He sought to create routes for women's increased participation that were
strenuously endorsed celibacy forhis followers, very openly examined and criticizedhis own sexual impulses, and upheld thefigureof thepost
sexual widow as a
collective was best seen as a body in need of purification and vigilance, and thisbody was compromised oftenby sexual temptation. This article tracesGandhi's understanding of theplace of sexuality inpublic lifevia
an examination of his views and actions towards women in
personal
model.
In Gandhi's
vision,
the nationalist
several occasions, Gandhi used the figure of the to articulate a vision of thenationalist body politic,3with the prostitute prostitute emblematizing the corruption that tested the body politic's prostitution.2 On
virtue. party, collective. His repeated refusals are to admit prostitutes vision into of the Congress the nationalist in particular, indicative of his
Studying Gandhi's desexualized construction of the body politic is modes ofwomen's participation not politics. His vision influenced the but also the broader identity social in Gandhian movements, only
construction important because of its lasting legacy on contemporary Indian electoral
stands out for the high number of female leaders to have held top
elective
practices
of women
seeking
electoral
power.
South
Asia
office. Many
of the most
successful
women
politicians on
in recent
widowed
or divorced women.
post-sexual
personae,
drawing
their
status
as
2 I
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Social
Scientist
success
of the Indian
csi b* CO ^ ?v z3 -^ g
go 21
and post-independence electoral politics needs to be framed in terms ofwhat Gandhi's desexualization of thefield allowed and disallowed. E My analysis ofGandhi's exclusions allows me to furtherexplore his uneasy
polity
in incorporating
women
into nationalist
activism
historian Ajay Skaria5have forcefully recently, argued. They emphasize Gandhi's call for transforming statist politics through an integration of morality in politics.6 Pantham sets great store by Gandhi's criticism of the utilitarian
conception between value-neutral articulation potential of of humans whom social self-centered essentially order can only be preserved as beings, prone to conflict, and of the through based the creation
relationship with liberalism. Gandhi is generally understood to be a critic of liberal modernity, as both political theorist Thomas Pantham,4 and more
m >
of representative political machinery an alternative communitarian ethic, and service to others, offered,
governance. on
for reform
possibility of reconciling the "contradiction" in liberal theory between an individualistic private sphere ofmorality and a utilitarian, "purely technical
according
to Pantham,
public/political sphere" which remains allegedly "amoral" and only represents competing interests.7 According toGandhi, themoral worth of our individual was only interests had to be subjected to theprinciple of interdependence, and it ifour positions received the "uncoerced acceptance" of those affectedby them
that we could make a claim for them as moral, universal truths. For Skaria, such
testing of one's closely held truths in everyday acts of neighborliness (padoshi dharma) lies at the heart of Gandhian praxis. Unlike a liberal politics which
accommodates difference
that denies the particular, Gandhi's philosophy of neighborliness was an insistently local method of dealing with absolute difference and arriving at a
universalist ethos.8
only
through
the creation
of a "neutral
shared
space"
It is thisview ofGandhi's contribution to political thought that I critique via an analysis of Gandhi's writings on prostitutes. I explore Gandhi's trouble in
accepting the contributions
of prostitutes
to nationalist
activism,
and
his
pose,
sympathy for the prostitute?While it is easy to see how the figure of the prostitute represented a negation of several principles Gandhi held dear, such as celibacy and self-sacrifice, I find Gandhi's inability to accommodate women in
prostitution neighborliness. to be The a refutation sexual potency of his of purportedly such women capacious represented concept a form of of
difference that crucially challenged his vision of an acceptable polity. My analysis draws on references to prostitutes inboth literaland figurative
registers. I review Gandhi's actual
22
early
encounters
with
prostitutes,
which
have
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Gandhi's
Tallen'
Africa and Fiji, he also effectively utilized the symbolism of prostitution. I close terms in the individualistic which he understood prostitutes, and by examining
argue that Gandhi a collective refused a structural to it. understanding of prostitution, even as he proposed Prostitutes Gandhi's response
with prostitutes in the later interacted midst of his promotion of khadi spinning in the early 1920s. During struggles on behalf of Indian immigrants in South
and
the Nationalist on
political campaign on this issue. Indeed, when one looks at the history of law making on prostitution in late colonial India, Gandhi's voice is conspicuously absent. The 1920's and 30's were a time of great legislative fermenton this issue:
writings
prostitution
in Bombay, the Prevention of Prostitution Act of 1923 outlawed soliciting, pimping, and later,brothel-keeping. Similar laws followed in other parts of the
country. In Madras and Mysore, movements were afoot to abolish the devadasi
Yet Gandhi rarelyendorsed these system, mostly ledbymiddle class reformists10 even he particular positions, campaigned on the related social reform though
issues
when we
nationalist
and widow
remarriage.
