Inventing “women’s history”: Female valor, martial queens, and right-wing story-tellers in the Bombay slums

Atreyee Sen

Abstract:This article focuses on oral created by slum women affiliated with nationalist Shiv Sena movement in Bombay, and explores the ways in which these invented traditions allowed marginalized women to enter a mar- tial, masculinist “Hindu” history. It shows how poor, rough women used the lim- ited resources available in the slums, especially in the context of rising communal hostilities, to gain a “respectable past.” Furthermore, the article analyzes how everyday practices and performances of women’s strategic “history-telling” worked to politically mobilize poor women cadres and impacted gender dynamics in con- tested urban spaces. The invention of traditions of female martiality reflects the potential of right-wing political women to assert a controversial position within the dominantly patriarchal structures of the slums in particular, and the extrem- ist movement in general. The article discusses the mytho-histories told by women to negotiate their present gendered social environment; paradoxically, the martial content of these historical stories also allowed women to nurture a perpetual threat of communal discord and renegotiate their position with male cadres within a vi- olent movement. Keywords:Bombay, nationalist pedagogy, oral histories, slum violence, women’s militancy

“Women cook, you don’t need history. Women stitch, you don’t need history. These are women’s roles. Women fight, suddenly you need history. So we have to create it, or we stay at home to cook and stitch. What options do we have?” —Chandana, a Shiv Sena women’s wing member

Right-wing extremist movements and the mar- would expect to find sustained, organized prac- tial imagination they mobilize are often seen to tices by women to resist their disempowerment thrive on women’s vulnerabilities. These move- and discrimination, or create new imaginations ments, almost invariably dominated by patriar- of a more gender equal society. My anthropolog- chal relations, are not the usual place where one ical research among women in a Bombay slum—

Focaal—European Journal of Anthropology 54 (2009): 33–48 doi:10.3167/fcl.2009.540103 34 | Atreyee Sen who were active members of the women’s branch ing that there was “a notable misalignment be- of the right-wing Shiv Sena movement, the tween the official discourse of the rebellion and Mahila Aghadi—exposed myriad everyday po- the language, perceptions and intentions of its litical practices and performances of strategic ordinary adherents. Rank-and-file fighters and “history-telling” through which women tacitly supporters shared certain motivations with move- challenged the nature of gender dynamics within ment leaders but possessed others that were more the dominantly patriarchal structures both of local, more situational, more “practical” than the slums and of the movement. This article ex- those enunciated in the authorized rhetoric of plores the creative endeavors of these women nationalist mobilization” (1996: 247). I observed soldiers—often referred to locally as “riot-makers similar patterns of disjunction between the offi- from the slums”—to “invent traditions”1 of fe- cial nationalist discourse and its local interpre- male martiality, not only to emphasize their im- tations within the Aghadi women’s story-telling portance to the general movement, but also to practices. use their martial image to violently wrest tem- Unlike in other movements, the Aghadi porary social and economic benefits to survive women could not fall back on an existing oral in the slums. It was particularly in reaction to on female militancy, such as that de- the challenges against women’s militancy and scribed by Lobao (1990) who studied the gender- allegations of “unnatural female ferociousness”2 ing of guerrilla struggles in Latin America. In that the summoning of a history of women’s the latter context, women warriors exchanged martiality became important, as one of the ways tales not only about their own experiences of to contest this backlash and prolong and legit- collective violence, but also their predecessors’ imize women’s activism. Before continuing with assertive actions: women’s contemporary mar- the ethnographic discussion of this story-telling tiality, against real or imagined state oppression, by women in slum areas of Bombay, I first make was interpreted within the guerilla movement some introductory remarks to situate my work as the revenge of wronged mothers and wives, in relation to broader academic research on the and women’s violence became related to their tra- topic. I also introduce the concept of “mytho- ditional and historical expertise in mothering histories” that I use in this article to describe the and their unconditional support to their house- complex effects of martial story-telling by Aghadi hold. In this way, female guerrillas avoided com- women in the Bombay slums. plete moral isolation within a society accustomed Several scholars have debated the historical to women’s feminine roles and structural sub- pedagogy of Hindu and the redi- ordination. The Aghadi members also used to recting of history by nationalistic organizations; circulate and publicize stories about their actions they have, however, focused primarily on radical and achievements, but the recentness of collec- schooling, hate-teaching in classrooms, vituper- tive female militancy within the movement made ative speeches by militant leaders, and the re- the Sena women both absent in “history,” and writing of textbooks to disseminate knowledge vulnerable to ridicule in the present. The Aghadi about Hindu male pride (Benei 2001; Chatter- women were aware of the centrality of the me- jee 2005; T. Sarkar 1998). My research uses the dieval past to Sena identity politics, and con- lens of anthropology to explore the oral tradi- structed and championed a prestigious martial tions of history-making, in particular tradition to raise the self-esteem of Hindu women those controlled by slum women; the latter aimed cadres in peripheral urban slums. to return women to a martial, masculinist Hindu This research therefore to some extent chal- history, using the limited resources available in lenges the assumption that martial societies the slums to construct a “respectable” past for necessarily thrive on women’s silencing and sup- militant women. In this sense my research touches pression. Scholars such as Giles and Hyndman on that by McKenna, who studied local battle (2004) argue that militarism in society is un- songs by insurgents in the Philippines, conclud- derstood as the array of customs, actions, and Inventing “women’s history”: Female valor, martial queens, and right-wing storytellers |35 thought associated with armies and wars, where of the