To get a feminist perspective on the Farmers’ Movement that has galvanized India, I spoke to the online collective & magazine: Karti Dharti.
Check out our conversation below!
Asia Art Tours: Could you discuss Karti Dharti? What is the mission of your publication and what are the stories you are trying to share?
Karti Dharti: Karti Dharti is a women led newsletter for the movement. The name comes from Karta Dharta, a term used for someone, a male, who establishes something. Karti Dharti has flipped the gender. She establishes a space to tell stories, do political commentary, assert her presence and her views.
The term Karti Dharti is coined by Nosheen Ali, a professor at New York University. According to her, Karti Dharti is a framework for thinking about land, culture and society from a woman’s perspective. She has also started a project based on her philosophy which focuses on ecological farming and investing in farm produce which is more relevant to a particular geographical area. Karti Dharti is a feminist philosophy to claim the earth for women – to call it her mother too, and to nurture it like its own children. In Punjab, men consider earth their mother. Women don’t because women never belong. They remain a gift to be given away in marriage. They are trained to not belong. For Nosheen, Karti Dharti is a concept to finally reclaim the belongingness.
We want to normalize women voices when it comes to hardcore issues like politics, laws, technology and dissent, women issues, agrarian crisis. At the same time, we want to throw a challenge to the BJP government that women are going to face their bought media, their nationalist agenda, their threats and trolling, and women are going to do it out loud – through the newsletter. Lastly, we aim to bring more Dalit and women voices out.
The academic Nosheen Ali, has been instrumental in building international feminist solidarity. Video Credit: BROWN UNIVERSITY
Sangeet Toor gave a talk on women participation to Lyallpur Young Historians Club in January 2020. The club is based in West Punjab. She was asked if there was a women-led newsletter coming out in the movement too. That was the point when she realized that the space was expected. Although the movement has surpassed all expectations in terms of its conduct, coverage, aim, focus, women participation etc., but women led and women oriented newsletter was an expectation.
She called up Nosheen Ali who wrote an article for Trolley Times named Karti Dharti. There was no better name for the newsletter. Karti means a woman who does work with hands. Dharti means earth. Nosheen agreed. Sangeet called her friends from Delhi who showed great enthusiasm to become a part of the newsletter. But the original team withdrew after Sangeet went through online trolling. Her profile was published on Opindia, an online mouthpiece for BJP. At the same time, the government began its mammoth crackdown on unbiased media, international female supporters, Twitter etc. The need for a newsletter, that too by women, became urgent.
Navjit Kaur, who designs the newsletter, is an original member of the team. She stood firmly with the idea that we must publish our first issue. Sargam Toor joined later when the rest of the original team left. More women from West Punjab (or Pakistan) came forward and volunteered to translate the issues in Shahmukhi at the same time. So, we have writers from both sides of the border. The Indian government has set up a border inside the country around Delhi, we are lifting the other borders some 300 kilometers away.
Karti Dharti is a feminist philosophy to claim the earth for women – to call it her mother too, and to nurture it like its own children. In Punjab, men consider earth their mother. Women don’t because women never belong. They remain a gift to be given away in marriage. They are trained to not belong. For Nosheen, Karti Dharti is a concept to finally reclaim the belongingness.
A hundred thousand people at Barnala out of which 40,000 women. Women are the movement – Harinder Bindu of @Bkuektaugrahan addressing the massive rally. Photo & Caption Credit: KARTI DHARTI
We focus on various issues now – the first edition was a narrative by many women from rural and urban India on how they saw the events of the Republic Day unfold. The second issue has a guest editorial by Navsharan on Dalit women, team Karti Dharti’s editorial on the economic aspirations of the movement so far, a young student’s analysis of the divergent section of the movement itself.
On women’s day, we took out a special edition in Shahmukhi in Lahore and Islamabad. We are the revolution poster was released at the women’s march in Pakistan and at Delhi borders in India.
Our third edition revolves around 12 men who were arrested on the Republic Day. They belong to the same village in Punjab. Our team covered the women at home. The newsletter editorial dissects the legal aspects of the arrests and how various stakeholders worked together to get all the men out of the jail. Another write-up by a renowned writer Nazm Hussein Syed sheds light on the love story of a historical character Heer.
In an nutshell, we want to normalize women voices when it comes to hardcore issues like politics, laws, technology and dissent, women issues, agrarian crisis. At the same time, we want to throw a challenge to the BJP government that women are going to face their bought media, their nationalist agenda, their threats and trolling, and women are going to do it out loud – through the newsletter. Lastly, we aim to bring more Dalit and women voices out. We are getting contributions from the dalit farm laborers directly.
At present, Karti Dharti is a river that originated in West Punjab. The magazine is a tributary of this river – an addition to the philosophy. From reclaiming the earth to reclaiming the political, economic and social discourses, Karti Dharti is finally home at the land of five rivers.