This
absence
is an
anomaly
womanhood
reverence
idolized by middle class nationalists.11 The abolition of also have been an obvious target for Gandhi given his should prostitution
for the principle of sexual asceticism or brahmacharya. Yet he resisted
efforts by others to draw him into these campaigns. In 1934, a son of a devadasi wrote toGandhi imploring him to take up the issue, declaring that "what the Brothels Bill and the IPC [Indian Penal Code] could not do ...a word from
[Gandhi's] mouth could do."12 Gandhi's associates Lilavati Savardekar and
more Meliscent Shephard eachwrote to him in 1931 and 1933, also appealing for
action from him He on this issue.13 Gandhi's a reluctance "not one responses to take on that a man were the issue, could sympathetic claiming and tackle" but that the that it noncommittal. question professed was
should be left "to the experts."14 He claimed that it required "a woman of exceptional purity and strength of character" to "rise and devote herself to
redeeming the evil What
of prostitution
them [to rise] in revolt against the evil and with thefire of her own purity burn
in the others."16 do we make of this reluctance to engage with the otherwise resonant
this part
of humanity,"15
and
called
for "some
sister
from
amongst
discourses of social reform and "uplift" ofwomen in prostitution? Could itbe that for Gandhi, engaging in such a politics of rescuewould have legitimated the
women's claims
to a marginalized
status?
The
following
episode
exemplifies
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Social
Scientist
o ^ rd E
^)
prostitutes in Barisal, a district in east Bengal, had volunteered to become rN members of the Congress party. They were responding to Gandhi's call to broaden membership of the party to anyone who could pay a fee of 14 annas. The women had also contributed to theTilak Swaraj Fund, setup byGandhi as
a means to support Congress' activities for social amelioration. When they
?> zj -^ g
go
expressed a wish to seek office inCongress committees,Gandhi refused and met with them to explain his objections. At the meeting, Gandhi tried to bar them from Congress committees by declaring thatno one "could officiate at the altar of Swaraj (self-rule) who did not approach
He advised instead. nationalist fervor was not so easily re-directed. Only "eleven the women to give
heart."17
up
r^ CO > o
of them promised to give up" their way of life "and take up spinning the next But "the take time to think,for theydid not wish to others said would they day."
deceive Congress [him]."18 members, Over were the next elected as few years, these and other women remained delegates, even founded an association
whose manifesto promoted helping thepoor and nursing the sick, spinning and
weaving, skills training among prostitutes, and adopting non-violence. In 1925,
when Gandhi encountered this group again, he reactedwith intense anger that their association provided higher musical training, and declared their
organization's humanitarian manifesto to be "obscene." He angrily advised "Let the women "to do he
proclaimed,
must
"
work
before
reforming
themselves."
it be understood"
not be used
described
murderers."
disqualified
disobedience)
"tremendously
true members
dangerous
powers
of the satyagraha
(civil
Gandhi's reaction is not surprising to feminist scholars such as G?raldine Forbes, Radha Kumar, Sujata Patel, and Suruchi Thapar-Bjorkert, who have While they credit studied themodes of women's nationalist participation.20 Gandhi with mobilizing unprecedented numbers ofwomen, theypoint out that
women's
standards of respectable femininity. Forbes points out that many elitewomen who were engaged in theirfirst forays into public activism were worried about being mistaken for prostitutes.21Gandhi sought to ensure that standards of
respectability plain-dressed 2 A clear obverse were and met, and constituted the ideal nationalist as overtly sexual woman figures, as selfless, were the high-minded. Prostitutes,
public
participation
was
predicated
on
their
adherence
to
strict
of idealized
nationalist
womanhood.22
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Gandhi's
Tallen'
Sisters
Although Gandhi's opposition in this case isnot surprising, the intensityof 3>
his anger is nonetheless his characterization puzzling. His rejection used "ugly," of the women's nationalist to 2~ 5" motives, vice" and that the women "spinning "murderers" as a passport and "thieves" \
his use
3
^~
"fallen sisters" inMadaripur. When they formed "an association of fallen sisters"he declared it "dangerous, especially foryoung men" and urged them to
"concentrate character all their energies of their offense" on... [opening] than perform men's eyes to the bestial work.23 diabolical rather Congress a It is interesting
of his and
language
"wrecks
Such language confirming theworst social stigmas about prostitutes is noteworthy coming fromGandhi, for in other contexts he sought to radically recast public perceptions of socially stigmatized figures. Gandhi's most
society,"
to "thieves."25
He embraced thewidow as a figure that allmen and women should harijans.26 and celibacy.27 emulate forher unstinting self-sacrifice Although Gandhi evinced much agony inhis writings on prostitutes, he took no similar leap in reshaping theirpublic image.He acknowledged theirnumbers, at one point estimating that
there were as many orientation as a million
women
in prostitution.28
Yet
all living things."29 Far from being a liberal abstraction, this notion of There were differentpractices of neighborliness, Skaria observes: "with equals, friendship (mitrata); with subordinates, service (seva); and with antagonists, not simply entail charitable assistance to recuperate the subordinated. It grappled with the "constitutive impossibility of equality" and committed the
dominant satyagraha."30 Gandhi's concept ofseva, of particular relevance to this article, did neighborliness incorporated concrete differences in power between neighbors.
