Gender Bender at Raisina Hill

The ldquoRashtrapatnirdquo commotion in Parliament on Thursday over Congress lawmaker Adhir Ranjan Chowdhuryrsquos purportedly accidental misgendering of President Droupadi Murmu put the spotlight on how designations havenrsquot evolved to reflect inclusivity of gendersWomen BJP parliamentarians led by Union Minister duo Smriti Irani and Nirmala Sitharaman denounced the Congress for ldquodemeaning women and the tribals of Indiardquo Irani demanded an apology from Sonia Gandhi as BJP lawmakers yelled and waved signs in the formerrsquos face Irani accused the Congress leader of having approved the ldquodenigration of a woman in the highest constitutional postrdquo charging ldquoYou approved of Droupadi Murmursquos humiliationrdquoIn a parliamentary democracy like India the presidency may be largely ceremonial but Murmu the countryrsquos second female president and first tribal one faces several expectations Eliminating the patriarchal term Rashtrapati in favour of something more genderinclusive or genderneutral could now be foremostldquoWe shouldrsquove fixed this a long time agordquo top linguist and grammarian Pabitra Sarkar says ldquoShamefully on the one hand we seize every chance to emphasise lsquoour ancient and evolved linguistic traditionsrsquo and on the other we canrsquot get rid of sexist terminology even in addressing the highest office in the landrdquoAnita Agnihotri Pabitra Sarkar and Gauri SawantThe word pati explains Sarkar etymologically means lord or master ldquoThis is a deeply problematic word even by itself since it comes from adhipatya authoritative controlrdquo he says ldquoThis patriarchal term is also used across the Indian subcontinent for husbands When suffixed it can mean leader of a gathering sabhapatiNational President Rashtrapati head of the army senapatimdashall terms that assume these are menonly positionsrdquoLanguage is the most powerful way that sexism and gender discrimination are unconsciously passed down generations ldquoLanguage lsquodiscreetlyrsquo reproduces social status and power disparities linked to appropriate social dutiesrdquo Sarkar continues ldquoBecause of grammatical and syntactic principles feminine nouns often stem from equivalent male forms Additionally the structure of many languages assumes that a man is the prototype human being Masculine nouns are frequently used to refer to both men and women in a generalised manner as in the case of Rashtrapati This often invisibilises womenrdquoSarkar is echoed by Bengali author and poet Anita Agnihotri who is also a retired bureaucrat ldquoThe word for wife patni immediately connotes servitude and a hierarchically lower position because it derives from the male pati Because of this when you call a female president Rashtrapatni it takes on polyandrous overtonesrdquoSarkar and Agnihotri offer Rashtrapramukh as solutionMore than 1900 kilometres away in Mumbai Marathi feminist writer Vandana Khare believes Rashtradhyakshaa or Rashtradhyaksh would also work She laments the subtle gender prejudice in language and emphasises that genderfair language can visibly promote equality She underlines how ldquolinguistic abstraction very softly depicts women less favourably and discriminates ever so casuallyrdquo and feels the best way to combat gender bias is to push for genderfair expressionBollywood lyricistpoet Hasan Kamal says those defending Rashtrapati for women presidents are surreptitiously pushing benevolent sexismmdasha subtler prejudice which boxes women as pure kind gentle and in need of menrsquos protection thus justifying male dominance ldquoThis is in sharp contrast to hostile sexism which includes derogatory portrayal of women and negative feelings toward them in order to justify male power traditional gender roles and menrsquos consideration of women as sexual objectsrdquo he says while suggesting the Urdu option of Sadr which translates to head He smiles aware that in the current sociopolitical climate this would never be an option as ldquoUrdu is marginalised as the language of MuslimsrdquoAnother film lyricist Raj Shekhar feels Chowdhuryrsquos apology would bring the curtain down on the brouhaha ldquoHe is a Bengali the language doesnrsquot assign gender to nouns As a Bihari I also often mix up gender when I speakrdquo he says admitting he has been ridiculed for this quite often ldquoExtreme intolerance of this kind is linguistic apartheid It is as if a select few decide what passes as pure Hindi and who can or cannot speak itrdquoEven in the South where matrilineal communities still exist there is no differentiating term for female presidents While the President is Janatipati in Tamil she is still Rashtrapati in Malayalam Kannada and TeluguDr AL Sharda of Population First an advocacy and communication initiative that works on health and population issues from a gender perspective feels more sensitisation is needed which will come with more representation ldquoOf the 15 presidents thus far only two are women More women in the position will drive thechange neededrdquo she feelsShe may have a point Indiarsquos record of womenrsquos representation in Parliament is abysmal Until August 15 2021 when the Taliban took over even Afghanistan had more women legislators than Indiamdash122 per cent of the total seats as against Afghanistanrsquos 276 per centBengalurubased womenrsquos rights activist Madhu Bhushan says ldquoLanguage holds up a mirror to societyrsquos toxic masculine glory Resistance to genderfair language comes from an inability to let go of a deeply entrenched patriarchal mindsetrdquoBut any such new nomenclature should not get stuck in cisbinaries warn LGBTQIA rights activists ldquoSince wersquove had Muslim Dalit and tribal presidents itrsquos high time we have one from sexual minorities toordquo says Gauri Sawant trans rights activist and founder of the NGO Sakhi Char Chowghi When asked for an LGBTQiA friendly term she is stumped and wonders why we canrsquot go with lsquoPresidentrsquo itself ldquoWe translate Governor to Rajyapal for states and union territories but donrsquot we stick to using Governor even in Indian languages when it comes to the Reserve Bank of IndiardquoWhen the US almost had a first gentlemanWhen Hillary Clinton ran for president the US had to mull over the prospect of her husband Bill Clinton becoming lsquofirst gentlemanrsquo Addressing this on the Jimmy Kimmel show Hillary had conceded ldquohelliphe Bill was running to break the iron grip that women have had on being spouse of the president And so I think wersquoll have to figure out what to call the male spouse of a female presidentrdquo and pondered ldquoFirst dude First mate First gentleman Irsquom just not surerdquo