apparatus of myth-making in the slums, the physical superiority of men is emphasized and some women with oratory skills were involved “weakness” is associated with women. The Hindu in circulating stories. Some of the women nar- nationalist movement also envisaged a martial rators were former stage actresses and some Hindu society in the future. This article demon- were Aghadi leaders, but most of them were strates “women’s logic” for making Aghadi cadres housewives with the time to “tell stories.”Groups familiar with their martial past and for directing of slum women would collectively or individu- current thought and action within the movement ally narrate tales to men, women, children, and toward contesting women’s defenselessness. “Roz to an odd anthropologist sitting around the nar- ka samaj mein aurat kamjor hain, sena samaj mein rator. Sometimes they were told in children’s nahin”(In everyday society women are weak, parks or in the shakhas (local Shiv Sena offices). not in a martial society), summed up Radhika, At other times, they were narrated in the temple a cadre.3 complexes where the women met regularly to The story-telling styles and practices by these sing devotional songs. The slums even swapped militant slum women thus open up new per- story-tellers to avoid boredom. Several women spectives on gender and political violence. To contrived a “good time” (as opposed to a “good capture its multi-faceted dimensions, I use the place”) to tell stories, so that these sessions did term “mytho-histories” to describe the stories, not clash with their favorite saas-bahu (mothers- as they represent a collapse of time and space, in law and daughters-in-law) soap operas. The past myth and contemporary reality, truth and scattered stories, most of them lost in the mists fiction, stillness and change. The “formlessless” of time, were collected, coordinated and made in the narratives could be molded strategically conspicuous by the Aghadi women. As women’s to contest present inequalities (Tambiah 1996) histories were not part of any fixed, written and to seek out a feminine voice in a commu- texts, the story-tellers engineered and embel- nity’s conception of its own past (Doniger 1999). lished these malleable stories with new and ex- The Aghadi women tried to place the past, the citing narratives. Most of the sessions were present, and the future in a continuum so that interactive, which allowed the story-teller to the imagined martial society of “a Hindu past,” gauge what kinds of stories interested a partic- marked by women’s aggression and autonomy, ular audience. Through repeated telling, the can be regarded as the model society of the fu- narrators would try to show how women’s war- ture. The present can be described as that mo- riorhood was integral to the tradition of Hindu ment in the continuum that draws inspiration militancy. from the past and is at the same time engaged in the construction of the “ideal” future. I discuss the Aghadi’s efforts to manipulate and drama- The rise of tize mytho-histories about martial Hindu kings and the Mahila Aghadi and queens in order to highlight the impor- tance and vibrancy of women’s roles in the past The Aghadi’s use of mytho-histories needs to be and in the present. understood in the context of the increasing in- Most of the mytho-histories evolved through fluence of the Hindu nationalist movement, interactive engagements between the story-tellers whose violent manifestations in sporadic and and their audience, and this practice can be in- sustained communal rioting has been an inte- terpreted as one of the Aghadi’s informal mobi- gral part of post-colonial politics in . Be- lizational strategies towards creating a political tween 1992–2002, the outbreak of large-scale community of poor women. For all the Aghadi Hindu-Muslim clashes has even lead to the de- women, narratives—whether “real,”constructed, struction of the cultural fabric of Bombay and or modified—could be furnished with authen- Ahmedabad, two Indian cities better known ticity through reiteration and repetition. As part globally for their cosmopolitan reputation and 36 | Atreyee Sen industrial/corporate successes. On this map of Municipal Elections, and in 1995 joined forces violence, death, and destruction, Hindu funda- with the Bharatiya (BJP), a pan- mentalism gave birth to a cluster of organiza- Indian Hindu fundamentalist organization, to tions, which fostered national and most often form the state government (Heuze 1995). local, political, social, and religious insecurities Since its inception as an ethno-centric cul- for many years. One such organization was the tural organization, Shiv Sena men have made Shiv Sena (’s Army), a regional political headlines because of their violent and murder- party named after the martial Hindu king Shivaji. ous activities in orchestrating communal riots The reasons for the rise of the Shiv Sena are not just in Bombay, but all over the state (Gupta debatable, but there is less doubt about the 1982; Katzenstein 1979). Women played an in- events that preceded the party’s emergence as a strumental role as well by creating and sustain- political power. , the Indian state of ing communal tension and orchestrating direct which Bombay is the capital, has been a strong- or indirect attacks on migrants and Muslims, hold of the national, “secular” party well in keeping with the larger aims of an ethno- since Indian independence in 1947. Since the nationalist movement. The Mahila Aghadi or last quarter of the twentieth century, however, the women’s front was formally inaugurated in the Congress government faced increasing so- 1985, a year after the Sena formed an alliance cial and political challenges. The party became with the BJP. By that time, most Sena women in destabilized by internal feuds over policy de- the slums had developed an aggressive public bates, the onslaught of secessionist social move- image as picketers, as running abuse brigades ments (Katzenstein et al. 1998), the hostility of (groups of women that embarrassed “offenders” lower-caste groups and an energetic peasant by shouting abuses in front of their homes/ struggle (Lele 1981, 1995), and high levels of offices for hours), and as violent demonstrators. unemployment, especially after the Bombay tex- The Sena’s affinity for organized violence peaked tile strike of 1982 (Bakshi 1984; Pinto and Fer- during the 1992–93 . In December nandes 1996; Van Wersch 1984). The Shiv Sena 1992, Hindu fundamentalists in north India de- emerged in the 1960s as a small grassroots cul- stroyed a mosque (the ) in the tural organization and grew under the patronage temple town of . The Shiv Sena, alleg- of select Congress leaders. The fledgling group edly in connivance with the city police, clamped offered to oust specific communist leaders who down on