examines Gandhi's general principles of civic conduct. In his analysis ofGandhi's " Skaria observes that Gandhi's philosophy of absolute "neighborliness, was inclusiveness based on thenotion of "divinely institutedkinship (sagpan) of
is particularly
contradictory
when
one
"disclaiming theirdominance" bymerely asserting theprinciple of equality, the dominant had to radically displace themselves through imbuing the subaltern 95
to acknowledge
their
gulf
from
the
subordinate.31
Rather
than
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Social
Scientist
the
subaltern
in a form
akin
to
rN ^
^
"harijan" ("children of God") in place of dalit ("suppressed"). And hence his otherwise viewed as a blemished figure. deification of thewidow
EWhere, came then, is the evidence Gandhi of seva, of a transformative that prostitution entreat His was to prostitutes? with maintained impulse one when "sin" it for
worship.
Hence
the
resonance
of
the
term
?^
zj -^
Q
go ~Z_
issue is evident in the letters he received comparing the problem of harijans and
devadasis son and urging Gandhi and him to take reminded that harijans emergent," In 1934, a devadasis seriously. were and "sister movements" "forget the sister community in
?^ > -q
your enthusiasm for theHarijans."33 A similar comparison was drawn twelve Gandhi did somuch for years later in an irate letterto the Harijan askingwhy, if the uplift of theHarijan community, he ignored devadasi women residing in
Poona and
"equally
important
replied that the problems faced by harijans were quite different, in that their "occupation was necessary for thewell-being of society,"while "[p]rostitutes should be isolated because theiroccupation is revolting and detrimental to the
well-being
Bombay.34
In response
to the
comparison
with
harijans,
Gandhi
in that he believed every prostitute had the choice and ability to leave the profession. He accused prostitutes of livinga lifeof ease and argued that the only way to solve the problem was for them to "realize theirdignity" and "refuse to sell [their] honor."36 The
guilty
evenwomen born intodevalas* families remained guiltyof colluding in evil; theproblem was locatedwithin the will and sexualityof the individual prostitute. Gandhi saw theproblem of prostitution principally in individualistic terms
of society"35 Whereas
harijans
were
blameless
inLucknow, for instance, he had to be "satisfied that theydo not go to it from choice,"37 implying that they had to prove theirmotives to him. When the woman of Barisal did not renounce theprofession upon his urging, he saw them
prostitutes
of choosing
as being beyond redemption. I am struckby the amount of agencyGandhi attributes to his "fallen sisters." It seems odd thathe would notmore readily recognize that material deprivation
women to into prostitution the suffering especially of since he was so attuned The to, and committed sharing, the underclasses. rise of urban
often drove
2g
Gandhi was puzzlingly blind to this context, and his vision widow remarriage.38 was instead telescoped into the realm of individual will. It left little room for acknowledging the social processes of disempowerment, or foraccidents of birth
displacements,
and
strictures
against
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Gandhi's
Tallen'
(unlike the context of harijans). The fact of being a prostitute marked, for
Gandhi, a
her dignity she will refuse to sell her virtue" he declared in response to the question of legalized prostitution, in 1939.40Thus his understanding of a
structural problem was severely compromised by his preference for the lens of
deliberately
immoral,
self-generated
choice.39
"When
woman
realizes
lifeand body
the reasons for Gandhi's positions on prostitution, prostitutes
need to be viewed not only as symbolic figures but also as actual persons with whom Gandhi interacted. Joseph Alter's observations on Gandhi's bodily
preoccupations Gandhi sex and typically food; are noteworthy towards are in this regard: meta-interpretations always read as Alter complains of Gandhi's symbols that scholars obsession of veer with else.41
the obsessions
Instead, Alter argues thatGandhi engaged with these items in a concrete rather than symbolic manner; that he regulated his intake of both food and sex as a worth asking centralplank of his concept of selfand his politics. In thisvein, it is to extentdid whether Gandhi viewed prostitutes only in what terms; m?tonymie
actual contact with, early and fears about, with prostitutes prostitutes shape have his often responses been seen to them? as events Gandhi's experiences
of something
childhood friendSheikh Mehtab when he was 15,his flirtationwith an English landlady "who lived on her body" in Portsmouth, and his encounter with a him to visit a prostitute in order tomake his wife jealous; thewoman however threwhim out of thehouse when he proved unable or unwilling to proceed with
the transaction.43 In the second case, a conversation with his prostitute in a port on the way to Durban.42 In the first instance, Mehtab coaxed
that were formative in his later renunciation of sexuality. His biographers typicallycite a fewprominent early episodes: his visit to a prostitutes' house with
heated with sexual innuendo led him to supposedly come close to having sex.44In the third episode, when on his way to Durban, Gandhi followed his ship's
