Otherness

Hi, my name is Praavita. I thought I would write to you about names and feelings of otherness, but I think this turned into something else in the middle, although I might end with a bit about names.

I’m generally shy when it comes to talking to people that I don’t know. So I just avoid it and I never really actually do it. Sciences Po has been interesting because I have never lived in another culture and another place apart from my own. I have travelled but it’s usually just on vacation.

I had never really understood the feeling of otherness that comes from living in a different culture. It’s quite subtle. Like when you cover your head and your mouth with your scarf in the snow and people quietly edge away from you. Or when you wear something that is traditionally Indian, there’s the interested side glance on the metro. Or the little questions you get about whether or not you’re really Indian, about why your English is so good, how you appear to ‘have no accent’. It’s pretty casual and it happens a lot.

Then the less casual thing happens. There’s the incredible lack of understanding of post-colonial history and theory in many of the classes that I attend and in many of the people that speak up in these classes. They may not know that they often make the assumption that they can tell other regions and countries what is wrong with them and fix it. Or quite simply, the assumption that they are right. This is obviously not just true of Sciences Po and its students or true for all and everyone.

One short example of this kind of thing is the setting up of a Policy Task Force entitled ‘Beyond Gender Equality’ at Harvard University in the wake of the New Delhi gang-rape case. For those of you who may not have followed the story:

On the 16th of December a 23 year old woman was beaten and gang-raped on a moving bus. She died because of the injuries she sustained. The week after the case first came to light there were huge, leaderless protests across New Delhi. The protests were made up of many young people and students. The police responded violently and clashed with the protestors.

For some reason, this case set the national media on fire and the country became engaged in a debate about the status of women and violence against women. It began a national conversation about the security of women, rape, class, caste and the rights of women in India. The Justice Verma Committee was convened to make recommendations to the government to change and strengthen the existing rape laws in the country. The committee invited and received the recommendations of a number of women’s social action groups, NGOs, academics, and lawyers.

On February 16th, Kafila (an online alternative media blog) reported that the ‘Harvard College Women’s Centre website has announced that a Policy Task Force titled “Beyond Gender Equality” has been convened to offer recommendations to India and other South Asian countries in the wake of the New Delhi gang rape and murder.’ You might not see the problem just quite yet. So let me describe to you my feelings upon reading this: shock, outrage, anger, amusement, and ohshit it’s happening again.

This is where the lines are so often drawn that divide us as women, as feminists and as people.

I simply couldn’t believe that a task force from a university in an absolutely different country would have the gumption and the gall to think, as Carol Vance puts it, that ‘their Task Force has the authority and competence to make such an intervention, without any collaboration or conversation with the many scholars and activists working on sexual violence in India, and, more astoundingly, that it would be taken seriously’ (http://kafila.org/2013/02/18/what-is-wrong-with-this-picture-carole-vance-2/)

These are the things that separate us. A lack of respect or understanding is a gaffe that everyone makes quite often. And the important thing I think, in our solidarity as women or feminists or people, is to never forget the heterogeneity of our experiences and the great understanding and care that it takes to bridge those differences and learn about each other.

This feeling of otherness is something that I am still getting used to and that I am still learning from. One day in class, recently in fact, as one often does in Sciences Po, someone stood up to give a presentation. This person started out with trying to pronounce the last name of one of the authors of the paper that was to be summarized for the presentation. The name was difficult for someone who doesn’t know the language and the syllables may have been difficult for someone who’s mouth is used to English. But they could have tried, they could have asked. Instead the name was  quickly erased as the person decided instead to use the first name of the author instead. There was some quiet comforting laughter (hahaha, I know, oh man, those names are so hard) probably to help the speaker to calm their nerves. Totally mangled by the English, I heard this person saying the first name of the author and I felt incredibly uncomfortable. I felt strange and I didn’t know why. And then when I came home and talked to my friend about it, she showed me this:

Brave New Voices

That is my present to you. Happy women’s day.

To the plurality of our experiences and the solidarity that we can build through our understanding of each other.