Muslims, because the latter had “dared” opposed Congress trade unionism. Instead of to hold public protests against majoritarian op- declaring openly their affiliation with the Con- pression. Bombay witnessed large-scale death, gress party, Sena members focused on attacking destruction, and unfettered violence for two Left leaders who spurned culture, tradition, and months (in two phases, an initial one in Decem- idol worship (Katzenstein et al. 1998). As the ber 1992 and a much more intense phase the Sena grew in power and popularity, it eventually following month). The riots saw “the unprece- stepped out of the shadows of Congress minis- dented feminisation of violence” (Sarkar and ters and contributed to the multiple disruptive Butalia 1996: 6), in which the Shiv Sena women’s elements that undermined the Congress domi- front organized attacks on Muslim ghettoes. nance in the state (Banerjee 2000). The organi- The Mahila Aghadi became prominent and the zation strategically exploited the societal, eco- Sena women developed a reputation as notori- nomic, and discursive transitions to find its way ous women “gangsters.” Over the decades since into the political fray (Eckert 2003). The party 1960, the once submissive Sena women emerged was officially launched in 1966 in Bombay as “sentinels” of the streets of Bombay, usually under the charismatic leadership of Balasaheb patrolling borders with Muslim slums. Thackeray, who emerged as the most controver- I began my fieldwork in the Nirmal Nagar sial and influential figure in Bombay’s political slum area in Bombay—a Sena stronghold—in and cultural landscape. His party won several 1999, when the party was removed from politi- Inventing “women’s history”: Female valor, martial queens, and right-wing storytellers |37 cal power in Maharashtra. After several weeks The women cadres used their martial image and of visiting the area and establishing links with their notorious reputation within the politics of the local women, I was invited by one of the urban fear for certain social and economic ben- women leaders to live and work in the slums. I efits, which enabled them to survive everyday remained in Nirmal Nagar for a year, and re- life within the exclusivist ethos of a commercial turned for several months between 2001 and city. These “benefits” ranged from securing 2003. What made Nirmal Nigar unique was not material assets like illegal taps, electricity, and only the local successes of the Shiv Sena (in spite cable connections by threatening local suppli- of their state-wide electoral losses), but also the ers, to more intangible advantages like ensuring collective aggression displayed by the slum women’s safety and mobility on the streets by women in regulating social, economic, and po- thrashing male “predators.” litical activities in the area. During my stay in However, these activities by armed women Nirmal Nagar, the women party workers ex- became a spectacle in the slums of Bombay. pressed their relief at their state-level political Although several men in Sena-dominated con- defeat. While in power, the women’s front was stituencies remained ambiguous about female under greater compulsion to maintain a mod- militancy, most male guardians within slum erate façade and avoid embarrassing the party; families became increasingly concerned about once removed from power, the slum women women’s violence in public. Male brutality was could unrestrainedly promote a martial image easily naturalized, while women’s martiality that attracted poor women to the Aghadi. threatened to upturn gender hierarchies en- My broader research suggests that the Mahila trenched deeply in the slum areas. The women Aghadi manipulated the nationalist discourse were keen to retain their “soldierly” duties, and to address more localized gender interests (see at the same time, they resented being socially Sen 2007). The women’s wing, which drew its and politically ostracized for their commitment primary membership from the expansive slums to the Aghadi’s martial rhetoric. Thus female of Bombay, emerged as a “sub-group” through soldiering, whether it involved running a sys- ideological and political patronage; but it tem of brute justice to favor poor women or gained local popularity by contesting restrictive attacking Muslim ghettoes, needed a gloss of decrees on poor women. The Sena women loy- religio-historical legitimacy. In the absence of a alists were first or second generation migrants written or oral subaltern history of women, from the rural parts of Maharashtra, and be- claiming close connections to martial queens in came engaged in a variety of legal and illegal the past became an important strategy to justify economic activities to sustain their families in women’s martiality at present. Thus cadres the slums. For example, several women were started coordinating a “poor women’s history” fruit and vegetable vendors during the day and out of scattered stories about ruling-class women covertly sold marijuana at night. Most of the in the past. By forging and asserting universal women were married, yet faced various domes- ties of martial motherhood, female leadership, tic uncertainties. A small section of slum women and women’s autonomy across class and time, consisted of working widows (who found secu- the Aghadi women tried to secure a central role rity and sisterhood within the Sena camp), and within the contemporary Sena movement. A “over-age” and unmarried women (whose life substantial part of medieval Hindu history in in the urban slums had prevented them from Maharashtra concerns the life of Shivaji, the finding “suitable” partners). Almost all slum Shiv Sena being named after this local king. The women had experienced extreme poverty, dis- party men in general and the women in partic- placement and class discrimination, evictions, ular were tactically obsessed with medieval familial and kin alienation, domestic neglect, and mytho-histories, which developed around the sexual and financial vulnerabilities as workers role of this Hindu hero in challenging the Mus- within the informal/unskilled labor economy. lim rulers. The Aghadi felt that if women were 38 | Atreyee Sen to be involved in the conception and sustenance a Muslim empire. Within this primarily mas- of contemporary Hindu militarism, it was im- culinist discourse on a hero and his heroism, perative to recover women’s agency in the mar- the Aghadi tried to give significance to the few tial society of Shivaji’s time. scattered tales where women played an influen- tial role in Shivaji’s designs to create a Hindu Padpadshahi, a martial Hindu political and so- Telling tales of Shivaji cial empire. The narrators tried to characterize and soldierly women Shivaji as a man who was sensitive to women and gave recognition to women’s “special” con- There are diverse