captain "tussle."45 conscience; ashore and subsequently own his apologized to a prostitute in an ensuing By Gandhi's he depicted and loomed the first two episodes admission, large in his force that he struggled sexual desire as an enormous case because and a friend him He in his but he viewed recounted these
landlady
that was
episodes
as traumatic
moments
in 1925 and in a 1933 letter.46 Gandhi declared that thePortsmouth episode was
when he "first became aware of the existence of God" and he "looked
long
autobiography
an occasion
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Social
Scientist
o rN c^ <TJ
can
never
be
sure whether an
Gandhi
had
"gigantic
erotic
temperament" such as
or
possessed
conscience"
processed account
lapses.47 At to
threatening
?zj ^ g
go
remarked that their "presence reminded him of his own identityas aman" and Men who visited prostitutes he "hung his head in shame" before them.50
remained much less marked by shame: at one point when Gandhi wrote about
displacing his sexual desires onto women, attributing to them the quality of danger.49This displacement is clear in his writing about thewomen of Barisal and Lucknow; he characterized prostitutes as "symbols of men's lust" and
psychoanalytic
of Gandhi's
views
on women
sees him
~Z_
f^
>
threattoGandhi's idealmode of not only feminine,but general, behavior, which involved using intense self-control, negating the self, and denouncing
instrumentalism. The
actually
sexually
active
and
alluring.
represented
a direct
that fundamentally ran counter to each of these aspects ofGandhi's philosophy. Gandhi's ideal nationalist, represented in the figure of the sanyasi or celibate
widow, was motivated to serve others and sacrifice her self. To Gandhi,
figure
of the prostitute
enacted
a mode
of human
relations
being
and duped men through active allure. In this logic, Gandhi's anger about the women of Barisal getting higher musical training makes sense: theywere manipulative capabilities. strengtheningtheir
Prostitutes of ascetic were dangerous that Gandhi in another, pursued, and more immediate a way. In the model on retaining masculinity there was premium
end; prostitutes
were
driven
by self-interest
and controlling seminal fluids; as Alter notes, Gandhi combined yogic principles
and Freud's theory of sublimation, drew on a range of sources to support
He adopted theprinciple of brahmacharya (celibacy) first his position.52 while in South Africa.53As early as 1913, he explained to his readers that "he who has
conserved extolled sexual celibacy his generative refrainment intercourse even fluid is known as viryavan, While he a man "from only carnal enjoyment."54 of strength" and he he at first recommended later advocated he came across complete William
of procreation, When,
for married
in 1928,
Thurston's study of thedeleterious effects of sexual intercourse,he called on all This logic led to readers ofNavjivan to carefully studyThurston's translation.55 a specific disparagement of the prostitute's body, which by definition drained 2g seminal fluid.
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Gandhi's
Tallen'
Sisters
conception of individual
Individual vision action and of political their own lives, | in
"self."
5" 5
of Gandhi's
"
transformation.
their refusal to purify themselves. Self-purification seamlessly led to the purification of the public body. The self had to be purified through was an enlarged projection of thepurified self. vision of the ideal "public," then, He saw his own experimentswith diet and sex as literallyapplicable to all in the nation; his body represented the body politic. He obsessively focused on the specificpublic health implications ofwhat he did, broadcasting thedetails of his
experiments in his public writings. On numerous occasions, he fasted as penance brahmacharya, ahimsa, and satya, the first of which led to the others.56 Gandhi's
significant
in terms beyond
3 q~
for the public's ills. Within this conception of the body politic, then, therewas littleroom to acknowledge actual bodies thatdiffered radically fromhis own
bodies, which, as he saw them, thrived on the erotic. He could
to prostitutes that theybecome sanyasis (celibate) and embark on a program of personal purity, and called on reformers to "purify neighborhoods" where
prostitutes worked.57
only
recommend
Gandhi's emphasis on puritywas linked to discourses of public health of his time.The latenineteenth and early twentiethcentury in colonial Indiawitnessed
large-scale social Disease experiments control with controlling were prostitution inextricably as a way entwined, to eradicate so much so and morality
to abolish prostitution traveled under the label of "moral hygiene." Those seeking to raise the age ofmarriage used eugenicist public health rationales that it would improve thephysique of Indian children.58 These varied to a cleanse and cultivate the connote distinct continuous attempts body politic
syphilis.
that themovement
We relationshipbetween individual and society,also found inGandhi's thinking. can readGandhi's dismay with prostituteswithin this climate as connected tohis concernwith correctprocreation and public health. There are suggestions of this
stance leprosy," in the terms he uses and to describe prostitution "Plague in his Spots essays: "moral a "social disease" the title of an essay of Lucknow."
