The pink-colored house is in the secluded town of Attara. In a humble look, there are hundreds of women visiting the house every year due to all sorts of reasons, e.g., dowry demands, domestic violence, illegal harassment of family members, etc. All the common people do not know about it. One of the largest, most powerful, and most influential feminist vigilante organizations in the world has its base here. The Gulabi Gang. Through the employment of their neon pink sarees, pink police batons, and menacing mob mentality presence in an attempt to achieve their basic rights as women, these individuals have come to be quite well known to some and empowering to others. It only follows that an all-woman vigilante force hailing from the badlands of central India would make the news for similar reasons. They are also called the Gulabi Gang or Pink Gang. They recently inspired not one but two films that got the public all agog: a documentary film and a full-length feature movie.
As the Hindi term for "gulabi" translates to "pink," the Gulabi Gang is therefore "The Pink Gang." When these women encountered a challenge, they would all show up dressed in fierce pink sarees and carrying a pink baton. This is where the name originated. The colour is an external visual indicator to others about who they are. Their position and manner of wielding power do not intimidate them. The members like being called a "gang" since it creates a spirit of solidarity. When asked what she believed the word "gang" meant during an interview, Devi, a Gulabi Gang member, replied, "We are not a gang in the usual sense of the term," showing how emotionally charged the term is. We are a gang that is justice-oriented. Gangs don't always refer to criminal groups.
Sampat Pal Devi, a village bride from Bundelkhand in Uttar Pradesh, started the Gulabi Gang. Sampat Pal has always had a passion for protecting women's rights; in her work as a government worker, she noted how ineffective it was at providing Dalits, India's lowest caste group, with improved treatment, and left due to frustration. But it was when one of her friends was being abused by her drunk husband that she was inspired to create this gang. Sampat Pal was even beaten by her husband for sticking up for his wife when she tried to step in and help her friend. She rallied a band of women from the village next door and marched to his house to thrash him with batons because she was angry about his abuse of her and her friend. The beating worked because he ceased to abuse his wife. Sampat Pal was happy with the outcome and thought of making this available for her village to help other women who had similar problems. It started with just five of her village's old acquaintances.
However, following several victories, the five women drew in an increasing number of locals, and today there are thousands of Gulabis in the area. Due to their admiration for Sampat Pal and their appreciation for the group for essentially saving their lives, many of these new members joined the Gang. They joined as well because they identified with these women and had similar abuse stories. She has even made appearances on the reality TV program Bigg Boss due to her rising fame. The scenario is that a group of people share a house and the contestant who stays in the house the longest wins. (Hegde) Given that she is the head of a political movement and Big Boss is infamously a reality show, this is a bit contentious.
Before the performance, Pal expressed her belief that her "message will reach out to more people through this show." (Sampat Pal, Leader of the Gulabi Gang, Will Take Part in Bigg Boss 6) and that it would "draw attention to issues such as child marriage, dowries, and female infanticide."Sampat Pal, the leader of the Gulabi Gang, will compete in Bigg Boss 6. It would be debatable whether or not these intentions were as selfless as she claimed. She makes an effort to project this image of herself because she has a very goal-oriented personality.
The fact that Sampat Pal was removed from her role as the Gulabi Gang's leader in 2014 is arguably her most contentious feature. (TNN) This was the result of several factors. She was purchasing nice items for her family and other personal expenses with some of the Gulabi Gang's money. (TNN) By not fully considering the opinions of other group members in support of her policies, she was also abusing her position of authority to establish a highly autocratic system of governance. Sampat is a complicated individual to comprehend because she has a lot of characteristics that don't always make her seem like the ideal person to be around. It is challenging to simply consider her a holy figure for this cause because she is an attention-seeker and challenging to work with. Nevertheless, she has also demonstrated exceptional leadership abilities and founded a movement that has given these women a strong sense of community and empowerment.
Examining the backgrounds of the fierce women of Gulaab Gang
Although the Gulabi Gang's female members come from a variety of backgrounds, many, if not all, share several characteristics. Their caste is the first thing they have in common. The caste system is still largely in effect in India, especially in rural areas, and these women are frequently referred to as "untouchables" or Dalits. Despite the government's creation of laws prohibiting discrimination against these women and systems that provide Dalits greater opportunities (such as India's version of affirmative action, known as the reservation system, which targets Dalits and other traditionally marginalized groups in India, like tribe members), there hasn't been much progress in ending the class cycle.
Even if they do have concerns, the state will never pay attention to their demands, further marginalizing their voice. Due to years of internalized misogyny and classism in their society, these women—known as "scheduled caste" women—may be the most oppressed, disadvantaged, and abused group in the state. Child marriages and dowry demands are frequent occurrences. Additionally, the area has some of the highest rates of sexual and domestic violence against women. The struggle these women have endured on a political and social level, where no one listens to them or takes their voices seriously because of things they have never been able to change, is what binds them together.