interpretations of medieval his- tribution to society. Shivaji’s father abandoned in Maharashtra. Here I offer a brief over- Jijabai after his second marriage (J. Sarkar 1992). view of the iconization of Shivaji, as the Sena The Sena women explained that the proximate women’s story-telling practices were etched in relationship between Shivaji and his mother relief against the life of this controversial figure. and the absence of a strong male presence al- Shivaji has been attributed several identities rang- lowed him to respect the strength and ideals of ing from “the liberator of the Marathi nation” women. In this context, the Sena women story- (Grant Duff 1873; Laine 2003; J. Sarkar 1992; tellers narrowed down and highlighted those Sen 1977; Takakhav 1998) to “a common bandit” “true tales” (sacchi kahania) in which their icon (Lane-Poole 1893). According to most historians, was fair and honorable to women from various he was born in 1630 to a petty landlord (jagirdar) social and political backgrounds. Shahaji Bhonsle and his wife Jijabai and grew The Aghadi drew careful attention to stories up to be a self-proclaimed king, Chhatrapati. He of Shivaji’s protection of women and his support annexed the regions of several neighboring Mus- to martial queens, women foot soldiers and his lim and Hindu rulers to his own jagir (land/ “autonomist” mother. According to one mytho- property), but because he carried on a prolonged history narrated by women, Shivaji withdrew struggle against the former, he was glorified as a an honor from one of his men, Raghoji, when Marathi “Hindu” hero (Bakshi and Sharma 2000; he discovered by chance that this front-rank Bhave 2000). Shivaji died in 1680. Excerpts from general lusted after a soldier’s widow. Another his life were compiled in a few manuscripts and tale is about “the brave Rani Savitribai,” queen his feats remained sparingly alive in local ballads. of Bellary. She was brought to Shivaji’s court in He emerged as an iconic national hero in the sec- chains, after her kingdom was raided by an ar- ond half of the nineteenth century after Tilak, rogant general, Sakuji, in an act of vengeance. leader of the anti-colonial movement in Maha- Shivaji apologized to the queen, chided his gen- rashtra, revived the Chhatrapati’s “tales of gal- eral for ill-treating a woman, and returned the lantry” through celebration of the Shivaji festival kingdom to her.Yet another story is about a beau- (Bakshi and Sharma 2000). The festival was held tiful Muslim girl, the daughter of a local Mau- in Bengal (under the initiative of Sarala Devi, a lana in Kalyana, who was captured and presented member of the Tagore family)4 and in Maharash- to Shivaji by one of his generals. Shivaji addressed tra to celebrate heroism, masculinity, and the the girl as his sister and kept her in safe custody success of a local leader in overthrowing a pow- until she was sent back to her family. The last erful “foreign” empire (Sinha 1995). Although story always ended with a prolonged phase of the festival is no longer celebrated in Bengal, its lamentation by the Sena women that similar popularity continues across Maharashtra. Even treatment was not meted out to Hindu women the national rail terminal and the international captured by Muslim soldiers. The Sena women airport in Bombay are named after Shivaji. repeatedly portrayed the character of Shivaji as The Shiv Sena was also inspired by this me- a leader with “the strength of a man, and the dieval ruler, their primary focus being Shivaji’s heart of a woman,” as he was often described in attempts to carve a strong Hindu nation out of the local ballads. Inventing “women’s history”: Female valor, martial queens, and right-wing storytellers |39

During the Aghadi meetings, these tales were The Shiv Sena women also clapped loudly. retold by women story-tellers in the form of Through the narration of the stories as a dra- questions and answers, which gave the narra- matic dialogue, what could have been a possible tion clarity and the feeling of immediacy. Their royal courtroom drama was portrayed as an actu- wild gesticulations, voice modulations, and the ality. Kumar (2003), who collated folk tales from rolling of eyes while enacting the events that South Asia and studied how they can be molded took place in a seventeenth-century court, al- to accommodate changing historical circum- lowed the past to filter into the present so that stances, argues that ambiguities in time and space history was not “a history of long ago, but a his- have a challenging effect, forcing listeners to seek tory of just yesterday” (Daniel 1997: 27). For ex- out morals and meanings for themselves. Start- ample, in the case of Rani Savitribai, the women ing at one point and emerging at another, a story usually told the story in the following style mirrors the dimension of time in human life, (with the words, phir boley, “then it was said,” though time may be perceived as linear, circu- used as interjections): lar, or spiral depending on cultural context. The Sena women narrators depicted the events as a Courtier one: “Who is that woman covered in series of images that the women had viewed, as blood and bound in chains?”“That is Rani Sav- if they had been present during the enactment itribai, the glorious queen of Bellary,” whis- of this exchange. Most women were celebratory pered the second courtier. “She fought a great that a martial queen had been freed and given battle to free her small kingdom. I heard that equal status as an independent Hindu ruler. Be- she charged ahead on her horse, roaring like a cause the king had meted out justice to Rani wounded lioness, swinging her sword in the air, Savitribai, he had “freed” all Hindu women her hair flying in the wind. She was a leader of throughout the generations. The noisy public her troops, stronger than many kings, braver cheering of Shivaji’s support for women became than many generals. But she was finally defeated the wing’s covert strategy for recovering agency by General Sakuji.” for women in history. The front tried to show that women, like the queen of Bellary, once un- Courtier one: “Hush, here comes our king.” chained, were promising warriors in the struggle A courtroom of noblemen, aristocrats, and gen- to carve out a martial Hindu society that existed erals took their seats. The women shivered in in the past. The Sena women asserted that if they sympathy for the wounded Hindu queen and received similar treatment, then they had the ca- sat huddled together behind the partition pacity to mold a militaristic, Hindu-dominated screens. The courtroom guards fell into muted society. Hence these stories claiming that women silence. They all wondered, they all looked to- had a place in history and were linked to a rich ward the throne. tradition of Hindu martiality enhanced the self- respect