He
thus viewed the prostitute as diseased in literal and figurative ways, and regularly represented prostitution as a "spot" or "blot" on the body politic.
and public work
Women
Apart from the early encounters noted in his biographies, Gandhi's actual interactionswith prostitutes occurred largely in the earlyyears of his campaign to popularize handspinning and khadi.He presented spinning not just as an act
of economic those who resistance took it up. but The also moral as a moral valence act that could of spinning "purify becomes the hearts" clearer when of
exploring his views on women and domesticity. In the 1919-1921 period, Gandhi
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Social
Scientist
widely
rs
^
propagated
spinning
among
women,
who,
he argued,
could
be provided
shrewdly
resource of
E ^
cd
constructed
?^ zj
-^
Mandai (Gujarati untapped labour. In 1917, he announced to theGujarati Stri Women's Organization) thathe planned to draw widows away from "going to temples" and "waiting on holy men" and instead induce them to "take up the
"remarriage of the purest kind."59 He regularly For complained that women who left
task of serving India" through spinning cotton, which would help them in such as mill
that Dhed at the weaver roads,
g o GO O
CO ~? >
communities
of domestic
where, under pressure of one sort or another, they [were] obliged to sell their
honour."61 The so-called "shame of [weavers'] daughters and.. .wives" was an
occupation"
emotional fulcrum inhis appeal forhandspinning.62 Gandhi's aversion to industrialization is awell-known plank of his critique ofmodernity, but less discussed ishis specific distaste for the gendered spatial mill work. His argument for spinningwas inextricablylinked to arrangements in
his disinclination for women's work-in
speech at a Rotary Club thatmen and women were "congregat[ing] in boxes where [they were] huddled together in amanner which [he] could not picture to outside the domestic sphere, he declared that "the chastity ofwomen can be protected with the help of the spinningwheel. There isno other occupation in
which our millions of women can engage themselves while staying at home." He [his audience]."63 In order to prevent this loss of honour accompanying work
factory
settings.
He
warned
in a
1925
would
subaltern problem
occupation."64
of their threatened
the most
to take up spinning. In 1919,when confronted with a letter about how Dhed women inDohad "procured work at theprice of their chastity"he declared that
handspinning and
jq
handweaving
alone
would
save
them.66 By
1920,
one
of the
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Gandhi's
Tallen'
Sisters
This claim became a staple featureof had been reclaimed from a lifeof shame."67 his speeches around the country: in Madras, he explained that the spinningwheel
was "an honourable substitute to
2> 5"
5*
lengthand breadth of our land, and it [was] onlywhen the spinningwheel [had] found a sure and established footing in our homes that it [was] possible for India to embark upon mass civil disobedience."68 In a 1921 speech toworkers in ofworkers, if you wish Dibrugarh, he declared: "ifyou want to end the suffering
to guard foreign the character cloth."69 He of women entwined and the ancient culture of India, and then burn the moral goals " victoryof convertingprostitutes in a 1922 letter: [The spinningwheel] is already proving moral an a means of weaning as thousands of women He from a life of shame, mentioned it is as instrument it is economic."70 the economic of spinning
[present]
to
...fallen
sisters
throughout
the
\ 3 ^
protection of women's honour in the same breath as its ability to feed the deployed the idiom of sacredness to achieve his ends, vesting hungry.He freely the spinningwheel with the quasi-magical quality of rescuingwomen's honour in "this time of Kaliyuga [age of vice]" when "it [was] difficult forwomen to
remain chaste."71
regularly
spinning's
were clearly compel his audience to accede to itsappeal. Some of his followers " won over: a "graduate fromUP" vaunted the spinningwheel as [giving]bread to the millions of starvingvillagers of India, [clothing] the farmers, livelihood to beggars, [and] a dignified profession to fallen sisters and thosewhose modesty
is otherwise
By equating
spinning
with modesty,
Gandhi
was
able
to better
There were indeed episodes that allowed Gandhi to proclaim such triumphs for spinning: many of the other "fallen sisters" Gandhi met in Noakhali, Cocanada, and Lucknow did take to full-time spinning,73and Gandhi was far more kindly disposed towards them than the women of Barisal. From his
political retained standpoint, no trace the only of her acceptable fallen sister was a repentant there was an one who obvious former profession. not However,
exposed
to the assaults
of lustful persons."72
could
of Barisal,
to pay, and their income of sixty rupees a month as prostitutes could not be matched by spinning.Gandhi acknowledged that for them, then spinning could
only be "recreational, a sacrificial
practice..."
although
he noted
"they would
not
Gandhi's denigration of prostitutes also fed his goal of public mobilization in another way. Gandhi was highly attentive to the symbolic resonance of the
3 |
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Social
Scientist
es ^ rd E ??) ?zj
prostitution aimed at the diasporic Indian community. In 1906, the British government in Transvaal accused Indian men of bringing into the country women "of indifferent character" who were "styled wives."76 Gandhi
figure
of
the prostitute,
and
responded
dramatically
to any
accusations
of
vociferously denied this charge, and also extracted an apology from the newspaper Transvaal Leader for "casting an unjustified aspersion upon Indian
During in order his
women..."77
^
rN O O GO O 1^ CO >
South Africa and Fiji, he readily employed the narrative of violated sexual
honour to encourage
early
campaigns
on
behalf
of
Indian
immigrants when
in
public
participation.