A clearer picture of the Gulabi Gang's origins and formation is provided by its location. Among the world's poorest areas, not just in India, is Bundelkhand. (Desai) It is situated in the state of Uttar Pradesh, which is among the most populated regions on earth. Due to these two factors, the Gulabi Gang's location exacerbates the case of vigilantism because it has higher rates of domestic violence, misogynistic attacks, and rape of women than other regions of India.
Because of the high rate of crime and the large number of bandits that roam and rule the area, Bundelkhand is frequently referred to as a completely lawless place. (Desai) The fact that bandits had already brought vigilantes to Bundelkhand adds another dimension to the Gang. Some dacoits used to only target the wealthy, but these days they target anyone with any kind of asset (Dixit). Since violence is already so prevalent in their communities, these women's history as the "Badlands" of India has influenced them to use it to get what they want.
True Tales of The Gulaab Gang’s Rebellion of Rage
However, because there were no additional reports or articles from these victims, the gradient regarding the amount of violence used to make their point is rather ambiguous. Whether some of the men were lightly abused or severely beaten is unknown. Instead of merely physically upending the gendered power dynamics, the Gulabis claim in the first case study that they attempt to use violence in a way that damages the victim's pride. These men become vulnerable as a result of the beatings and truly fear those women. There is a fine line between whether this is a good or bad thing, but it works incredibly well to get what they want.
Examples of the Gang's Methods Case Study 1:
Gulf News used this case study as the starting point for their article about the Gulabi Gang. In public, a man was brutally beating his wife. The woman was docilely taking the attack in an area where male chauvinism is rampant. Even worse, nobody volunteered to assist. Dozens rushed by in desperation to avoid becoming involved, heads bowed. However, a local woman named Sampat Pal Devi decided to take action after becoming disgusted by the attack and the disregard for it. She claims that although she had witnessed this incident previously and had not reacted, she was furious this time around to witness the man abusing his wife.
Sampat, who was 43 at the time, approached the man and told him to stop mistreating his wife in a firm but quiet manner. He threw a few expletives at her and yelled, "Don't you dare interfere," before he started beating his wife. Then, turning to face the woman, Sampat urged her to stand up for herself. However, the wife was too afraid to object in the event of additional retaliation. It was a turning point for Sampat, who got married when she was twelve and had five kids by the time she was twenty. "I had seen a lot of injustices, like girls not being able to receive an education or the rich stealing a poor person's land, which I was powerless to stop," she says.
She therefore decided to enforce the law herself. She recruited a few local women and equipped them with lathis, which are long bamboo sticks. Later that night, Sampat went back to the man's house with the women. She pulled him from his home and demanded, "Why did you beat your wife?" She and the other women beat him with their sticks there while he flinched, only ceasing when he vowed never to strike his wife again. His pride was severely damaged, but he only sustained a few minor bruises. Both Sampat and the man learned a lesson.
Case Study Two: This case study is based on an article about the Gulabi Gang that was published in Vice called "A Flux of Pink Indians." The slant is very supportive of the Gulabi Gang, much like the article above. Following complaints that a government-run fair-price store in Attara—which is comparable to welfare in the US—was not providing food or grain as it ought to, Sampat Devi and her group decided to surreptitiously monitor the store owner.
On their way to the open market, the group stopped two truckloads of grain that were designated as below the poverty line. Equipped with this proof, the gang members exerted pressure on the local government to confiscate the grain and turn over the store owner to the police, but once more, the case was never even filed. One of the police officers was attacked and assaulted by the irate gang members. Even though no official complaint has been filed, the incident significantly increased the gang's reputation in the area.
The Ostracism of Gulab Gang- Balancing the discrepancy between empowerment and vigilantism
The Gulabi Gang's use of violence to obtain what they want is one of their main grievances. They are using police batons to beat up men. Even though this topic isn't covered in-depth in any articles or newspapers, it is still worth talking about because it is most likely the most common criticism of the Gulabi Gang. Physical violence is always wrong, according to society and the law. Even if there are problems in the state, replacing what a police officer would do could lead to serious issues down the road and jeopardize public safety. When we consider how people engaged in peaceful civil disobedience during the Civil Rights era and were still harshly punished, it is even more odd that there are no news stories about the Gulabi Gang's violent issues.
Another problem is that because of their approach to dealing with domestic abuse, people frequently refer to their practices as "soft feminism. Although they do put these husbands in their proper place, they never encourage women to divorce their husbands; instead, they let the individual wives make that choice. They fall short of being an entirely liberating and radical voice.
