Page 1


Page 2

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka
Selvy Thiruchandran

Page 3
Published in 1997 by Women's Education and Research Centre No.58, Dharmarama Road, Colombo 06, Sri Lanka.
Published in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
(C) Copyright Women's Education and Research Centre
Typeset and Cover design : Carmen Niranjala Peiris
Printed by Karunaratne & Sons Ltd.
All rights reserved.
No. part ofthis book may be reprinted
or reproduced oritilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or
hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, uvithout permission in writing from the publishers.
ISBN NO 955 - 92.61 - 04 - 5

This publication is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Rajini Thiranagama and Ms.Vivienne Goonawardena and to all those women who struggled politically for structural and ideological liberation from various types of servitude.

Page 4

Acknowledgements
I am indeed happy to bring out this booklet on women's political agency. It is an effort in a modest way, to retrieve the hidden agenda of the many women in history. If someone were to say that there are others who are not mentioned in this booklet to her/him I apologise and admit that there are indeed omissions. Women in the Trade Union movement in this country have shown much courage, committment and dedication to political causes and have politicised social issues. I think that should become a research by itself.
This research I feel is a collective attempt by women and by women alone. There are no men respondents. The women gave me the time and the data which I have interpreted. The cooperation took many forms. There was so much of warmth and appreciation when I reached out to them. They encouraged me, made me feel that I was doing a worthy task. Women in the alternative politics were brave. They revealed many hidden facts, which would be controversial, nay, dangerous. They were equally keen as I was to record the feminine militancy as part of our political history. This militancy they urged, was for a just cause. I want to record their courage and to all of them I say "Thank you' and "bravo', not patronisingly but with a feeling of solidarity. I avoid naming them as I feel they confided in me.
Indeed there were a few intellectuals who frowned upon my attempts and rejected my invitation to be interviewed. While respecting their freedom of choice, it left me speculating as to the motive of their rejection.
I am grateful to many others on the international arena. This study is part of a three nation study,. The research team consists of Dr. Patricia Stamp from the York University, Canada and Ms. Edzodzinam Tsikata, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research University of Ghana and myself, from the Women's Education and Research Centre, Sri Lanka. This booklet is however only a part of the original research. The original plan of the contract was to publish a book collectively by the three researchers, from Sri Lanka, Ghana and Canada. Each one was assigned a chapter and two chapters of the book were to be written collectively by the three of us. But due to unavoidable circumstances the other two could not complete the research.

Page 5
Acknowledgements
i
Prof. Patricia Stamp, the key person in this joint venture, took a keen interest in seeing that this research was published. She felt it was not fair that my research should wait in abeyance for long and worked hard to get this research published. In fact feel she violated the rules of the "game' in doing this. And this small publication is the result of her endeavour. While thanking the sponsors for their generous fund and their cooperation, I want to place on record Patricia's untiring efforts towards the goal of this publication. She was a source of constant encouragement to me. There was constant interaction between us through fax and telephone. I cherish those memories.
It was Kumari Jayawardena who introduced Patricia to me and I am grateful to her for this, for it gained me a close friend and colleague. I am thankful to Kumari, the Socialist feminist of our times, for another reason. I sent a part of this research to Kumari, for her comments. She suggested that I include a few references to the women "Comrades in arms' - the pioneers of the socialist feminist political agency, which I have done.
I wish to place on record my gratitude to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for the Grant for the research titled, "Women, Democracy and Development: A Comparison of African and South Asian Cases" which has made possible this venture.
There are others too, who are in my list - Ms. Vanessa Farr, Ph.D student from York University who edited my manuscript has done an excellent job. Thilaka Dissanayake who typed most of the manuscript and Carmen Peiris who did a part of the typing, deserve to be thanked.
I also wish to acknowledge the services rendered by my research assistant Sakuntala Muttiah, who was of immense help throughout my research.
Selvy Thiruchandran 32, 8th lane Colombo -3

Contents
Acknowledgements Foreword Introduction
Chapter I Women in Political Constructions: Subjective Notions
and the Feminist Challenges The Problem with Rationality The Problem of the State
in Feminist Discourse, Theory and Practice The Political and Civil Concept of Power
Chapter II ـ Women's Agency in the Politics of Sri Lanka Women as Part of Civil Society
Theorising
Chapter III Political Articulation and the Agency of Non-Political Women Political Articulation and Women's Agency Housewives' Politics
Chapter IV Mainstream Parliamentary Politics and Women Women's Representation in Political Structures Subjective Perceptions of Women Politicians
O1 05
O6 10
16 19 22
24 24 27
32 34 35

Page 6
Chapter V Women's Democratic Protest Movements and their Political Message The Mothers' Front in the North
The Mothers' Front in the South
Chapter VI
Women's Agency Amidst Alternative
Politics and its Implications for Future Strategies
The Southern Insurrection
The Northern Phenomenon
Reflections on Women's Agency in the National Liberation Struggle
Bibliography Notes
40 41 44
46 47 51
55
58 62

FOREWORD
This study is the first fruits of an ambitious and quixotic enterprise: to span Africa and South Asia in a single, comparative and collaborative analysis of women's political agency. As important as the scholarly work itself was the concept of a "horiZontal alliance,” to use Chandra Mohanty's term, a process of mutual political and personal engagement between feminist researchers from three countries on three continents: Canada, Ghana and Sri Lanka. On my sabbatical from York University, Toronto, Canada, in 1994, I arrived in Colombo with a suitcase full of ideas, several months of field work in Ghana under my belt, and an opening for a Sri Lankan researcher to join me and my new Ghanaian partner, Edodzinam Tsikata, in this adventure.
I was soon sent to the Women's Education and Research Centre to meet Dr.Selvy Thiruchandran who would, I was informed, put me right. And she did indeed. With eyes sparkling, she enthused about the possibilities of such collaborative research. Within short order, she was a part of the team, and quickly overtook Edzodzinam and myself in her application to the task at hand.
What we are aiming to do is produce a book that Studies women's agency in contemporary African and South Asian politics. The project was the successful recipient of a three-year grant from Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities research Council (SSHRC); we are grateful to the Council for this support which has enabled our research. The research involves investigation of communal endeavours and local political participation on the one hand, and national events involving women's agency on the other, in two countries, Ghana and Sri Lanka. While each country has a unique historical and cultural heritage and post-colonial political trajectory, the countries form a valid basis of comparison as small, export-dependent nations with vigorous traditions of democratic political discourse in the context of dramatic shifts between civil and authoritarian rule. Neither country was a key actor in Cold War power configurations. As well, both are countries where women do not suffer extreme patriarchal domination, and have enjoyed a measure of political engagement. Our aim is thus to use detailed case studies to explore the concrete realities of women's political par