On
a few occasions
the
prostitution and hence a grievous insult. He challenged the South African government when it restricted immigration in 1906 on the grounds that Indian
men
responded
when a justice ruled that South African law did not recognize Indian marriages because Islam, Hinduism and Zoroastrianism permitted polygamy. Gandhi depicted both actions of the government as slurs on the community, and
agitated women's against honour.. a more the rulings, .does "serious declaring insult" that a "nation that cannot He protect termed its the not deserve to be called than by that name."
brought
in women
of "indifferent
character."78
Later
in 1913, he protested
latter measure
the "obnoxious
strongly
upon
hearing
a report
that Indian
women
"served"
Gandhi
successfully mobilized
of women. This
dishonouring
gesture,
Although Gandhi grantedwomen ingeneral an increasing role innationalist - in 1921 and 1925, he called on women to rally around moral causes politics such as prohibition, and in the early 1930's women joined saltmarches his views of prostitutes did not vary much: well into the 1930's, he remained
regions, reinscribed an instrumental approach towomen: rather than being ends in themselves,women were meaningful only in relation to the community towhich theybelonged, and whose honor they represented.
unwilling to directly engagewith them, and with the social problems that shaped their lives. Gandhi did not imbue themwith the qualities of divinity that he readily conferred on other subordinate figures, which his philosophy of
32
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Gandhi's
Tallen'
Sisters
Conclusion
>
ZZT =3 H tu
I have suggested thatprostitutes represented the genuine limitsofGandhi's vision of social inclusiveness. They could not be incorporated into the national body politic because they represented a mode of instrumental human
interaction antithetical
to principle
of self-sacrifice,
and
appeared
as diseased
3 cr
themselves
as "thieves
which he narrated as his actual experiences with prostitutes early in his life, traumas. In the early 1920s when he again did interactwith prostitutes, his
energy was benefits and reserved for converting Prostitutes them were to spinning, useful as a way to dramatize the of spinning. only to his purposes Gandhi's as converts, anger towards
perhaps
it infuriated
him when
prostitutes vividly exposed his individualist vision of political transformation: his downplaying of the structural forces that shaped prostitutes' lives
demonstrates impoverished. how his conception of the social was, ultimately, quite
they resisted
conversion.
My analysis ofGandhi's attitudes to prostitutes provides insights into how he viewed thenational body politic. The comments thathemakes on prostitutes'
motives, and
saw the public body as continuous with theprivate body. This public body was sometimes, peculiarly, hisbody: in a highly self-referential projection, thosewho
were
the requirement
themselves,
demonstrate
how
he
who represented a form of feminine subjectivity that refuted fundamental even as principles ofGandhi's ethos, could not be dealt with inneighbourlyways,
subordinates.
radically
different
were
only
useful
virtue.
Prostitutes,
Ashwini Department
Tambe
is Assistant
Professor,
Women
Studies
Institute
and
of History,
University
of Toronto,
Notes: 1 Kumar, 2 I use Radha, the terms In the The History ofDoing (Delhi: Kali for Women, 1994): 2.
