Linking Traditions of Resistance

Abstract

Women everywhere — individually and collectively — have spoken out against subordination, inequality, discrimination, violence, wars and injustice breaking the culture of silence. Every culture has its own distinct traditions of resistance. In this chapter, I begin with a quick recap of a ‘her story’ of resistance resulting in the nation-wide opposition to the Mathura rape case judgement, which consolidated the women’s movement of the 1980s.1 The focus on three cases — the Mathura case in the 1980s, the Bhanwari Devi case in the 1990s and the Soni Sori case in 2010 — highlights the distinct features of the women’s movement in India and the challenges it has faced.