JLF 2024: ‘In India and the world, the citizen has become the state’s enemy’, says writer Urvashi Butalia
On day two of the festival, a panel on gender inequality explored the many feminisms that could remedy it.
Butalia was in conversation with British journalist Bee Rowlatt, American Australian historian Clare Wright, and Norwegian writer Marta Breen, on day two of the Jaipur Literature Festival 2024. (Photo: JLF) Drawing a sharp contrast between her years as an activist in the 1970s women’s movement in India, writer and publisher Urvashi Butalia said that modern-day protests are perceived as a threat to the state, whereas in previous governments legislative dialogue was possible. “That illusion [of dialogue with power] is completely shattered. Power doesn’t care. You can sit in Shaheen Bagh and protest forever, it doesn’t matter… The question of security has become a big one. In India and the world, the citizen has become the state’s enemy. It’s like the state is at war with its citizens,” she said, adding, “When we were young feminists, thousands of us could go up to the Houses of Parliament in Delhi. And then 10 women [would] take the delegation across… They could meet any minister and talk to them, and they would listen whether they do anything or not.”
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