Page 7
νι Foreword
ticipation and agency in contemporary Africa and Asia, and from this analysis to generate some conceptual tools and theoretical generalisations about Third World gender relations.
The animating principle of the programme of study has been the proposition that women's political agency is central to democratic participation in Third World states, even though such agency has seldom been recognised or theorised in this light. Each of us shows in our ongoing research that Third World women, far from being the passive, unresisting members of society portrayed in much of the Women in Development and Western feminist literature, are dynamic inventors of their own agency. As well, we hope that the theoretical contributions of such work will demonstrate how feministscholarship can inform topics that have almost exclusively been the preserve of gender-blind political science: questions of power, ideology, ethnicity, and the nature of the postcolonial state. The research draws on a synthesis of what we term feminist political economy, theories of the postcolonial state and class formation, and post modern theory, including discourse analysis and feminist theory of subjectivity. We started from the assertion that women's claims to being apolitical, whether as individuals or in groups, are a deliberate and rational ideological strategy in their activities to gain decision-making power within statutory political structures. Further, such strategy constitutes a powerful discursive element in the politics that characterise democratic participation today. It is the discovery and specification of this ideological strategy and its political consequences in the Ghanaian and Sri Lankan contexts that constitutes the central task of our book.
The book is still in progress, but Selvy Thiruchandran has blazed the trail, while Edzodzinam Tsikata has been preoccupied with her new motherhood and I with my new administrative tasks. We both look forward eagerly to catching up with Selvy, who has produced an outstanding case within the rubric of our joint comparative and theoretical mandate. I believe it is upon such conceptually grounded and empirically thorough research that the best of our feminist analysis today is built. The present study, which eventually will form part of the book co-authored by Edzodzinam Tsikata, Selvy Thiruchandran, and myself, stands on its own here as a monograph dealing with timely issues and events in Sri Lanka. As well, it breaks fresh ground in theorizing the politics of gender in Sri Lanka.
Patricia Stamp Toronto. March, 1997

Introduction
he emphasis on gender in the political arena in Sri Lanka is central to the
country's political history. This study aims, through a discussion of women's
activism and political aims, to examine the dearth of women's participation in mainstream Sri Lankan politics and to document their active involvement in alternative political movements, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (J.V.P) and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (L.T.TE) being the most prominent examples.
I shall also analyse women's exclusion from political life in terms of a wider debate--the issue of male hegemony which is part of the Sri Lanka culture.This aspect of the paper will raise an important question as to what gains are to be made through women's participation in politics. Sri Lanka is often praised for having elected the world's first woman Prime Minister, but this prominent gain has not succeeded in putting gender on the political programme. Through a series of interviews with Sri Lankan women, I shall evaluate what factors are responsible for hampering women's active involvement in politics.

Page 8
\iii Introduction
Background Information on the Sri Lankan Context
As is common to many post-colonial South Asian nations, Sri Lanka has certain predominant features: a centralised state, socio-economic inequalities based on caste, class and gender, and divisive nationalistic claims based on ethnicity, language, religion and regions. All of these have resulted in ethnic chauvinism and religious fundamentalism. Sri Lanka has, for the most part, been characterised by a capitalist mode of development despite a leaning towards socialism at times when there were coalition governments which included leftists. Uneven patterns of development have worsened inequalities at regional levels, and this uneveness has been linked to conscious discrimination by the state. This has resulted in the growth of oppositional political movements of ethnic groups and youth groups which have challenged the credibility of the state. Though these features have prevented long term stability for Sri Lanka, an appearance of a thriving democracy has been maintained by having periodic parliamentary elections and changes of governments. But democracy in Sri Lanka has degenerated into the tyranny of an ethnic majority. The power game continues with the deadly power of the majority opinion discriminating against and oppressing ethnic minorities.
Sri Lanka has captured the attention of the world due to its ethnic conflict. The ethnic tension that has characterized its socio-political history since 1948 has various dimensions. One notable difference between Sri Lanka and other Asian countries is that Sri Lanka does not have a history of a radical multi-ethnic national struggle against colonial rulers. But nationalist movements based on ethnic and religious affiliations followed independence. The country was colonized by three European powers, the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British, for nearly five hundred years before its independence in 1948. Nationalism in Sri Lanka was divisive from the outset, which was to have disastrous consequences for the country. And, unlike other Asian countries such as India, gender was not on the programme of any early nationalist movements in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has witnessed two armed liberation Struggles, one based on class liberation, and the other by a linguistic minority group based on national liberation, built upon a history of discrimination and oppression. However, both these struggles lost direction and turned into overtly chauvinistic groups, one with claims to Sinhala nationalism and the other with claims to Tamil nationalism.

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka ίχ
Large scale human rights violations were/are legitimised on the grounds that situations of war may be treated as a threat to the sovereignty of the state. In theory and practice there is no taboo against the entry of women into politics. But the rate of women's political participation is amazingly low, despite Sri Lanka producing the world's first woman prime minister in 1960. This research is an attempt to understand how it is possible that both this phenomenon and the ongoing limitations of women's agency in the democratic process can exist side by side. The entry of women into politics in Sri Lanka, as in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, is based on a patriarchal lineage system which can be called “the widows and daughters syndrome,” and which is not very different from the phenomenon of the son inheriting political power that is also common in South Asian countries. My research will also examine the paradox that women and girls have entered the alternative politics of armed struggle. Young blood has responded to the revolutionary appeal of the two liberation struggles, and both the J.V.P and the L.T.T.E. have solicited the active participation of women and girls. However, the content, the ideology, and the activities of the liberation movements are far from being progressive. Narrow ethnic chauvinism and senseless violence have characterized them, so that progressives in Sri Lanka have condemned their loss of direction. The state and politicians, and those members of civil society who belong to the right wing, have opposed the liberation movements for different reasons which stem from the fact that the struggles challenge, on the one hand, many of the class privileges of the bourgeoisie, and on the other, the oppression of the ethnic majority. These groups also have a tradition of a feminist content, even though there were/are no clear feminist positions since even feminists are divided on various political lines. There has also been a lack of feminist inquiry into the political implications of how, when, and why women participate in Sri Lankan politics.
The second area into which I inquire is the role of women in the two liberation struggles in Sri Lanka. Despite the fact that access to J.V.P women may be difficult, it is comparatively easy to study the role of women in this movement as it no longer exerts its former political force. An additional aid to this research is the existence of materials published about the J.V.P, its political ideology and its activities. The role of women in the Tamil liberation groups that have given up armed struggle and entered into the democratic process is also easy to determine. These men and women are free to talk as neither the government nor the leaders of the movement are likely to raise

