The Veil that Incarcerates

The Bhils have adopted the regressive Hindu upper caste patriarchal tradition of veiling their women. Married women have to veil themselves in front of their elder male in laws. This means that whenever they go out into public places like a market where an elder male in law might pop up at any time the married women have to remain veiled all the time. Here is a picture of young married women who are out to enjoy the Bhagoria festival but from behind the veil.

During the 1990s my wife Subhadra made many efforts to fight this custom by organising the Bhil women but so deep rooted is it that she failed to make much headway. So much so that even in public meetings of the women's organisation Kansari nu Vadavnu which would discuss issues regarding the liberation of women the participants would sit with their faces veiled as in the picture below.

This was slightly ironical since it had been decided that for the women to be able to discuss these weighty issues it would be necessary for them to be free from the hassles of filling drinking water and cooking. So the men had been convinced that while the women were deliberating they would do the work of filling drinking water for them and also cooking the meals. This was a major blow on the Bhil conception of masculinity which prohibits men from doing domestic work. However, since these men were elder in laws of some of the women participants, their presence as in the picture below, which shows one of them filling drinking water, meant that the women had to keep their faces veiled. Later the men had to be told to remove the drinking water drum to a distance and fill it there so that the women could unveil themselves.

Possibly a greater spread of education and greater economic independence will contribute to this custom of veiling slowly dying away. The Bhil women settled in Indore city in its slums do not veil themselves to this great extent anymore which seems to support this.