Women in Resistance Struggles in Odisha by Ranjana Padhi and Pramodini Pradhan Mainstream, VOL LI, No 33, August 3, 2013 The vibrant presence of hundreds of thousands of women pitted against the mighty assault of state and capital in today’s context of resource plunder in Odisha needs to be reflected upon to locate them in the same Odia society. Who are these women who we meet in the many resistance struggles of Odisha? They are the ordinary women, otherwise largely invisible, trying to hold onto their livelihood, trying to protect it for their children from the rapaciousness of the state and capital. That is their dream in all its ‘ordinariness’. We have seen them amongst the betel vines of Baliapal, in the hills of Gandhamardhan, in the waters of Chilika, in the sandy alluvial soils of Gopalpur. We also see them in the bauxite mountains of Kashipur and Niyamagiri, in the undulating terrains of Kalinganagar, in the paddy fields of Dhinkia, in the forests of Narayanpatna; and even in the deep forest recesses in uniform and with a gun.
there seems to be an ever widening chasm between the feminism of the privileged and that of the less privileged. Are we prepared to look at the reality of this widening rift? The situation today raises a host of questions for all who are engaged in women’s struggles or writing or deliberating about the status of women in Odisha and elsewhere in the country. Events facing us—one after another—like in Odisha, see the active involvement of women who have always assumed a secondary position within the family and community. Perhaps the contradictions of patriarchy in a class-caste society have been borne by them the most. Yet they are giving the toughest challenge to state and capital in an unprecedented manner.
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