Page 9
Χ Introduction
objections. However, this is not the case with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (L.T.T.E.) where there are two conflicting versions. Only one publication has officially been put out by the L.T.T.E on their women cadres (Adele Ann, 1993). The Tamil liberation groups have women's wings who make claims to feminism in their published literature.
The main thrust of this study hinges on three major areas: the implications for politics of gendered theories, the feminist critique and its inadequacy, and women's agency in Sri Lanka, both in the mainstream and in alternative politics. The first two are primarily theoretical perspectives derived from an ongoing debate, and the third will be related to the findings of field work mainly consisting of a process of dialogue with Sri Lankan women. These women fall into several categories: women in active politics, women as part of civil society, professionals such as teachers, university lecturers, civil servants, housewives, and a few women either directly or indirectly involved in alternative politics.

CHAPTER
Women in Political Constructions: Subjective Notions and the Femininist Challenges
"Giving the vote to the non-vellala castes (the castes lower in social ranking to the high caste Vellala group) and to women was not only a grave mistake leading to mob rule but was anathema to the Hindu way of life' (Ramanathan 1934: 4).
"Can women advise you pn knowledge, politics and human nature?" (Manimekalai: 425-428).
The first remark was passed by a Hindu statesman of the colonial era in Sri Lanka on the eve of the granting of uniyersal adult suffrage to Sri Lankans by the Donoughmore Commission (1934). The latter is from a second century (AD) Buddhist Epic. The theory of the "irrational woman' has persisted for nearly eighteen centuries. reflecting, perhaps, the views of the two major religions in Sri Lanka. These questions are also similar to certain misogynistic tendencies in the discourse on "rational man" in Western theories.

Page 10
02 Chapter I
Men and women have, both in political thought and in other discourses related to politics and state craft, been placed rather unambiguously within dichotomous hierarchical divisions of value such as rational/irrational, public/private, family/state, political/personal. Plato, while discussing the ideal city, classifies women and children together with possessions. He refers to a "community of wives, children and all chattels....Women, children and houses', he reiterates, "remain private and all other things are established as the private property of individuals” (Republic: 423e, 462e).
Aristotle maintains that women are “naturally inferior' to men and that they are therefore "naturally' ruled by them. While taking note of the inequality between the genders, he asserts that nothing can be done by way of compensation, as "political justice" can only exist between equals, between those who have an equal share in ruling and being ruled as fellow citizens. Having relegated women to the status of non-citizens, he says a "metaphorical justice' can only be dispensed to women. However, he could not clarify what metaphorical justice is, but speaks of a household justice which is different from political justice.
Similarly, Rousseau's argument to remain one with nature and to accept natural things led him to accept woman as passive, dependant, chaste, irrational or sub-rational, sensitive and caring--a characterisation which would contribute to the marginalisation of all women from politics. In Rousseau's theories, woman's nature is linked with her procreative function. It is an irony beyond comprehension that the person who sets out to philosophise the ideals of equality and freedom should have contributed to the legitimisation of hierarchical divisions between the two genders on the grounds of preserving the "natural” order. Woman, he urges, is the sex that ought to obey (Rousseau 1964: 166). While granting that God has endowed both sexes with "unlimited passions,” man has been given reason, while women have been given modesty in order to restrain them (Rousseau 1964: 694).
This analysis has so far dwelt primarily on Western political thinkers. Asian thoughts are not in any way dissimilar to those of the west. Patriarchal minds have met. Gender ideology cuts across regions maintaining a uniformity that sometimes results in parallel views being expressed through similar terminologies. The Hindu Law giver Manu has spoken out extensively on the inferiority of woman's conduct,

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 03
mannerisms, intellect and conscience, and on her innate nature which is wicked and lustful. Lastly, he alludes to her political incapacity. Women, according to Manu, are not fit to be entrusted with state secrets, and so when he is consulted on important state affairs, he advises the kings to remove all women from the room as they are likely to betray high level secrets (Manu VII: 149-50). The same ideology persists in his views of legal administration also. "One man,” Manu says," who is free from covetousness may be accepted as a witness, but not even many pure women because their understanding is apt to waver”(Manu VIII: 77).
The importance of reason and rationality has been persistently emphasised, and has eventually led to a process of deploying power to the rational, who are, of course, perceived as male. The central focus of feminist critique has been on dichotomous divisions and the exclusion of the political from the domestic, familial and private spheres (Pateman 1983; Olsen 1983/4; Ellen Kennedy and Susan Mendus 1987). The assumption that women have some natural qualities and that these should be harnessed to serve the so-called natural division has also been challenged, for example by Okin (1991) who has reiterated that the divisions are defined functionally to serve men's needs. That both "natural' qualities and "natural' divisions are constructions, and that they are used to legitimise a lesser socio-political status for women, and later to disqualify her from politics, has become the main premise of feminists who debate this issue. Relegating woman to the realm of the private or family, men took over the functions of ordering society and gendered both the family and society at large. Political theories were drawn up from this gendered state to further legitimise women's inferior position, which has resulted in the creation of an ideology of the political man and the private woman/wife.
Rationality, treated as the highest expression of politics by the Greeks, took a new turn in the discourse of liberalism and enlightenment. The dualism of enlightenment discourse, which is defined by its masculine and feminine order, is evidently asymmetrical in nature. This dualism, which excluded woman from rationality, no doubt has links to the exclusion of women from politics (Lloyd 1984; Harding 1984). Identifying women with irrationality and speaking of her so-called "natural qualities” in the metanarratives, has had serious implications for the role of women which has robbed them of a series of gifts that personhood should have conferred on them. Political participation, it can be argued, is one such gift.