Rather, they are working to alter the system so that these domestic women can carry on with their daily lives more securely and comfortably. They are attempting to advise these women to break the oppressive bonds they currently have with their family structure rather than entirely abandoning the systems they have established in these rural areas. Even if the Gang offers facilities, it can be extremely difficult to live with a woman who has been married before and has no children. Rather than pursuing the more ambitious objective of women's total independence from their partners, the Gulabis are attempting to ensure the safety of all these women.
The breach of the social contract is one concern regarding the Gulabi Gang's brand of vigilantism. When you join a state, you agree to a social contract that includes giving up your natural rights in exchange for legal rights for security-related reasons. In other words, they deny you your inherent right to defend yourself from danger. Since the Gulabi Gang ceded their rights to the government, they are no longer able to punish others because they no longer have that inherent right. They are violating the agreement that was made in the contract to exchange some rights for more advantageous ones. Despite the admirable goal, we citizens have given our consent to the state, not to a vigilante.
The social contract is the cause of vigilantes because the state denies some citizens certain rights or worse. After all, it harms some citizens. . Where factors such as the social contract or the sovereign are not taken into account. For instance, the Gulabi Gang founded their vigilante group because they believed that the social compact they were a part of did not benefit everyone equally. As a result, they used violence to force the social compact to grant them additional rights. The absence of a distinct boundary between what can be considered safe and what instead evokes fear is another example of how a lack of accountability can be problematic.
Looking over the other end of Gulab Gang’s endeavours let's assume for the moment that, even in the State of Nature, there is an imbalance in power structures that prevents anyone from being treated equally. The cycles of oppression are so ingrained in the culture of a village like the Gulabi Gang that internalized misogyny and classism would make it impossible to establish an even playing field. Because men and women would not naturally understand equality, they would not receive the same treatment. There is also the additional complexity of the class. There is not only no sense of equality between the sexes but also between the various classes within a gender, as men from lower castes would not even speak to men from higher castes.
Additionally, self-serving behaviour would be more common if there was no regard for people as individuals rather than according to their gender or caste. Given the belief that women are fundamentally inferior to men, a man from a higher caste is unlikely to recognize the problem of mistreating or injuring a woman from a lower caste. The way the state implements the social contract is another way that it can be harmful rather than beneficial. You are at a greater disadvantage if the state is not defending you but rather abusing you and granting you few rights in exchange for few benefits. You remain in this abusive relationship and have fewer rights.
More of your rights have been taken away, and you don't even have the authority to regain them. Why would someone who is marginalized ever trust the government to provide them with benefits? Another illustration of how the social contract is not very helpful if its foundation is not fundamentally equal is this one. Anyone would assume that, given that definition, the Gulabi Gang's actions of civil disobedience would be justified, particularly given their circumstances. However, it becomes more difficult to defend disobedience when the element of violence is introduced. Since the Gulabi Gang uses violence to oppose the government, as demonstrated earlier in chapter one when Sampat Pal threw a government piece on the ground, they cannot always be regarded as peaceful.
According to the different newspaper accounts of the Gulabi Gang and the case studies presented in chapter one, it seems that these men are not being physically beaten as much as their health should be in jeopardy. Rather, they want to physically humble the egos of the men in their society and reduce them to the same level as the women. You might even go so far as to say that psychological violence comes into play alongside physical violence; these women are trying to strip these men of their self-worth by manipulating their minds.
In addition, Sampat confirms in other media that, unfortunately, violence is the most common course of action instead of being the best available. Instead of physically abusing these men in revenge, they prefer that they acknowledge that they are doing something wrong. Most wives do not wish their abusive, drunk husbands to abandon them even when they beat them up because they would be worse off than they were initially. Keeping this concept in mind, physical violence would be relatively soft, and the reason for it would be civil disobedience since they convey their aversion to the state's laws and regulations by being physical.
Conclusion
Generally, the violence is warranted. Violence is the final option if the husband does not obey these women. Again, the demands are reasonable; they request that the husband stop cruelly treating his wife and change his abusive ways. The women will beat him if he does not believe that makes sense. Along with beating up violent men, they are trying to provide women in their community with more opportunities. Working with the dowry is included in these demands (the dowry is what the bride pays the groom in return for marrying into their family), providing women with employment, and defending battered housewives. They are not trying to compel these housewives and mothers to abandon their allegiance to their present station and come and join the aggressive, vigilante regime to depose the patriarchy.
Rather, they seek to create a safe space in which disadvantaged women can be empowered. In consideration of this, there should be a threshold on how much violence is possible without prompting any concerns, and it should be brought from its present threshold of tolerance.It is feared that the Gulabi Gang will take the road of complete despotic destruction that has been witnessed. Struggling with blood and death won't rectify such pressures in society; rather, it will worsen them when you're struggling for something that is not only political but also cultural and very normative. Yet, a few things about the Gulabi Gang offer hope due to their positive and beneficial mission.