The people of W.Bengal may have been be disenchanted with the Left rather than being enamoured of Mamata, who had delivered a coup of sorts in the local body polls there this week. But looking beyond the bloody turf war in the Red State, a single thread running through the last two decades stands out: The success of forty-plus single women, spinsters or widowed, in politics. From Sonia to Jaya, Maya and Mamata, these loners have rocked the nation no end.
What follows is by no means a professional analysis but just some pedestrian obervations. This caution is necessary lest I inadvertently incur the fury of a ‘woman scorned’, a phenomenon that was held in great dread from savants like Shakespeare to our own sages of yore. And for good reason. Kannagi whose ‘burning’ rage consumed Madurai and its mannan is a still a torchbearer of Tamil legend and lore. Bhishma was done in by Amba whose marriage offer he had rejected in a rather dismissive tone. She immolated herself, was reborn as Sikhandi and caused the Pitama’s death by fronting for Arjuna as the latter fired his arrows. Bhishma did not respond and his chauvinist hangover of never fighting a ‘woman’ turned fatal.The modern political kurukshetra too is littered with politicians felled by the para1 lonely ladies and their likes. Single Vajpayee’s torrid tenure of 1998-99 vintage comes to mind. WB’s Left is the latest.
Unlike J, M and M, Sonia or for that matter, even Indira Gandhi were not single to begin with. But their political graphs took an upswing soon after they were rendered single by fate. And once in the early forties, all of them seemed to gain greater momentum that is keeping them in good stead even in their fifties and beyond too. Much as many would like to see their extinction, it is quite obvious that none of these loners can be written off. Now, let’s not get into the merits or otherwise of their politics; the fact is that the sheer domination and the veto power of these single women of India are itself quite unique in world history.
America, the self-appointed champion of democracy and freedom, granted suffrage, the right to vote, to women only in 1920, a good 150 years after Independence. And almost another century later, it is still to have a woman president, single or paired. The feminist movement in America has a long history. If the democratic, economic and legal empowerment of women there was a very slow process, the fate of singles was rendered worse by stigmatisation. This changed from the 1960s and presto, singleness became a virtue and a modern style statement. Today, the situation is topsy turvy with many sociologists worrying over the assault on society by such single women. For one, more than 30% of children are born to single mothers. Yet, somehow American politics has remained immune to this singles’ spree. In Britain, the chosen civiliser of the world, which too has a thriving feminist culture, single women in politics are invisible. In fact, after Thatcher one can hardly remember a political woman, single or otherwise, that is, if you ignore Her Majesty! But India, with no such thing as an organised women’s movement seems to nonchalantly put women, particularly single women, in positions of power.
Sonia, despite her single status, is not strictly a loner for she has a family to tend to, personally and politically. Also, her loneliness is much mitigated by her powerful dynastic pedigree that has not only erased her stark foreign origins but also put her in the safe custody of a doting party. But the others do not fall in the same league. Though Jaya and Maya were nurtured by mentors, their paths have not been laid with roses. Today, the blessings of those departed souls have waned and the women are on their own, responsible for their omissions and commissions. Mamata’s is an even tougher act, being a loner from the start. So what makes them all tick, often ominously for the nation?
An obvious explanation for their no-holds-barred politics is the lack of a household to hold them back. Again, having jumped or got dumped into the male dominated political arena by a quirk of fate, distrust and insecurity probably makes them hyper-senstive and thereby hyper-active. It is also possible that to the male eye, tuned by tradition to demure women, those acts seem magnified. More so in a milieu where a Mr remains a Mr, be he unmarried, married, much married or ex-married whereas a women’s marital status can be discerned by prefixes ranging from Miss to Mrs to the now ubiquitous Ms, the latter often delivered in mocking tones! But such women cannot also escape some stereotyping of their female middle-age mould. For instance, there have been suggestions that the many turbulences in Indian politics — Emergencey, the regular renunciations, Vajpayee regime’s fall, Maya’s flip flops and Mamata’s notorious tantrums, to name a few — are owing to those individuals’ harmonal disturbances. Of course, in today’s biological scheme which actually talks of ‘Male Menopause’ such statements are downright unfair. But the standard for those singles has stuck: Adamant albeit determined; reckless still daring; unpredictable but focussed; temperamental yet fearless; maverick but motivated.
Now that’s quite a challenge for any male politico, whatever his hue, to handle! Those like Vajpayee, Karunanidhi and Mulayam have had their trysts with these typhoons. It now seems to be the turn of the comrades of WB to reap the whirlwind that is Mamata. At this pace, it is said she would be CM next year same time. Bengalis are indeed in for a rocky ride. And sorry for the typical rub. Male habit!
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