Page 11
04 Chapter I
However, male constructionists are not alone in this characterisation of women. Cultural feminists have also promoted "womanly virtues' such as passivity, sensitivity, caring and nurturing, and non-competitiveness, as the natural qualities of Women. This has, once again, brought dangerous dichotomies into focus. This time, feminists themselves have been guilty of perpetuating essentialist Stereotypes; now, however, the purported womanly values are meant to enhance women's status although the debate is not focused on their virtuous qualities as such, but on gendered dichotomies which are still socially constructed. By arguing that only women have these qualities, and by monopolising these virtues, we are depriving men forever from developing such qualities. That man changeth not, and so women have always to bear the burden of caring, is not a plausible argument for allowing the gender status quo to go unchallenged. Equally dangerous is the assumption--held both by cultural feminists and by political theorists--that aggression, competitiveness, individualism, together with rationality and reasoning, leadership, and the capacity for judgement, are manly qualities and quite out of place for women. Increasing emphasis on these gender demarcating qualities, and treating them as static and as explanations for Women's exclusion from politics, which they are not, leads us nowhere in achieving new theories of political power.
There is yet another dilemma facing feminist theorists. Strangely, even McMillan (1982), after taking to task the dichotomous dualism of modern political thought and the idea of the "man of reason,' finally succumbs to a new version of dualism. She rejects hard-core abstracted rationalism and argues that feelings, passion and intuition should not be separated. She concludes that feminists, by rejecting these emotions, have alienated women from their true nature (1982:118). This kind of confusion and partial radicalism, which rejects some aspects of the notion of dualism and reinforces others, is very similar to the cultural feminist and anti-feminist stand. This affinity with anti-feminist argument also implies universalism and essentialism (Grimshaw 1986:17). Positing an ahistorical feminine and masculine nature as essential to humanity ends up perpetuating the asymmetrical relationship between the genders. Notions of feminine inferiority are in-built in the dualist approach and hence have to be challenged both theoretically and practically.

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 05
Transcending value-ridden dichotomies, and rejecting the "natural" qualities assigned to men and women on the grounds of sexual differences, have to be done simultaneously. Hence the feminisation of politics, or the transferral of maternal thinking into politics (Gillingan 1982; Ruddick 1980) are not convincing arguments. To argue that all women are passive, caring and non-competitive is a futile exercise. Such attempts to relegitimise feminine qualities should be given up and political statements should be directed against re-questioning "constructed differences' and the creation of capabilities based on gender, so that politics and home-making, lawmaking and nurturing can be equally valued and shared by both genders as powerful and socially necessary issues.
The Problem with Rationality
Along with other postmodernists, postmodern feminists have also criticized the enlightenment concept of rationality. Postmodernism's rejection of the privileging of rational discourse as the sole avenue to truth, while discarding the dichotomy of male/female thinking, also rebuffs the idea of rationalism, perse, as the ultimate truth. Does this mean that it is futile for feminists to argue that women, like men, can be rational, when the concept of rationality itself is devalued? It does create a dilemma for liberal feminists. However, the rejection and questioning directed against metanarratives (which are, anyway, sexist and gender biased) and the search for a plural definition of truth should be in line with feminist thinking. Feminists should have no problem, even in their project of becoming politically active, with accepting a view that all knowledge systems are rooted in contextual and historical situations incorporating the "prejudices” of our culture. The prejudices of existing political theories also derive from historical and cultural prejudices which have relegated inferior roles to women. Postmodernism rejects not only the dichotomy of rational/irrational, but also the notion of masculine/feminine lines of thinking and the privileging of one against the other. However, the attempt within postmodernism to privilege, as Gadamer does (1975), contextuality and relatedness as feminine is as dangerous as any other essentialising assertion. This assumption is drawn, again, from the dichotomy of inferiority/superiority which is feminine/masculine. Hence, like the need to dislodge cultural feminism's ideal of superior feminine maternal thinking, the belief in a superiority of feminine contextuality and relatedness has also to be dislodged from

Page 12
06 Chapter I
postmodern feminist discourse. To substitute a feminist epistemology for a masculine
epistemology is to fall, once again, into the trap of dichotomy and to forget to emphasise plurality. It ends up by legitimising Enlightenment epistemology after making so many
concerted efforts to overcome it.
The Problem of the State in Feminist Discourse, Theory and Practice
There are only a few studies on gender and politics, and feminist inquiry into politics has remained ambiguous for many reasons. To begin with, feminists treated the concept of the state as alien to their discourse because they considered the state to be patriarchal (Agarwal 1988; Afshar 1987; Parpart and Staudt 1989). MacKinnon (1989:157) said that “Feminism has no theory of the state,” because the articulation of feminist arguments, in her view, remain inadequate and place undue emphasis on the negative connotations of a patriarchal statehood. Posing civil society and the state within a dichotomous relationship, feminists have opted to deal almost exclusively with civil society and its gender relations.
However, even though their focus on civil society did not warrant any homogeneous set of theories, the ambivalence they exhibited towards theories of power and authority has impacted directly on feminism's inadequate theoretical premises for the state. While they identified the state as highly gendered and as an entity to be identified with power and coercion, they also viewed the state as a monolithic and a uniform entity with a coherent ideology. Hence the feminist perception of the state as an institution remained ambivalent for many reasons. A theory of interventionist state politics was rare, though feminists have reviewed capitalist developments and have identified the gender bias in the policies and implementations of state-aided projects.
One can speculate on two reasons for this. Firstly, the state in most countries was identified as constitutive of power, authority, repression and coercion, and an ideology of dominance. In response, feminism developed a radical separatism from the state which has led many feminists to withdraw from the mainstream, or to take to opposition politics. Hence, they have alienated themselves from the institution of state and the process of politics. Secondly, the demands that the women's movement and feminists made as part of women's rights/human rights invariably came into conflict