On women’s day, we took out a special edition in Shahmukhi in Lahore and Islamabad. We are the revolution poster was released at the women’s march in Pakistan and at Delhi borders in India.
Karti Dharti has supported regional & global feminist solidarity. Here the newsletter is read in Lahore, Pakistan by a participant in the Aurat March on International Women’s Day. Photo Credit: KARTI DHARTI
Asia Art Tours: International celebrities and activists are starting to support the Farmer’s movement. Could you tell us if this support has been important? And how can ordinary people continue supporting the movement from afar?
Karti Dharti: The international support came at a time when the central government was cracking down on the media voices in India immediately after the Republic Day on January 26. Twitter accounts of major media houses were suspended. The first tweets came on February 2nd and 3rd from Rihana and Greta Thunberg in support of the protesting farmers. Twitter India was under tremendous pressure to give in to the government’s demands. Twitter international didn’t have any such obligation. With international and celebrity support, Twitter India rose up to the occasion and decided not to block the accounts the central government had asked it to block.
Jack Dorsey took a personal stand for the movement. This support not only brought the movement on the global map of dissent, but also provided moral support to the local activists. It has also highlighted the two faces of the technology – democratic and authoritarian. Twitter was used by the Indian government as an authoritarian tool. Twitter was also used by the global community as a democratic weapon.
This political aspiration resonates with the historical movements of colonial India. Those movements, Pagri Smabhal Jatta, Muzara Movement, Akali Movement were peasant movements but they had a bigger political agenda – to overthrow the British Raj. The current movement has just started to look similar to those movements – let’s overthrow the BJP-Corporate Raj. To do so, we need voices on the ground and in the media. Every tweet counts. Every foot on the ground counts.
Farmers celebrating International Women’s Day. Video Credit: KARTI DHARTI
Ordinary people can keep up with the social media trends in favor of the agitation. Indian government’s efforts to stifle the voices should be highlighted on social media. We have seen how the national and social media in the US had called out Donald Trump on every lie during his presidency. Those efforts bore fruit in November 2020. We want to do the same now. This is because the movement has just shifted from being apolitical to being vocally political. No Vote To BJP is the slogan being raised in the five states which are up for the state elections. The farmer leaders are taking turns to go to these states – West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pudducherry.
This political aspiration resonates with the historical movements of colonial India. Those movements, Pagri Smabhal Jatta, Muzara Movement, Akali Movement were peasant movements but they had a bigger political agenda – to overthrow the British Raj. The current movement has just started to look similar to those movements – let’s overthrow the BJP-Corporate Raj. To do so, we need voices on the ground and in the media. Every tweet counts. Every foot on the ground counts.
No Vote To BJP is the slogan being raised in the five states which are up for the state elections. The farmer leaders are taking turns to go to these states – West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Pudducherry.
Farmers’ Movement participants holding Karti Dharti Posters for International Women’s Day: Illustration by @IkStars, poster designed by Gurvinder. Photo Credit: KARTI DHARTI
Asia Art Tours: Even though the farmer’s protests are being reported on more by international media, what are some of the stereotypes, mistakes or misconceptions that you still see being reported? What does the international media still get wrong or not understand about the protests?
Karti Dharti: To understand the movement in its entirety, it is important to understand the geography and history of Punjab. The peasant movements of Punjab (current Pakistan, NWFP, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh roughly) led the freedom struggle of India. West Bengal was another important state. The peasants of Punjab region have always been warriors because of the geographic set up. The attackers from the middle east and Central Asia could enter India from this side only. The peasants of these alluvial plains fought wars and grew crops. The rise of Sikhism in the sixteenth century at the beginning of Mughal era established a heritage of dissent among the peasants here. We call our Guru Nanak the first communist. If the struggles were shared, the produce was shared too. The resources were common. This aspect is missing from the International media.
Secondly, the participation of women and their assertion is severely misconceived. Popular feminism or the western feminism is asserted on them when they are covered by anyone who is not Punjabi. Karti Dharti, being led by women born and raised in Punjab, sees a huge gap when women protesters are being covered. There is an outright assumption that they did not have any agency, and then later a surprising element in the write-up on how they have been participating. Again, historical and geographic references are missing when women of the region are covered.
We see ourselves not just as the product of current times, but of these few centuries that had passed on some fearlessness in us – men and women alike. You can read about Pagri Sambhal Jatta and Muzara Movement by Sangeet Toor.
Karti Dharti, being led by women born and raised in Punjab, sees a huge gap when women protesters are being covered. There is an outright assumption that they did not have any agency, and then later a surprising element in the write-up on how they have been participating. Again, historical and geographic references are missing when women of the region are covered.