here,
in their historically and 'prostitution' specific sense 'prostitute' from 1920s and 1930s, the terms referred to a range of women I readily acknowledge that the to brothel workers. to temple dancers courtesans term 'sex worker' ismore appropriate when referring to the present. the term 'body politic' has multiple meanings, I use it here in the sense 33
3 Although
This content downloaded from 182.64.34.230 on Mon, 1 Apr 2013 00:07:59 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Social
Scientist
ON O o cd ZJ L_ _Q O) ZJ c
cd^ rS O GO O Z CO > O
found
in political
theory;
Robert Filmer 1651/1962J, and John Locke Press, (The 1680/1991), Cambridge: Cambridge University Second Treatise Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1690/ Upper of Government, this sense of the term body politic; Hobbes understood the state 1952), established as an artificial man, with pacts and covenants the various constituting Filmer presented the body politic as akin to a patriarchal family; Locke a less hierarchical emphasized entity, arguing that consent constituted the formation of the body politic. Pantham, Theory, "Thinking 11, 2 (May with Mahatma 1983): 165-188. of the ashram," South Gandhi: Beyond body parts. in response the basis
political
to conceptualize the public as a New York: Hobbes (Leviathan, and Other Writings, (Patriarcha
of
4 Thomas Political
liberal democracy,"
5 Ajay Skaria, "Gandhi's and the question politics: Liberalism Atlantic Quarterly, 955-986. 101, 4 (2002): 6 The scholarship on Gandhi as a social A.,
representative examples, The Review of Politics, Utopia: Experiments Halliburton, Murphy, anthropology," "From Ashis,
is vast; see as and political theorist to social theory," "Gandhi's contribution 312-328. Also: Gandhian Fox, Richard, Beacon Press use of authoritative Also: 1989). sources in
793-817. As well: Nandy, 77, 4(2004): Anthropological Quarterly, outside the imperium: Gandhi's in cultural critique of theWest" and Utopias: in the Politics Traditions, (Delhi: Tyranny Essays of Awareness Oxford University the origins of Press, 1987). See also: Spodek, Howard,"On Studies, The heritage of Kathiawad political methodology: 30, 2 (Feb 1971): 361-372. My focus here relationship with classical liberalism. and Gujarat" is specifically Journal of on those
7 Pantham, 8 Skaria,
9 Two
Chicago Militant 10
Sudhir Kakar's Intimate Relations (Chicago: Gandhi's Truth: On 1980) and Erik Erikson's Nonviolence Norton, (New York: W.W. 1969). Press,
these
are
of of
or the prostitutes out See: Jordan, Kay, "Devadasi reform: Driving the priestesses of Hindu in Law and in ed. Robert Baird India, temples?" Religion Independent also: Parker, Kunal, "A corporation of superior (Delhi: Manohar, 1993) 257-277, of temple dancing prostitutes: Anglo-Indian legal conceptions girls, 1800-1914" Modern Asian Studies, 32, 3 (July 1998): 559-633. See as well: Srinivasan, Amrit, "Reform or conformity? Temple in theMadras and the community 'prostitution' in Structures The and the Household State, of Patriarchy: presidency" Community in Modernizing Asia', ed. Bina Agarwal (London: Zed, 1996) 175-198.
11
See: Chatterjee, Resolution of theWomen's in Partha, "The Nationalist Question" eds. Kumkum and Sudesh Vaid Women, (New Brunswick: Recasting Sangari Rutgers University Whitehead, Judith, models, Mothering, to Indian Sociology, Press, 1998) 233-253. See also: the motherhood "Modernizing and the Child Marriage Restraint 186-209. 29, 1 & 2, (1995): and Kumar, pp.34-36, Public health archetype: Act of 1929," Contributions
34
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Gandhi's
'Fallen'
Sisters
12 Collected Works
Gandhi Mahatma (henceforth CWMG). of Government and Broadcasting, of Information Ministry 14-9-1934. like Harijans," 515, "Almost Harijan vol. 59, no. 605, Tetter to Meliscent Shepherd." women
Publications of India,
vol.
>GO ZT =5
13 CWMG 14 CWMG
Gandhi, M. K., "Work among unfortunate left to experts," Young India April 16, 1925. from Young India 28 September, 29, 1931.
everywhere
must
be
15
1925.
16 CWMG 17 Gandhi,
52, Bombay
Chronicle
August Social
Mohandas, 1942),
and
Women Women
Injustice, Injustice,
quote
from Young
India,
June 25,
Forbes, 2005).
G?raldine, Press,
Women
India India
(Cambridge: (Chronicle 20
University
Madhu,"Gandhi
Economic
and also 1753-1758; Patel, 1691-1702, 1985): Sujata, in Gandhi," Economic and Political Weekly ofWoman Reconstruction (20 Feb. Movement in the Indian Nationalist Suruchi. Women 1988), 377. See Thapar, Unseen 21 22 Faces and Unheard in Colonial Voices India, 1930-1942 42. (Sage: New Delhi, 2006).
(Oct "Construction
of the Resolution this point well in "The Nationalist explores in Recasting Women, edited by Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Brunswick: Press, 1993. Rutgers University 295 "Speech at Public Meeting," Madaripur, June 13, 1925.
23 24 25
1753-1758.
vol. 40, no. 112, "Notes," Young India June 8, 1921. CWMG in 11, 1927, published Chidambaram, September Meeting 1927. 13, September community such as
term has long been problematized by those in the Dalit it as being patronizing. who viewed B.R. Ambedkar, celebrated particularly "the widow's manner
2 7 Gandhi
him to the example of Basanti Devi, who prompted See CWMG vol. 32, June is the glory of Hinduism." 17 1925; "Ganga Swarup Basanti Devi," Navjivan June 28, 1925. On this issue as on to feminist is Gandhi's well, open emphasis critique. The widespread position a means to control their sexuality, often in the interest widows' celibacy has been treatment of this theme, of preserving property within families. For an excellent declare: see Chakravati, (New Delhi: Uma, Kali Rewriting History: forWomen, 1998). The Life and Times ofPandita Ramabai
35
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Social
Scientist
ON O o rd ZJ S-_
i?i cd ZJ c rd o ? rN
28
and Social
Injustice,
in Young
India
June
29
-O
30 Ibid.
31 32 Ibid., CWMG January 33 34 CWMG, CWMG CWMG 1926. 980. vol. 27, vol. vol. vol. 22, no. 1921. 64, no. 92, no. 36, no. 515, "Almost like Harijans," Harijan Harijan 14-9-1934. 137, "Non cooperation means self purification, " Navjivan,
144, "Notes,"
GO O co
September Monster,"
35
Headed
36 37
CWMG
vol.