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 07
with the status quo which the state had to uphold. Hence the state has become one of the institutions against which the women's movement has to struggle.
Apart from feminists' conscious neglect of the state and politics at the level of theory and practice, a process of marginalisation has taken place unconsciously. By concentrating on the ideology and the structure of patriarchy at the socio-economic level and by preoccupying themselves with the tasks and strategies of challenging and correcting patriarchal institutions, feminists have marginalised the state and the political process. Such a practice was further legitimised by either the inactivity or the compromising attitude of state units that were created for women's development. State sponsored units such as the Women's Bureau and the Ministry of Women's Affairs are viewed as non-productive mouthpieces of the state, which are designed only to ameliorate women's problems. Feminists became more and more sceptical when no meaningful challenges to patriarchal tradition were made by these state organs. In the words of Gugin, women's lobbies lend their support to women's issues and not to women, "to functional feminism not to ideological feminism' (1980:255).
That the state is patriarchal is a view that cuts across various feminists theories such as liberal feminism, marxist feminism, radical feminism and socialist feminism. Marxist feminism (McIntosh 1978) holds the view that the oppression of women is supported by the state because this is fundamental to capitalism. Radical feminism simply maintains that the state is patriarchal, and Zillah Eisenstein elaborates on a dual-system theory where both capitalism and patriarchy are mutually interdependent (Walby 1990: 151-160). Patriarchy is used here descriptively to denote a system and relations which are constructed to subordinate, discriminate against, and oppress women through particular socio-economic and socio-religious practices and patterns. State apparatuses also, in general, become the agents through which patriarchy is operationalised. It is the latter, the state apparatus, that feminists are concerned with in their analysis of the patriarchal state. The state has, inmost instances, acted in an anti-feminist manner in making and maintaining economic, legal and ideological interventions both towards legitimizing and reinforcing existing patterns and in newly constructed regulations that affect women adversely. Property relations, wage differentials based on gender, unjust rules relating to marriage, divorce and rape, are a few areas where the state has intervened both historically and at present.

Page 13
08 Chapter I
So-called developmental activities and policies which are state sponsored also have an in-built gender bias. An example of this can be seen in the special labour concessions given to Free Trade Zone factory owners, which are different from the labour laws of Sri Lanka at large. Modern technological changes have failed to bring in gender equality, but have adversely interacted with the existing ideology of sexual division of labour and have instituted a much more rigid control system than before to create situations which worsen gender inequality. Women are particularly disadvantaged and there are many records of the oppression and exploitation Suffered by Women (Mangalika 1994). The opening up of Sri Lanka as a tourist paradise for foreigners has made sex tourism a bona fide means to earn foreign exchange. An additional source of revenue is migrant labour: women workers from Sri Lanka bring in the country's second highest foreign exchange earnings. There have also been instances where migrant women's bodies were sent back after having been sexually violated. Various studies have highlighted the injustices suffered by women and have suggested remedial measures such as monitoring the process of employment by foreigners through Sri Lanka's foreign missions abroad, but the state has turned a blind eye to this issue. State-aided developmental policies are sustained by the explanation that migrant women are bringing foreign exchange earnings to Sri Lanka. Governmental indifference, which is reflected in official comments, is a clear manifestation of the patriarchal state. Here we should note that this attitude is also related to the process of globalisation and the exigencies of capitalism.
However, state ideologies and actions change with the kind of people by whom they are constituted. Many feminist scholars have emphasised the gendered nature of the state. The state, however, is not a monolithic coherent entity; it is itself a complex body with multi-dimensional facets, through which one set of ideologies may be predominant. Newly emerging trends whereby the state is compelled to include gender neutral legislation have not been studied adequately to decipher tendencies that may contribute to gender equality in some respects. Early studies have concentrated on the religio-social dictums (seen in the Koran, the Bible, and the Dharmashastras) which had legal status as the laws of the country, and on property relations (Holcombe 1975) and the Welfare state (Wilson 1977). The state is not merely an organ of coercion. Both coercion and consensus are used by the state either separately, alternatively or simultaneously. The easy collapsing of the political and the cultural into the arena of

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 09
the state has been overlooked in theories of the state which concentrated on its administrative and constitutional aspects. Gramsci’s analysis of the means whereby the political has co-opted civil society, the realm of religion, culture and kinship, is insightful in analysing the state as it is formed within patriarchal relations. Koranic, Biblical and Dharmashastric (religious) tenets have acquired, through state regulation, the force of law. “Moral regulation” (Corrigan and Sayer 1985:2-4) speaks of the cultural content of the state institution. Most often the regulation of the culture of bourgeois civilization borders on a patriarchal control by thestate. Civil society, or part of civil society, collaborates with the state to legitimise the hegemony that the state Seeks.
In Sri Lanka the state had no specific policy directed towards women till the UN declared 1975-1985 as the decade of women. An attitudinal and structural complacency existed in Sri Lanka which explained State inactivity thus: the women of Sri Lanka are already liberated thanks to various historical events. The liberal attitude of Buddhism towards women, historical factors such as the granting of universal adult suffrage to women and men simultaneously in 1931, and the granting of free education to both girls and boys in 1948, when the country got independence, are cited as reasons for not needing gender-specific legislation. Until 1975, discrimination in the wage structure, property relations, divorce and rape laws were not considered as areas that needed to be reviewed and revised. Of late, due to overt pressure from the UN system and the donor agencies and covert pressure from the women's movement, the state has responded rather ambiguously to a few demands to fulfil some of women's expectations. As a result Sri Lanka now has a Women's Bureau, a Ministry for Women's Affairs and, most recently, a Women's Charter which is connected to the National Committee on Women.
As discussed above, it is important to realise the role of the state in collaborating with civil society selectively by forming sub-national civil and political structures to consolidate and perpetuate repressive socio-economic structures. The power of the state begins to collaborate with society's dominant groups. This "collaborative hegemony” (a concept used by Pathak and Sunder Rajan 1989) becomes detrimental not only to the democratic process but also to the general climate of human rights (women's rights included). Extremist religious bodies and ethnic majorities can also

Page 14
10 Chapter I
dictate exclusionist terms to the state, which can further constrain women. In Sri Lanka, cases of either Buddhistor Hindu fundamentalism which dictate against women are hard to come by. Muslim extremism, however, has raised its head with its very specific dictates for Muslim women. That the state is collaborating with Muslim religious dictates is emphasised by the fact that it has neither condemned, nor paid any real attention to, this form of sexism. The state treats religious essentialism as a political non-issue, and culturally the veil has re-emerged as symbol of Muslim exclusivity. Taslima Nazrin's story is a case in point: her book Laja was banned in Sri Lanka after the intervention of the State Minister for Muslim Affairs, a perfect case in point of collaborative hegemony. It is clearly an example of the moral regulation and cultural constraints of the state when the Minister for Muslim Affairs can boldly intervene in the arena of another ministry, the Ministry of Information, which is in charge of books and publications.
An unhappy implication underlies the reasons for feminist anathema towards the state. Women's passivity has been implicitly accepted when politics is assumed by others to be an active force. The notion of “nature versus culture' is again brought into the debate when politics and statecraft are treated as marginal to the project of feminism. This takes us back to the old debate of the private versus the public, where the public is viewed as Other than the private. Women are again placed within the powerless and nameless domains which are invariably devalued ideologically. If the state is perpetuating gender ideology, strengthening negative gender relations and seeking to foster patriarchal institutions and laws, then that should be the very reason for feminist intervention. It is the state that has to be challenged to incorporate gender-specific policies of economic development and socio-political changes into the polity.
The Political and Civil Concept of Power
Can women be empowered and convinced to enter politics through a process of criticising and challenging those internalisations that are partially instrumental in the marginalisation of women from politics? To answer this question, one is compelled to enter the arena of the discourse of power. Despite the extensive debates on power and authority by Foucault and others, areas of this discourse remain neglected. The concept of the political man commonly constructed by Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau, Manu and

