[Outraged by the appalling violence against two women in Manipur, the Gujarati poet Mahashweta Jani has written a powerful poem in which she expresses her rage over the use of women’s bodies to indicate cultural pride, masculine hierarchy, misplaced sense of honour, while undermining women and disregarding women’s identity and agency. Horrified by the violence and objectification, she has written a stirring poem, which Salil Tripathi has translated from Gujarati to English.]
Me,
Vagina.
I am not a battlefield
Nor the defender of any faith
Nor the palanquin for culture
Nor the path towards holiness
Nor the property of any society
Nor the threshold that leads to slavery
Nor the flow of blood
Nor the essence of femininity
And certainly not the earth’s burden
But
if she ‘wishes,’
then
I
am
The charioteer of naissance.
[Mahashweta Jani writes poetry and short stories in Gujarati and Hindi, dealing mainly with women’s issues. She also tells stories to children with the aim to create a more sensitive society. She has been an independent researcher associated with Lokniti-CSDS for two decades. English translation by Salil Tripathi. Salil Tripathi is a writer and journalist. He is the author of several books. Courtesy: Newsclick.]