of ordinary women cadres. Shivaji (in anger): “Sakuji, you whipped the In this context, it is important to recall an- queen? If you have insulted a woman, you have other tale of Shivaji outwitting a Muslim general, insulted my mother. You are dismissed in shame.” Afzal Khan. The Khan had invited Shivaji to Turning to Savitribai: “Mother, will you not come in peace to his tent to reach an amicable pardon your own son?” settlement. The general, however, had conspired to throttle the Marathi leader. Shivaji came un- Savitribai, with tears in her eyes: “Son, I am glad armed but stuck the claws of a tiger to his fin- that you showed respect for me. It has turned gers; so when the Khan jumped on Shivaji and me into your compatriot. I will now fight with grabbed his throat, Shivaji tore the general’s you for the Hindu Swaraj.” guts out. When news of the Muslim leader’s And so she took her place beside Shivaji. Every- murder spread, the Khan’s army retreated from one in the court cheered. the spot. This story was narrated repeatedly 40 | Atreyee Sen during various Shivaji festivals held in the pre- violence sustained the larger Hindu nationalist independence period (Ahluwalia 1984; Sama- understanding of history, women and children’s rath 1975). The enemy then was the British. dialogue with their past was easily negotiated This story, which aimed to inspire the youth to through what Jeganathan describes as “violence display their cunning against colonial rulers, was in performance” (2000: 52). Over time, keeping usurped later by the right-wing movement to alive the Marathi plays on Shivaji had turned promote Hindu militancy (Sarkar and Butalia into a crusade among some of the older members 1996). In the Sena shakhas, the story was reiter- of the Aghadi. Shobha, a retired stage actress, ated and even enacted in children’s drama, most said: “My drive is to keep alive the Shivaji per- of which were directed by women. Now the en- formances through the children. It should not emy is markedly the Muslims. Women, while be a dying art. But the children after watching narrating this story, seemed to relish the violence. too many films, try and act out the role of Shiv- The tales were rounded off with a glorification aji as Amitabh Bacchan [a megastar in Bombay].” of strategic guerrilla warfare, a prerequisite for Although some defended the “authentic” folk the creation of a martial society. versions, other women reformulated the plays Several children had learned this particular along modern lines to make these adaptations anecdote by heart, and by acting out skits, had popular among children. The motivation being: learned the value of remaining in a state of pre- “Since the generation next should not forget the paredness for counter-attacks and upholding a Shivaji tradition, let’s repackage it.”Most women legacy of “bravery.” Shivaji Jayanti—a festival to were tolerant of their children experimenting mark the birthday of Shivaji—generated enor- with the plays, and replacing folk dialogues with mous festivities in the slums and the shakha be- popular, often unaesthetic, exchanges from fa- came the unit of coordination. Besides the food mous films. On one occasion, when the and the finery, the occasion was celebrated by or- army of Shivaji was dressed in modern paramil- ganizing parades and the performance of Shivaji itary (green and brown patched) combat outfits plays. During the Shivaji Jayanti that I witnessed with automatic toy weapons, the children were in Bombay, there were queues of people want- relieved that the army appeared more menacing ing to play the parts of Shivaji and his victorious and well-prepared for warfare. But they were not general in one narrative, and Afzal Khan and his totally averse to traditional performances “as long defeated Army in the other. Most of the time the as Shivaji got to beat the shit out of the Mughals children practiced on the shakha premises. When and prove we won.” Because women had a de- they rehearsed without parental inspection, they gree of control over their offspring, children’s would intercept their usual Marathi dialogues plays became another mode of expression to em- with Mumbaiya colloquial Hindi abuses (often phasize the mobility and mutability of history. using the body language of film stars), which de- The story about Afzal Khan’s fate did not specif- graded the Muslim community. This made the ically involve the role of women in the past, yet other children roll in laughter. For example, a its circulation highlighted women’s involvement child enacting the character of Shivaji would say: in promoting an illustrious Hindu history. Its enactment as plays and narratives gave signifi- Shivaji: “Abey chutia Afzal, tu mereku marega? cance to the initiatives of women in controlling Mereku? Rand ki aulad, tu us din mar gaya tha the Shivaji tradition. Wherever there were tales jis din tu landya ban gaya”(You fucker Afzal, of Shivaji, there were women. The physical and you will kill me? Kill me? Son of a whore, you vocal visibility of women in these places re- died that day when you were circumcised).5 flected the urgency felt by the Sena women to not only incorporate their presence in history “That means he died as a child,”one of the chil- but also dictate how history was “told.” dren explained to me, rubbing the tears of laugh- Another episode that women enjoyed narrat- ter from his eyes. While the performance of ing was a directive from Jijabai (Shivaji’s mother) Inventing “women’s history”: Female valor, martial queens, and right-wing storytellers |41 to her son to recapture Kondana Fort (later re- his compatriot, what can our men say to oppose named as Singhad), where Jijabai had remained his ruling?” asked Nandini, who always played a imprisoned for a while. According to studies on primary role in the narration of these tales. Shivaji’s military successes, capturing the fort I often spoke to the Sena men about these from the Mughals was of strategic importance mytho-histories and women’s desire to gain vis- for the Marathi leader (Bhave 2000). For the Sena ibility within the movement, reaching two con- women, however, it was a question of revenge clusions from my discussions. First, the men against the Muslims. The directive was the proof played a very nominal role in developing and nar- of overt militancy in a wronged Hindu mother, rating mytho-histories. Second, most men pre- who could boldly send her son to a “just” war ferred titillating tales about Muslim women, who without fearing for his life. The more contem- were objects of Shivaji’s generosity, even though porary celebration of Jijabai’s orders seemed to the king had “the right” to abuse them to avenge highlight the contribution of right-wing women the Mughals. They seemed curious about the in creating martial sons, well-trained for com- Aghadi’s effort to revive tales of Shivaji’s “respect” bat situations: for martial Hindu women. Chandan, a Sena aide, said: “These stories are quite sensational. I had Jijabai: “My son, I have trained you to become never heard some of them in my life. I do wonder the best warrior in the country. You have the whether these women can really recreate a mar- blood of a proud Hindu mother running through tial society.”