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka II
others such as Hobbes and Locke, celebrated within their theories the concept of power as a male monopoly. The capacity for reason and public activities are equated with a "moral agent,” who is a rational actor and political man. The masculinist constructions of power are equated with a concept of dominance over others. Military duties, conquests, coercion, imprisonment and punishment constitute, on the one hand, political power; on the other, property ownership and control of economic resources constitute the base for socio-economic powers. Both forms of control are construed as power over things and persons. The modern episteme, by placing such emphasis on the existence of subjects and objects, has created a gendered construction not only of reason and rationality but also of the whole discourse of thought. Concepts of knowledge and power, subject/object, inferior/superior, active/passive, are the subjectively determined dichotomies that support the ideal of the rational man. The hierarchy of these dualistic thoughts, though critiqued and challenged, continues to hold sway in the consciousness of men and women and the meanings created thereby continue to be deployed and experienced both in the common sphere and in intellectual parlance.
Foucault's discussion of power has an innate ambivalence which is both illuminating and defeatist: it is illuminating theoretically as a means of conceptually clarifying situations, but at a practical level lacks insight. Power, he emphasises, is pervasive, permanently repetitious and self producing. It exists in its exercise. It is omnipresent, he reiterates, by being present in the multitudes of institutions that constitute society. It should be understood as "capillary” (1980:95-98). But he has failed to name the individuals, the groups or classes of people who may wield power in specific situations or circumstances. This, however, fits with his argument about the pervasiveness of power. His insistence on resistance does not offer a useful theory or a chance of instituting a corrective process. His argument, that resistance has to be perpetual, leaves no room for hope of lasting change. Others would go along with Foucault and argue that woman's subordination cannot be captured in essentialist universalist theories, or in a single institution. Solving one problem, whether it be the right to vote or women's entry into politics or equal pay, does not necessarily lead to total liberation. Foucault fails to explain the fact that even among the dominated, whether they are women, workers, an ethnic minority or a colonized people, there are at various levels people who are dominant within their own groups, and who, therefore, establish their own hierarchies of power. Though there is no doubt that the dominated

Page 15
12 Chapter I
do sometimes participate in perpetuating their own domination, what is more significant is to identify and single out the process by which consent was exacted for participation in such domination.
This is where Gramsci’s theory of how both coercion and consent are used in the creation of hegemony becomes a useful means to understand the process of domination. Gramsci uses the concept of hegemony to describe the various modes of Social control available to the dominant social group. He distinguishes between coercive control, which is manifest through direct force or the threat of force, and consensual control, which arises when individuals “willingly' or voluntarily assimilate the ideology of the dominant group, an assimilation which allows the hegemony of this group. He then goes on to discuss the institutions and practices through which these two basic forms of control operate. In its purest form, coercion is exercised "physically' through the repressive institutions of the State, most notably the army, the police and the penal system, while consent is exercised "intellectually' through institutions of civil society such as the Church, the educational system and the family. Most importantly, Gramsci recognises that all institutions have both a material and an ideological impact on individuals, and that in reality, coercion and consent tend to combine. In order to challenge hegemonic power, a “war of position' must be waged to free individuals' minds from the distortions of bourgeois ideology by offering them the means to critique this ideology.
Gramsci’s viewpoint differs from Foucault's and offers a stronger rallying call for resistance, both political and intellectual. Foucalt's analysis of power comes dangerously close to blaming the victim. From a state of perpetual resistance, we have to move to a process of empowerment of the powerless to achieve a state of equality. The process of empowerment should itself be perpetual and always follow acts of resistance. Empowerment, to transform the existing social order, should be conceived as the means to seek power to, and not power over. As an example of this, the power exercised by one particular dominant group, which is oblivious to gender issues, could be opposed; this group's power base could then be taken over and used to challenge, resist, and act towards the transformation of such institutions in society which are committed to oppressing the dominated groups of that society. Power in itself is not negative: it is needed to resistand oppose militant force in order to effectively challenge oppression, exploitation and discrimination.

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 13
The notion of power itself has connotations that are divisive within feminist discourse. Externally wielded power, such as authority, coercion and repression, is different from internal powers such as the power of persuasion which subverts authority covertly and does difficult tasks without resorting to force. The concept of power has to be redefined and reconstituted not as dominance but as the ability to influence and transform situations through consensus. I call this "civil power" as opposed to political power which is coercive, aggressive and physical. However, the question of whether such expressions of covert power can intervene meaningfully in the process of statecraft begs an answer. Can women be content with such a covert power base? The project of transformation, in the last analysis, should also aim to revolutionise the concept of political power so as to create new meanings which are constructive.
Central to the question of power and repression is the argument that women's agency, both in their participation and in their representation, may become a meaningful and tactical device for transformation towards democratic processes and structures. Agency, then, would also imply having the qualities of capability and knowledge, both of which are required for any acts of transformation. The power of domination can then be transformed into a positive potential to act as agents and as an enabling force. Women's agency, by which I mean women (and for that matter all human beings) who have the ability and capacity to think and plan strategies for change and also to effect this change, should be re-examined and used more effectively. Women are not simply beings, but actors; for when women become agents and actors they are not passive. However, their potential to effect change is subjected to their position or placement within the categories of caste, class, race and ethnicity. There are different levels at which they intervene, hence women are not totally denied a space in which to act, even though traditional political theories have denied women this agency.
Though many feminists may opt for democracy as the end product of political struggles, in the Sri Lankan context of the 1977 insurgency and Tamil militancy, armed struggles have seen a strong female presence, both as ideologues and as armed participants. But between theory and practice there seems to be an unhappy gap. Rajani Thiranagama points out rather perceptively that our Society is hierarchically organised and steeped in male dominance. The organised liberation struggle is itself narrow, revivalistic and romantic, and is sprinkled with images of male heroes, all of

