Travails of a Woman Documentation person
Personal is
Political
-A well known
feminist slogan
Well behaved
women rarely makes history
-Eleanor
Roosevelt to Marlyn Monroe
It was Mary Wollstonecraft’s first defiant moment in 1792 with the
publication of ‘Vindication of Rights of Woman’ that we came across a
documented history of Woman’s writing in a journal writing format, and which
looked upon women as a political subject. As some of the students of women
studies must be reading works of Virginia Woolf to theorists like Adrienne
Rich, Judith Butler, Uma Chakravarti, Urvashi Butalia etc. While the writing of
these women varied from personal accounts in journal formats to work of
fictions, they all found space via libraries, book shops etc. to enter popular
cultural imagination. Although books and articles on the history of women have
appeared throughout the ages, the practice of creating special collections and
archives for women is a relatively recent phenomenon, not quite a century old.
It is only in the last few years that historians have become aware that there
was a pattern to the establishment of women’s archives in India. This is where
I would like to emphasize on the need for archiving and having women
archivists. While, we might do formal style of academic writing and
documentation but need for archiving and documentation remains quintessential
because if we don’t archive now the future generations would not have enough
material to look upon to understand their history and source the struggles of
the previous generations. I also see that there is a need to broaden and expand
the material that is archived because sometimes so much material circulate in a
public domain that they don’t end up in an archive.
I don’t know how many of you have
ever been to an archive for research purposes but if you visit Delhi and you
end up going to National Archives or for that matter Teen Murti Museum, you
would realize that the books or audiovisual records that land up in those
shelves are actually the staple of what many mainstream historians or students
might deem as something of historical importance or official document of
historical value. The documents at times available in these archives at times
are so exclusive that they largely forego experiences of women as well as
marginalized sections of the society. So, these stories of the margins are
somehow never find space in official, public, mainstream, institutional space
in which memories is being kept and at times hand woven for the coming
generations.
So, one can see that the way we have learned to look at both politics
and history is too much with the lens of public space which can be extremely
exclusionary. So, how does one feature in history or make sure that one’s
heritage find space in history? Even if you look at newspapers, you would
notice that the newspaper would be giving you the main headlines which inturn
is the index or highlight of that particular day. So, the important stories of
history might feature in page 10 or buried in a page between advertisements.
So, how does one tells an oppositional or alternative history? Women’s movement
in India is one such oppositional or alternative movement in history, where new
histories are forged. But where do we find these oppositional or alternative
writing, they are usually confined to specific campaigns or fact finding
reports, and at times these reports also usually get lost or buried within the
archives. Even during various movements one may see generation of various
pamphlets, posters distributed to the people, which eventually disappears after
event is over. This why there was a constant need for archiving and documenting
to create and recreate an alternative narrative.
As an archivist and documentation management person I realised the
radical potential of memories of our past but also the need to preserve them
for posterity, this made me start my tryst with the camera. If you are
interested in photography you would realize that the presence of camera changes
your perspective of how you enter a particular situation at the time, it was
similar in my case as well. In 2011, I had an opportunity to work as an intern
in one of the most prestigious institutions called The Archives and Research
Centre for Ethnomusicology of American Institute of Indian Studies, which had
been in the field of archiving and documentation for more than 30 years now. The
reason for joining such an institution worked in two fold manner firstly my
need to learn the basic skills of documentation for long term preservation,
and further find a collective that would
work in line of archives like SPARROW (Sound and Pictures Archives on Research
on Women) which had come up with alternative measures to document women’s
history not only through various women’s movement but also their day to day
struggles within an hetero-patriarchal setup.
The archive that I talk about or imagine for the future are not only
documenting the history of woman’s movement in India but also that comprise of
works of woman filmmakers, writers, voices of dalit women which at times don’t
get space within the mainstream. These archives would have women working to
rewrite and to co-create history and would be fully managed by them.
Though during my days of being a student of Journalism and Mass
Communication I was never interested in seeing how a camera worked, I realised
its importance during my stint in ARCE and later documenting movements like
anti-rape movement in Delhi, queer movement in Delhi along with student
movement etc.
See, with some basic training anyone can be an archivist or
documentation personal, there is not always a need for aesthetically designed
videos but documentation that is legible enough and can be available for the
future. The objective is to never back down by criticism about your work take
it constructively, keep yourself abreast with technological innovations.
Imagine if you were reporting in the 70s and 80s, you would have to visit the
scene of action, interview some people get back and then churn out my story.
This however has changed with coming of youtube, snapchat, ustream, livestream
apps etc. the technological intervention allowed me to directly post videos on
facebook, twitter, myspace to get people’s attention towards issues that was at
times not covered by mainstream media.
It is through series of experiences such as these along with my training
as an archivist as well as someone who work within the activist circles that I
realized how important it is to voice one’s opinion and to make sure that
voices of woman even within the activist circle doesn’t get suppressed. I
realized that it was extremely hard for me as documentation person to be taken
seriously at times people don’t inform you about ongoing protests, give you
misleading information.
I would emphasize on the fact that whenever you find yourself amidst a
protest or incident of significant value do step out of your comfort zone.
Don’t drive around, instead walk, meet people, talk to them, and ask questions,
you may be surprised by the different version of the same story circulating
amongst people.
Though there are women pioneers
who start things, it is equally important for us in the newer generations to
continue these legacies keep them alive. I wish that the different pioneering
spirits that created space for us and you to be here today continue to remain
alive through each of you. Let your light shine!
Ms. Priyam Ghosh
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Communication Studies