“At least he is beginning to wonder,” your veins. You have been nurtured on my milk, his wife, an active Aghadi member, murmured the milk of purity and courage. I have unflinch- to me. ingly put a sword in your hand. Will you not free Most men within the party referred to Thack- the fort where your mother remained captive eray’s late wife, Meena Thackeray, as Matoshree, for long and take revenge for her humiliation?” the name used by Shivaji to reverentially address his mother. She was idolized as the “good” wife Shivaji: “O Mother, your valor runs in my blood. and mother, who supported Thackeray through Your wish is my command.” all his endeavors, but stayed out of the political And the mighty king bowed his head before his limelight. Aghadi leaders remained deferential gallant mother. Her spirit rode out with her son in public; yet they categorically refused to accept as his horse galloped toward Kondana. Meena Thackeray as their icon. “To be honest, she was just too passive,” they would say. The This tale told by the story-tellers held up an ideal image of an inspirational and militant mother, relationship between a Hindu mother and a good, sustained within the tales of Shivaji, was obvi- fearless Hindu son; it became another ploy to em- ously far more appealing for the Sena women. phasize women’s position in a continuing tradi- Because gender hierarchies were well-established tion of martial motherhood. After one of these within the slums and the political party, the interactive story-telling sessions, several women vivid narratives on martial motherhood devel- claimed to have a shared womb with Jijabai (“still oped by the story-tellers remained a definite at- giving birth to many Shivajis”) and this story of tempt to inspire a change in the orientation of a mother instigating her son to fight for her honor men toward women’s active involvement in so- was extensively circulated in the slums. More- cial reconstruction. over, these women-centric mytho-histories be- came increasingly popular as nascent rebellions against the Sena men who still remained skepti- Narrating mytho-histories cal of women’s strength. The tales appealed for in negotiation with the present equality within a martial order and for sanction- ing of women’s “warrior” status. “If Shivaji, the Though the Sena women I met identified and great ruler, had allowed a woman to be narrated these highly illustrative stories as their 42 | Atreyee Sen

“history,” it was striking that not one of them from the inquiry. The assertions of mytho-his- had ever set foot in Raighad (Shivaji’s capital) or , by contrast, insist that past “actualities” Shivneri (Shivaji’s birthplace) to pay their trib- are contemporaneous, that what is now is what ute to their great leader. Thus, there was a clear was then and what was then is what is now (Tam- demarcation between heritage and the strategic biah 1996). “It is this collapse of time, where use of history. Heritage was static, unchanging, past becomes present enactment, that character- boring, and of no social value to the women. izes myths” (Daniel 1997: 52). In a mythic world, History, however, could be a collection of spicy the very same conditions and concerns that made stories, imagined as reality merely through rep- past events possible still prevail. In the con- etition. Performance theorists such as Turner struction of mytho-histories by the Sena women, (1974) and Schechner (2003), while discussing society in the past was marked by Muslim ag- symbolic action in society, argued how in all rit- gression, the Hindu effort to counter it, the ualized movements there is at least a moment aggressive role of women in public, and the sub- where those moving according to a cultural script sequent creation of a martial society. The con- are liberated from normative demands. In this cerns at that time were to regain physical, cultural, space between two ordered worlds almost any- and religious hegemony over the Muslims, re- thing can happen. According to Turner, “In this claim land and honor taken away by them. The interim liminality, the possibility exists of stand- contingencies remain the same at present. ing aside not only from one’s own social position Indeed, the relation between the past and the but from all social positions and of formulating present as viewed by the Sena women cannot be a potentially unlimited series of alternative so- understood in temporal terms. Women thus did cial arrangements” (1974: 13–14). The dramatic not imagine history as a written chronology or telling of historical stories had the capacity of as a linear progression of episodes. Their narra- grabbing the attention of listeners; they were dy- tions of history are performative, ritualistic, flex- namic and malleable enough to be transformed ible, and have no relationship with unitary truths. through embellishments. A performative enact- Within the constraints of a masculinist discourse, ment of this history allowed a group of margin- tales of valor and justice had the primary func- alized slum women to temporarily step outside tion to “restore women to history and history to a structure of social subordination and everyday women.” While recovering their agency in the economic struggles, and embody an unorthodox, past, the Sena women also inextricably linked it honorable, and valorous identity. The Aghadi to their agency at present. If the past casts light believed that the ritualized performance of a on the present, current actions must also enrich historical narrative in which warrior women their past. According to an Aghadi leader, Nee- played a visible role would enable poor women lamtai,“The Marathi women have always fought to re-create the egalitarian, militaristic society for their religion and honor. We are still fighting designed by Shivaji. for our religion; it would make Shivaji really The practical use of mytho-history has a proud of us.” So Shivaji was not a chapter that more unequivocal influence on the political ad- has been closed; he is still being written. Marathi vancement of a slum community. According to women are continuing to satisfy his aspirations Daniel, assertions of academic history are logi- for Hindu supremacy. Neelamtai rounds off the cally future-oriented even though they may be discussion by saying: “Through our heroic ac- about the past. Thus “history is not so much tions, we will become the glorious past for the about finding truth as it is about making true” next generation of Marathi Hindu women.” (Daniel 1997: 70). Insofar as it is future-oriented, Sena women, thus, saw themselves as partici- history nurtures the hope that when a line of pants in the process of history. As “descendants” inquiry is pursued long enough, then there will of newly constructed martial traditions, poor be a congregation of academics who will agree women sought to accentuate their roles in car- that a definite picture about the past has emerged rying out social and historical responsibilities. Inventing “women’s history”: Female valor, martial queens, and right-wing storytellers |43