Page 16
14 Introduction
which works against bringing a feminist consciousness to the inner core of Such a movement. We also have records of the experiences of women in other national liberation struggles which further corroborate Rajani's conclusions (Eritrea, Cuba and Algeria are exemplary instances of national struggles which foreground women's participation during the conflict, and then fail to reward them with equal representation after freedom has been won).
This study is therefore intended to focus on issues of women's agency as participants in and representatives of political events and issues both in the democratic process and in the alternative armed struggles. The attempted interpretations should, in the final analysis, elucidate the factors that would contribute towards meaningful and effective participation and representation in the political process and charter a course of action for the women's movement to follow.
The research will focus on the implication of women's political agency as prime ministers, opposition leaders, cabinet ministers, members of parliament and members of political parties and women's wings. The interrogation will focus on Such questions as these: have they been collaborators in the patriarchal agenda? How far have they been co-opted into the power game? Has their ability/inability to challenge patriarchal institutions and value systems been the direct or the indirect result of their placement within an overall society or of their individual inability to act as agents despite access to power and authority? To what extent does the pressure from political parties and leaders act as a constraint in the exercise of their rights as women and as individuals? Is their subjectivity in conflict with their actions? The alliance of the state with civil society where there was political participation of women should also become an area of inquiry. Do women have independent political visions apart from those of the males in their families? How far do they pursue/resist the influence/indoctrination of their husbands, fathers, or brothers? The answers to these questions may become the subject of a core discourse on gender and politics.
An inquiry into the extent to which collaborative hegemony becomes instrumental for perpetuating patriarchal ideology and institutions should lead to a testing of Gramsci’s theory of ideology. According to Gramsci, ideology prevails as

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 15
common sense or as part of every day thought. Ideology organises and promotes Social cohesion by representing contradictions as unitary. The hegemonic thoughts of the dominant groups are presented as acceptable and then acted upon both through coercion and through consent. Hegemony, then, is the domination of a class/caste not by force but by extension beyond its narrow corporate interests, thereby creating a moral and intellectual leadership interacting with a number of allies. This explanation should also imply that not only are new systems created but existing structures of oppression are also contained and continued through the same arguments. They do not exclude a revival of old systems such as occurs in many nationalist movements which seek for their origins and roots.
Implied in this question is the assumption that an improvement in the status of women by legislation and policy decisions which lead to the development of a women's charter, such as the one which was proudly proclaimed in Sri Lanka recently, is a result of external pressure from the women's movement and international agencies such as the UN and its related institutions. Is this a containment strategy? Connected with this, an inquiry into the ideology and activities of the Women's Bureau and the Ministry of Women's Affairs becomes imperative.
These three areas, especially the last two, will be addressed within my discussion of socio-economic processes. Women in Sri Lanka, it should be noted, are divided ethnically and politically. Though caste and class should form the real basis of analysis, the ethnic division is more pronounced and ethnic identities have been co-opted in order to perpetuate patriarchal values. By subscribing to what are broadly termed as national politics, women are hopelessly divided along ethnic lines. Interestingly, within ethnic groups themselves, further divisions based on class and caste persist.

Page 17
CHAPTER II
Women's Agency in the Politics of Sri Lanka
The paradox of Sri Lankan politics is that, just when woman's political participation was abysmally low, the world’s first woman Prime Minister, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was elected after the assassination of her husband, Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, in September 1959. Sirimavo Bandaranaike was Prime Minister twice, from 1960-65 and again from 1970-77, and she was also the leader of the opposition. After the last election in November 1994, Sri Lanka's top leadership became exclusively female: the current Presidentis Chandrika Kumaratunga, her mother Sirimavo Bandaranaike is the Prime Minister. Explaining this phenomenon is not too difficult a task; in many South Asian countries, such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, women have been elected to the highest office. Since all of Sri Lanka's women leaders have come to power "over the dead bodies” of male relatives/partners, the theory of female succession which was propounded by Diane Kincaid in her article, "Over his Dead Body: A positive perspective on widows in the U.S. Congress” is clearly applicable to the Sri Lankan context. Kincaid's work has shown that between 1920-1970, several women legislators in the U.S. assumed political roles after the deaths of their husbands. In short, the ideology of patriarchy, which strongly values dynastic dynamics and family ties, has facilitated the choice of female political leaders. In addition, the wave of sympathy that was evoked by the manner in which politician husbands or fathers were killed, was used by party leaders to influence voters towards the election and

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 17
support of the bereaved wife/daughter. What is significant here is to identify the patriarchal exploitation of the human tendency to react emotionally at times of death, especially when that death is sudden and violent and brings with it the threat of instability or chaos. Patriarchal family ideals, which value continuity and the preservation of the status quo, have thus been legitimated by the electoral process.
It cannot always be assumed, Kincaid points out, that women are reluctant to take on positions of political prominence. In the case of the Sri Lankan mother and daughter who have attained political leadership, we see vastly different attitudes to power. If Sirimavo Bandaranaike's husband had survived, it is doubtful whether she would have entered politics. However, her daughter, whose husband Vijaya Kumaratunga was brutally murdered in 1988, had evidently shown an interest in politics long before his death. Another of Kincaid's insights is to ask whether, after leadership was forced on them by the power of the patriarchy, women politicians continued to act in support of this institution. This line of enquiry is extremely relevant to Sri Lanka. Both Bandaranaike and Kumaratunga have displayed qualities of courage, dynamism and leadership, and neither has been given to indecisiveness or obedience to male dictates. It is a different question to ask how far they were/are gender sensitive, conscious of gender inequalities, and committed to implementing strategies to achieve gender equality, since their engagement with these issues has been negligable. As women leaders, neither of them has, as yet, raised questions of gender equality, nor has there been much evidence that they wish to reinterpret traditional masculine power. In the case of Bandaranaike, one may argue that she emulated masculine power in crushing, rather ruthlessly, the youth uprisings of 1977. Her expulsion from Parliament in October 1980 after a presidential commission of inquiry found her guilty of charges of abuse of power, can also be seen as a sign that she plays the same political game as her male counterparts. In short, this brief analysis of Sri Lanka's female leadership should raise questions about women's actions when they wield political power, their commitment to dismantling the accepted dichotomies of masculine and feminine influence, and their lack of gender sensitivity. It appears, in the case of Sri Lanka, that women politicians and their parties work hand-in-hand to maintain the status quo. With this in mind, it will be seen that the recent nomination of Srimathie Dissananayake as the United National Party's presidential candidate, amidst opposition from the party ranks, was not a gesture towards gender equality but rather a piece of political manoeuvring

