You've come a long way baby!

You’ve come a long way, baby!

In the early part of the 18th century, a Tamil official Tryambakayajvan compiled a formal treatise on the role of women in Indian society called Stridharmapaddhati, based on strictures dating back to the 4th century BCE. The opening verse was:

“The primary duty of women is enjoined to be of service to one's husband.”

Statistically speaking, this is probably still true of a number of Indian women, especially in rural India. But that’s to disregard not only the enormous progress She has made in all walks of life, but also disrespect the foundation of egalitarianism visible in our nation’s rich tapestry of history and heritage. The RigVeda, among other ancient texts, accords that respect to women, mentioning in many places the positions of authority and acclaim women held in politics, arts, literature and philosophy.

Fast forward to the 21st century. And whether you peel away all of its materialistic trappings or see life in its spiritual + bodily entirety, this is what you’ll hear:

“I’m woman. Hear me roar.”

Mother India may never have roared. Nor was she anything but demure, self-effacing, self-sacrificing and all about family and community. But today’s Indian woman is definitely making her voice heard, her presence felt, and her influence magnified across the country, and the world.

Indian history glitters with the names of many a great woman: Ashoka’s daughter Sanghamitra, one of the foremost evangelists of Buddhism; Razia Sultan, the only woman monarch of Delhi; Jijabai, the mother of Chatrapati Shivaji, and the foremost influence in his life; Mirabai, the greatest ever poet-saint of the Bhakti movement; the Rani of Kittur; Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi; and more recently, such greats as Bhikaji Cama, Dr. Annie Besant, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Aruna Asaf Ali, Sucheta Kriplani, Kasturba Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu and Durgabai Deshmukh.

What’s so special then, you ask, about today’s Indian woman? Her specialness lies not so much in the storied and the famous as it does in EveryWoman. Progress is usually measured by accomplishments. But when cultural change is rapid as it is today, achievements are mere pit stops along this journey. Pit stops that today’s woman doesn’t even feel the need to take some times.
The other big distinction of today’s woman is that, unlike man through the ages, her driving need is not an overt establishment of either equality or superiority over the opposite gender. Feminism is neither rabid nor martial. It’s a quiet but exponential progression through time, through culture, across barriers and ceilings imaginary and real.

She does not celebrate with a whoop that times have changed so much from when men used to wear skirts where now women wear the pants in the family (literally and figuratively).
She does not point a laughing finger at the men who now hunker after the fairness creams while they themselves revel in their inner beauty.
She doesn’t bask in the smugness that she literally calls the shots in the nation—in its Panchayats, in the nation’s largest state, in the nation’s capital, and at the helm of the nation’s ruling political party itself.
She doesn’t smirk with self-righteousness that men adopt her fashion sensibilities in the name of metrosexuality and other such euphemisms.

But whether she’s gently liberating her man’s straight-jacketed worldview, enabling her children’s expanded worldview, charting India Inc.’s rocketing growth path for the world to view, or just balancing it all effortlessly, there’s one other thing in her mind she’s keeping front and centre

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.