The Sena women, however, were often hesi- women’s power) among women’s wings of par- tant to be too radical in recovering women’s allel Hindu nationalist organizations, such as the agency. They preferred negotiation without any Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (the National overt hostility to men and the movement. What Volunteers), which catered ideologically to edu- surprised me was the definite unpopularity of cated middle- and upper-class women (Ganneri Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, the warrior queen in 2008). the 1857 revolt, among the Sena women. Lax- The slum women in Bombay, however, de- mibai was the image of militant motherhood sired to create a social and political community developed by radicals during the anti-colonial neither in isolation from men, nor as open rebels. movement. The nationalist rebel leader Subhas The story-telling sessions were geared toward Chandra Bose named the women’s wing of his multiple ends for various groups of women. For self-styled Indian National Army after the mar- example, they addressed a concern for creating tial queen. Laxmibai had led her troops not as a an oral history exclusively for illiterate women; legitimate ruler, but as the regent of her infant inculcated a sense of pride in poor women son adopted as the prospective male heir in branded as petty gangsters; mobilized and re- order to justify her role as head of state. Her tained slum women within a martial movement; classic battle line when the British announced identified story-telling and writing skits as an the annexation of Jhansi—“I will not give up my important political responsibility for women un- Jhansi to anyone”—were the first words in involved in direct violence; created a culturally women’s history that most enthusiastic girls accepted recreational space for women and chil- learned at school. I thought that she would be dren to meet and celebrate their history; at- the ideal female icon for the Sena women: an tempted to legitimize women’s autonomy in independent female warrior, a mother fighting familial and public spheres in the near future; for her son who defines her political legitimacy, and strengthened the role of women and chil- a Hindu woman with a history of fighting the dren as carriers of culture. But the stories and British in the mid-nineteenth century. story-telling sessions were also an effort to seek At first the Sena women were dismissive about acceptance, if not salutation, of martial women Laxmibai; then they claimed that they were not by the local men. As part of Shivaji’s Sena, men well aware of her history. In course of time it would be partially content to believe that women became evident to me that the highly rebellious were granted rather than asserted their freedom. image of the Rani was not acceptable to the The women wanted their men to believe so, and Mahila Aghadi or to the male members of the thus disregarded the extreme self-reliance of organization. The Aghadi cadres could be “affil- Rani Laxmibai. The Aghadi women were instead iated” with a masculine hero (like the queen of making women prominent in a martial past, so Bellary’s comradeship with Shivaji), but the that their conspicuous militant roles within the women could not be identified as completely Sena movement would not be seen as female independent actors (as the queen of Jhansi). This deviancy. Thus, the Aghadi was preoccupied with dawned on me when I met a notorious women manipulating the past and shaping the present, Aghadi leader in Bhayander, Smita. She com- so that a favorable position for Marathi Hindu pared herself to Rani Laxmibai, and her female women could be created in society. followers also referred to her by that name. Smita, who openly carried a gun and took no orders from the men, was severely criticized by male Women’s mytho-histories and Sena members, and women cadres from other the reversal of war-time gender logics areas remained wary of her. Even though Rani Laxmibai acted on behalf of her son, she was This article sits rather awkwardly within the a sovereign queen, independent of male aides. wider literature on story-telling events within She was also the symbol of streeshakti (Hindu communities marked by violence. The Shiv 44 | Atreyee Sen

Sena women employed mytho-histories as more and patriarchy in turn relies on militarization than coping mechanisms for a community, and … War magnifies the already existing inequali- did not use them to build a comprehensive, vi- ties of peacetime” (ibid.: 212). To manage their able, and peaceful community life in the con- survival, the Sena women were trying to place text of war, as for example in Perera’s account themselves in a long history of women’s mili- (2001) of ghost stories and demon possession tancy. This also served to reverse the trend in Sri Lanka, and Jackson’s research (2002) on whereby a community under siege pressurizes public story-telling in Sierra Leone. My research women to embrace identity constructs that un- shows how strategic story-telling becomes a dermine their authority and autonomy. They mechanism for prolonging conflict and cele- were trying to construct a critical consciousness, brating a history of war and violence. While try- typically using the politics of self-defense in a ing to talk and tell themselves into a history of conflict situation, by developing gendered in- Hindu women’s martiality, the Aghadi mem- sights into a social framework that acknowledges bers were also demonizing Muslims and pre- the necessity of militarism not just to protect cluding the possibility of peaceful negotiation women, but also to ensure the survival of the with their enemies. They were in certain ways Hindu society and religion. The Aghadi cadres going beyond the Hindutva discourse to em- can be seen as agents of social transformation, phasize a future of perpetual militant prepared- with the potential to upturn gross power imbal- ness. Marking a significant deviation from the ances within a social system that remains openly pan-Indian Hindu nationalist movement and prejudicial against women. Women’s experiences its models for the ideal social order, the Sena of everyday and