Homes turned into barracks

Rumina Sethi

Garrisoned Minds is feminist history from the frontline. It is the history of survival in a world of real threats of rape and murder, fear and torture. One can see fear writ large on the faces of women who are on the move these last few days on the LoC. With no baggage except their honour, they walk out of their homes not knowing whether they would ever return; and if they did, it would be a return to the devastation and ravages of war.

One often wonders how people living on the borders can be at peace with their geography. An absent stability and a lingering tentativeness become the all-pervasive scenario, especially for women who lack the comfort of a secure hearth as no one knows when the war will displace the innocent who have no role to play in the violence unleashed by meaningless military conflicts. The ‘garrison is her home, her workplace, her field and her playground.’ She sometimes screams and often remains silent in a life where mere survival is heroic, considering the circumstances she breathes in.  

Twelve journalists collaborate in this exercise bringing deep insights into the major conflict zones of Pakistan, Nepal, Kashmir and the Northeast. Issues of collateral damage in the American interventions on the border of Pakistan, the terrorism unleashed by the Taliban, and the presence of the armed forces in Manipur tell the story of women suffering from abuse and gender bias, from rape and torture. These are the poignant tales that remain untold. 

In the book, the zone of conflict is the garrison, a world different from the one outside, though with undertones of a shelter that promises security such as that enjoyed by one’s fellow beings living peacefully away from the treacherous border. ‘The ability to reproduce a quality of life that is denied to those outside it is a remarkable achievement of the garrison,’ writes Sanjay Barbora, one of the authors. The garrison has the semantics of not only protection but also the hegemony of the military under whose shadow the common residents live. Writing about Northeast India, Barbora’s essay examines a scenario that disallows coexistence or any common ground for peaceful negotiations. Dark memories of violence and bloodshed haunt the inhabitants in a land where regional politics and the all-powerful military are the mainsprings behind personal agony.  

Pakistan’s frontier province is taken up in three essays covering experiences of clashes between communities, and the Talibanisation of cultural regulations enforcing orthodoxy, the infringement of which provokes severe penalty. The essay Widowhood of Shame by Shazia Yousuf looks at the recent scourge of separatism in Kashmir giving rise to an upsurge in the count of widows across the valley. Rape remains endemic from Pakistan to Manipur. Women activists are few and far between; the visible example is Manipur, though here too radicals like Irom Sharmila have been unsuccessfully waging a fight against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act for over 16 years.

One such story is that of Jwala Kumari Sah. Darshan Karki depicts the agony of being a woman at the frontline of Maoist activity, bearing children, being hounded by the police yet standing up with the ‘fearless resolve that [drives] her to constantly push her boundaries.’ As a woman Maoist, she and her comrades wage a continuous fight against a strongly entrenched patriarchy, burning down liquor bars and often spurring women to literally use the stick on their husbands if they misbehave. 

One can understand the dilemma faced by women who choose to join the Maoists, brandish guns and simultaneously take care of their families. The essay Incomplete Revolution draws attention to the marginalised Madhesi community living in the south where the contribution made by women like Jwala stands unrecounted in written accounts.

The essays in the collection exhibit academic rigour, contextual nuance, and skillfully trace the historical perspective by examining people, places and political contexts of the conflict zones in the subcontinent. The book is relevant to students of Indian political history and has the global reach and relevance since it traces the traumatic impact on women living in such adverse conditions.

Laxmi Murthy draws attention to a life lived in uninterrupted suffering: ‘As in many parts of the world, when underlying causes of conflict have not been addressed, there is no ‘post’ war harmony. Simmering discontent and bitterness in an uneasy “peace” is most-often sought to be suppressed by aggressive troop deployment and repressive colonial laws. . . . This everyday nature of occupation defines the rhythm of life in these margins.’