76, no.
30 "Meaning
of Prohibition," Gandhi,
Harijan Women
>
"?
on "Plague
spots of Lucknow,"
38
See: Banerjee, York: Monthly in nineteenth 21, 9-11 1860-1940: Societies, Service, India:
in Colonial the Raj: Prostitution (New Bengal, "Prostitution Ratnabali, 2000). See also: Chatterjee, of class and gender," Social Scientist, century Bengal: Construction and Rule, Pauline, in Calcutta, "Prostitution (1993): 233-253, (159-172) Sumanta, Under Review Press, The pattern of recruitment" in Class, eds. Gail Pearson and Lenore Manderson Sen, Ideology and Woman Asian in Asian Research 1999). (Hong Kong: and Labor Samita, Women Cambridge University
(Cambridge:
39
have
have been forced into it. As feminists studying the sex trade more become prostitutes palatable they are cast as figures when victims of social circumstances, and they lose their sympathetic appeal when they are endowed with agency. See: Kamala and Doezema, Jo, eds., Global Kempadoo, and noted, Sex Workers: and Redefinition (New York: Routledge, 1998), Rights, Resistance, also McClintock, "Sex Workers and Sex Work: Social Text Anne, Introduction," 1-10. See also: Pheterson, Gail, The Prostitution Prism (Amsterdam: 11, 4 (1993):
I chose to stay in prostitution. by this analysis to deny that women there is a danger when the structural forces of emphasizing of also reading prostitutes' lives through another middle class impoverishment standard of assuming that prostitutes couldn't possibly choose the profession, recognize that that they must
I do not mean
Press, 1996). University as Gandhi saw them: women he offered. 30, "Meaning
So
itmay
be useful on
of
who
insisted
of Prohibition,"
Harijan,
Nationalism Joseph, Gandhi's Body: Sex, Diet, and the Politics of (University of Pennsylvania The Un Press, 2000): Claude, p.xi, 6. See also Markovits, Gandhian Gandhi: The Life and Afterlife of the Mahatma Anthem, (London: in India: A and Renunciation 2004). Roy, Parama, "Meat-Eating, Masculinity Grammar of Diet," in Gender and History, 14, 1 (2002): 62-91.
Gandhian 36
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Gandhi's
'Fallen'
Sisters
42
prominent (1969) and Kakar psychoanalytic (1980), biographies, by Erickson describe these episodes. Kakar also highlights Gandhi's sorrow over being in bed with his wife and not being by his father's side when the latter died. See Erik Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence Erikson, Gandhi's (New York: W.W. Norton, Press, 1969), 1980). Mahatma of Gandhi (New York: Smithmark and Sudhir Kakar, Intimate Relations (University of Chicago
Two
> CO zr l ZJ H eu 3 ZT CD
43
Payne, Robert, The Life and Death Publishers: 1969): 38. Payne, Payne, CWMG, Kakar, On 75. 90. vol. 101. the biography 59, no. 65.
44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51
quote
from Young
15 September, prostitution
to a letter about
Opinion
April
26,
sex obsession,"
well-known
of the Salvation Army in Bombay, the that since the 1890s had picketed organization at corners of "notorious said that "there is no reason why some streets"; Gandhi on a such thing should not be organized large scale." CWMG Harijan September 4, 1937. Christian missionary 186-209. vol. vol. 16, no. 55, "Message 18, no. 282, to Gujarati Sin," Hindu Stri Mandai," 14, 1919. India, India, September September 1, 1921. 1, 1921. Nov 14, 1917.
the actions
"A Shameful
vol. 24, no. 90, "Ethics vol. 24, no. 90, "Ethics vol. vol. 32, no. 32, no.
Club," Club,"
August August
Mohandas
compiled
Young
India
October
1,
37
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Social
Scientist
ON O o cd s -O I cd ZJ cz rd
csi O
67 68 69 70
28,
1920. September August Hamilton," 15, 1921. 25, 1921. Young India June 4,
77, "Letter
71
19, no. 13, "Speech at Bhagini Samaj." on idioms to discipline religious of the Devi," and transformations "Origins vol. reliance ed. Ranajit Guha (Minneapolis:
David
Hardiman
1986-1995,
University
of Minnesota
O Z PO > o
72 73
CWMG
of theWheel," p. 184-185
Young on
India April
17,1924. meeting,
See Gandhi's
Injustice,
the Noakhali
to Immigration
Restriction
Officer, Durban,"
September
79 80
7, 1919.
38
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