extraordinary violence (extended women’s stories did not invoke “the mythic, from home to the street to the “battlefield” riot Hindu past of Lord Ram” envisioned in the situations) are not homogenous, and thus their Hindutva discourse. “Ramrajya nahi chahiye” coping mechanisms are also diverse. The Sena (we don’t want Ram’s kingdom), they said. Dur- women’s visions were structured by the fact that ing the peaceful and patriarchal reign of Lord women’s expressions of support and resistance Ram, women were put “safely” in their homes. flow from their own cultural experiences of be- Instead, the women’s mytho-narratives focused ing discriminated and disempowered. If women on a medieval “historical, Hindu past” (Shivaji’s feel that their indulgence in organized violence Hindu padpadshahi), where women had achieved offered them relief from everyday moral restric- a degree of martiality and autonomy. The tions, it was linked to their own immediate, Aghadi, thus, was consciously trying to counter maybe narrow, construction of women’s visibil- nostalgia for a serene Ramrajya, and promote ity, social worth, and martial traditions. an image of a society that was perpetually threat- Moreover, whereas cultural context and ex- ened by enemies. The latter society “required” perience in story-telling are often emphasized men and women to organize themselves as an in the study of narration of myths and legends, army, and women would have to carry out mil- the Sena women constructed their mytho-his- itaristic activities for the security of the Hindu tories in the relative absence of a strong tradi- community. tion of women’s martial story-telling. White My research also puts into perspective other (1987) argues that public telling of biographical analyses on the co-relations between gender and narratives in any society is determined by cultural militarized violence that occurs in the course of, contexts and local “sense-making mechanisms.” and significantly, in the absence of direct con- He maintains that members of a community flict. The Sena women for instance tried to ma- with a strong tradition in telling tales can em- nipulate the general law formulated by Ruddick phasize the dominance of one perspective over (1998) that “the culture of militarization—co- another, and reflect their own life’s experiences ercive power structures and practices, hierarchies in narrating myths and legends. That is when and discipline—relies on patriarchal patterns stories have the potential to become community Inventing “women’s history”: Female valor, martial queens, and right-wing storytellers |45

“histories.” Blackburn, who reinterprets White’s presence within the struggle (Bacchetta 2002). perspective in the context of Tamil prophecies, This article shows how poor women experience likewise argues that narrating life histories of the social and emotional value of working col- influential and popular mythical characters can lectively, even if within the context of a violent serve as a vehicle for “revealing historical wrongs, struggle. Women’s attempts to construct and re- naming the guilty” and in due course, setting structure their “history” underline the experi- the record straight” (2004: 205). Unlike Black- ence of collective action as the most potent lever burn’s rural informants, most Sena women did to reorganize male discursive practices. Though not have any real experience of traditional story- secular-feminist perspectives criticize right-wing telling. Many poor women had been distanced women’s involvement in violence (Blee 2002; from their village past; some of the younger De Grazia 1992; Ferber 2003; Peto 1999), my re- women cadres had been born and/or raised in search shows how Sena women’s reworking of the slums of Bombay. The practice of public the Hindu fundamentalist rhetoric becomes one and interactive story-telling that was developed of many strategies used by poor women to as- by the Aghadi members may have been rooted sert their freedom. in certain traditions of narrating myths and leg- Although it would be hasty to conclude that ends in the remote past. Some of the practices the Sena women’s history-telling sessions had the may have even survived in individualized forms potential to radically transform gender equa- within a cluster of households (for example, tions and militarize women in slum areas, espe- grandmothers would tell night-time stories about cially considering the external system of law ghosts and demons to children). But collective and order in Bombay, Singer’s (1997) argument forms of story-telling were absent within the that adding and condensing meanings while rush, squalor, and extreme poverty of the Bom- telling “historical” stories becomes a powerful bay ghettoes. This article highlights the strategic method of developing new social identities be- creativity among slum women to pursue the comes relevant here. Indeed, the awareness of power of public story-telling and develop a com- poor women’s real and imagined connections mon interpretative schema, peddle it success- with martial queens made the Aghadi members fully as a women’s history, and turn this practice proud and assertive within their private, public, into an instrumental tool for binding the inter- and political worlds. Their efforts reflect the ests of poor women from scattered urban slums. initiatives of poor women to control their own Women also strategically adopted the softer history, determine their status within a contem- approach of story-telling to avoid direct con- porary social movement, and imagine a central frontation with a male-dominated nationalist role for women within a future social order. movement. However, within the limited social, material, and ideological capital accessible to slum women, the latter sought to contest—al- Acknowledgments beit through a culturally authorized form of women’s story-telling—the marginalization of The author thanks Filippo Osella, Chris Fuller, women’s historical traditions. Stef Jansen, Carolyn Nordstrom, and Nilanjan Returning to a wider perspective on women, Sarkar for their comments on this article. urbanism, and violence, this article identifies a number of vexed socio-political realities that determine the dynamism of right-wing move- Atreyee Sen is a Research Council United King- ments in non-Western societies, particularly dom (RCUK) Fellow affiliated with the Re- among subaltern groups. Women usually sup- search Institute of Cosmopolitan Cultures, and port nationalist movements from the side-lines, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in the but at crucial points of communal tension, they Arts at the University of Manchester. She is in- can actively participate in violence to assert their terested in the anthropology of the city, and 46 | Atreyee Sen

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