When I visited India in 2009, I really loved riding auto-rickshaws since you could not find them in the US. One day, I approached an auto-rickshaw and sat in the front seat next to the male driver when my mother grabbed my arm and explained to be that women simply did not sit in the front seat. Being a teenager, having grown up in America, and being very pro-women’s rights I immediately lamented the backwardness of the nation and added this incident to the list of ways America was so much better than India. However, since that visit, I have (grown wiser) and noticed a cultural shift occur within Indian society. A lot of my female cousins work in the informational technology sector. Once they get married, they live farther from their parents’ houses. They have stopped wearing saris to work simply because pants or salwar-kameezes are more comfortable. How have these cultural shifts impacted the lives of women? Simply put, they have provided a type of liberation which originates from the confidence of being self-reliant.
Gandhi sought to bring women into the political and social folds of society by highlighting the importance of the roles they played. India is one of the few countries that enacted universal adult suffrage upon gaining its independence. Throughout the decades, women in India have realized their self-worth and their potential. And the discovery has been exciting and illuminating. I have no doubt that Western influences have helped speed the process. Women in India are at a unique place where they are now testing the boundaries and limits of these cultural shifts. As their roles have changed so have their outlook on life. Take the recent demands from women to reform laws towards sexual violence. What is remarkable about this movement is not the mass support it has received or the laws that are being enacted but the collective cultural transformation that has occurred within millions of women who have realized that victims are not the ones to blame. This is what drives the movement and makes it so effective. Ultimately, it is collective cultural change which drives social and political change. And as women gain confidence in their abilities, these cultural shifts will continue to occur.
For a lot of people, this is a picture of a girl riding a Vespa. But there is a cultural history here that should not be ignored. On this trip, I saw women in saris riding bicycles, sitting in the front of auto-rickshaws, and of course, riding Vespas. Motorcycles and cars next!