Close-up of Poster for International Woman’s Day inspired from a famous paiting #threegirls by Amrita Shergill . Illustration by @IkStars, poster designed by Gurvinder. Photo Credit: KARTI DHARTI
Asia Art Tours: For the arrest of climate activist Disha Ravi, and the effigy-burning of climate activist Greta Thunberg by BJP/RSS supporters, I’ve been stunned by the anger and hostility towards these young women. Could you explain if this reaction is connected to Brahmanical Patriarchy within the BJP?
Karti Dharti: We believe that autocrats consider women as the weakest elements of the society. When an autocrat is challenged by women, he second guesses his power. The crackdown on women activists is a reflection of how BJP doesn’t want to see it’s power dither away – by women. Hence, they apply the harshest of measures on women activists.
In India, it is the Brahminical patriarchy at play alongside the muscle flexing of the men in power. The receiving ends are both women and dalits. We at Karti Dharti see this country under BJP as an extension of a family where the wife is a lowly being and the husband is God. What happens when this lowly being raises voices after years of violence? She is beaten more harshly so that she dares not speak again. Political is personal. The citizens of India are in a violent domestic relationship with the ruling BJP.
We believe that autocrats consider women as the weakest elements of the society. When an autocrat is challenged by women, he second guesses his power. The crackdown on women activists is a reflection of how BJP doesn’t want to see it’s power dither away – by women. Hence, they apply the harshest of measures on women activists.
The Shaheen Bagh gatherings were a major feminist event in India & a rebuke to the BJP Party of Leader Narendra Modi. For more on Shaheen Bagh, I highly recommend this essay from The New Inquiry. Photo Credit: WIKIPEDIA
Asia Art Tours: I have found movements like Shaheen Bagh and Pinjra Tod to be incredibly inspirational. What feminists or feminist movements have inspired the team at Karti Dharti? And what wisdom/knowledge/tactics from these past feminist voices or movements are you trying to apply in the present?
Karti Dharti: To understand the solidarity, please go through this. We three, Sangeet, Navjit and Sargam, have received the feminist training from the society around us. Navjit is a costume designer and is now designing the newsletter. She comes from a small village in Punjab. It is her personal struggle with the village society to live an independent life in the city, doing the work she loves that has trained her to strive for more space for women when the stories of the movement are told. Sargam works in the corporate sector. She draws the gender sensitization policies in the corporate world. She is working with one of the big four consulting firms. Sangeet works as a cybersecurity expert and her training comes from the Women in Tech chapter of George Washington University, Washington DC. The first protest she attended was Women March in Washington DC in 2017. We three were not outrightly political, and didn’t attend the Shaheen Bagh protests. This is the first time that we are moving forward to a head on collision with the establishment.
The wisdom for us is coming in from the roots – the common women. We go out and hear them out. The oppression at personal level is the microscopic edition of the oppression on women nationally or globally. The idea is to speak out and keep challenging. But we are learning. We are getting in touch with feminist comrades on the other side of the border. Our third edition carried a piece on how women’s day march of Lahore was started a few years ago.
We want this movement to create leaders worth voting for. We look forward to a wave of youngsters leading India out of this 75 years old slumber of one-sided India.
Farmers listening to a speech. Photo Credit: KARTI DHARTI
Asia Art Tours: Lastly, how do the diverse voices you showcase, and the diverse participation of the Farmer’s movement, point to a future for India beyond the BJP? Is the farmer’s movement one part of what a ‘future India’ may look like once the BJP is no longer in power?
Karti Dharti: India is a land of diversity. Congress was in power for a long time and this diversity was never represented in the parliament. The judiciary remained Brahmin men heavy. Under BJP, the class and caste divide has furthered to a point of fracture. We strive to not just overthrow BJP government but to build an alternative for the people – young people, Dalit, women, Dalit women, educated middle class people holding the political, judicial and beaurucratic offices. We want this movement to create leaders worth voting for. We look forward to a wave of youngsters leading India out of this 75 years old slumber of one-sided India.
The movement, however, is the beginning and a catalyst for such a change that is the need of the times. We are looking at two more decades of the ground harvesting of the leaders we want and the diversified but united India that once fought for freedom from the colonial rulers.
The wisdom for us is coming in from the roots – the common women. We go out and hear them out. The oppression at personal level is the microscopic edition of the oppression on women nationally or globally. The idea is to speak out and keep challenging. But we are learning. We are getting in touch with feminist comrades on the other side of the border. Our third edition carried a piece on how women’s day march of Lahore was started a few years ago.
Women of the Farmers’ Movement. Photo Credit: KARTI DHARTI
For more w. Karti Dharti, be sure to visit their website to read articles, essays and poems on the Farmers Movement: kartidharti.com