Ladies of the Land Anasuya Basu | | Published 24.01.21, 12:40 AM
The languages we speak in, the very words we use, betray our seminal beliefs. In Bengali, for instance, there is a
goalini for every
kisan has no feminine form. The Gujarati word for farmer is
khedut; but
khedutani is not used as much.
Between the fashioning of this vocabulary and now, whole contexts have changed. And that is why, when the Chief Justice of India appealed to “women” alongside children and senior citizens at Delhi’s farmers’ protests to return home, his statement elicited howls of protest. After all, the protesting women are at Singhu in their capacity as farmers as well. Indeed, a large percentage of Indian’s agricultural labour force constitutes women, no matter the gendered land ownership pattern.