Page 18
18 Chapter II
that aimed to work on the sympathy evoked from the electorate after the brutal murder of her husband in October 1993.
The syndrome of political widows in Sri Lanka has to be analysed scrupulously. In all the cases where women inherited political power, there was disarray and disunity among the party members as to who should succeed an assassinated leader. Given the uncertainty of the circumstances, the decision to pick up the widows of murdered leaders was a temporary means towards political stability which relied on the fact that, in such moments of grief, no one would dare contest the selection/election of these women. Concepts of family ties and party ownership played a prominent part in the selection of the new political leader, and so the widows were persuaded to lead the party and take over power. Death, grief and emotionally charged circumstances were important factors in the selection of the new leader, and her election to power was intended to support the patriarchal ideology of the party. In the 1994 presidential election, voters had to choose between two widows, Chandrika Kumaratunga and Srimathie Dissanayake, which reflects the typical widow syndrome of South Asian politics. Dissanayake is the fourth widow to enter into politics and her candidature was an exemplary case of "over the dead body' as her husband Gamini Dissanyake, the Leader of the Opposition, had been assassinated on 24 October 1993: her candidature was filed even before he was cremated. The brutality of the political process, as seen in Dissanayake's murder, was followed by the use of his widow's name with exactly the same intent to exploit voters' sympathy as has been remarked on above. One of the results of this callous manipulation is the visible erosion of the principles on which democratically elected politicians usually rely, such as merit, leadership qualities and party procedures. In the case of every one of the widows who stood for election, voters' sympathy was elicited through references to the policies, sacrifices and martyrdoms of the dead leaders and party manifestos were full of appeals to elect these women in order to let them complete their husbands unfinished tasks. The widows had their husbands' photographs next to theirs in cut-outs in pamphlets and posters and in the news media. These commonalities between the campaigns of all the women cannot be simply dismissed as election gimmicks perpetrated for timely political gains; rather, they are Symptomatic of deeply entrenched patriarchal ideals and ideas based on parochial family loyalties and dynastic heritages. Only one of the women discussed above differs significantly from the others: Chandrika Kumaratunga, despite her claims

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 19
to both her late father's and her husband's glory, was a politician in her own right even while her husband was alive, and after his death, gained success in oppositional politics as party leader. It is on record that even as a student she was engaged in radical politics.
Women as Part of Civil Society
Agency--both in participation and in representation--has gender specific connotations in all patriarchal societies. Apart from the practical side, it also involves a psychological process, an analysis of which should bring out the varying gender dimensions of the behaviour of agents. In this study, the subjective components of such behaviour are deciphered through interviews conducted with about fifty women across five categories. The five categories are:
Women who are neither politically conscious nor active in politics; Women who are politically conscious but not active in politics; Women who are active in mainstream politics; Women who are involved in protest politics in the mainstream; Women who are active in alternative protest politics.
The first two categories of seemingly non-political participation are included to enable the clarification of some theoretical premises involved in understanding women's political agency. I also argue that members of the second category (that of politically conscious women), do in fact contribute to political agency through their consciousness and their place in specific socio-political arenas of leadership which are part of active civil society. Political participation is here defined more widely to include an analysis of how citizens of a polity express their political opinions on issues which are of relevance and significance to them. Hence I argue that feminism is a political strategy that insists on the change and transformation of the power relations embedded in asymmetrical gender relations; women who are involved in such a process are classified as political agents. The last three categories of active participation involve the following activities: holding political offices and active membership in mainstream political parties and organisations; active membership in socio-political organisations and pressure groups such as Human Rights groups, which consist of women and men

Page 19
20 Chapter II
who work towards social justice and equality and who participate in public meetings, demonstrations and peace marches. These groups are involved in democratic protest politics. The protest politics of the mainstream are mostly directed against the state with a view to influencing governmental decisions through democratic means.
The protests of the alternative polities are expressed through armed struggle and there are/were two such movements in Sri Lanka, namely the youth rebellion, called the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna insurgency. The foremost, and currently active movement, is that of the ethnic minority Tamils which is known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
It is perhaps an irony of history and politics that some of those, both men and women, who entered into politics lacked social consciousness and played the tune according to the dictates of power. They succumbed, very often, to such vices as corruption, opportunism, nepotism and favouritism. There remained, outside the fold of politics, articulate men and women who were politically wise and above vices, and whose political views led them to want to serve humanity. The category of politically conscious women (ten in number) falls neatly into this group, the group that is capable of a social articulation of political issues. These women, among whom are a Vice Chancellor, university lecturers, school principals, women activists, members of non governmental organisations and women who hold high administrative posts, have a well-developed civic consciousness but have stayed away from politics. Paradoxically, every one of them said that women's political participation is very low and that it should increase so that women could enter into decision-making government bodies and into the national legislature. This paradox needs a social explanation, as the reason why women in general are reluctant to take part in politics is explained by these women. Most of their reasons hold true for other women too.
Can we simply say that apathy and anomie are the reasons for political disinterestedness? This may be true for many men and women. Politics, for many, is confused, contradictory, propagandist, and too much of a problem. Mental laziness is very often coupled with a dislike for politics. Anomie may be explained as a lack of confidence, a feeling that an individual has no effective political role to play. Both anomie and apathy are present among women who feel inhibited about political participation because they do not basically realise the value of their individual self as

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 2 II
politically and socially worthy. A woman in patriarchal culture, dominated, Suppressed and burdened with double or triple tasks, may feel reluctant to assert her civic rights. This was the case of the second group, which consisted of twenty women to whom I spoke individually. Their lack of participation in politics, even to the point of not voting, is indeed startling. These women are from the low income group of part time and full time domestic helpers; they were often forced by husbands to vote for a particular candidate whose names they had to memorise and keep in mind when they went to the polling booths to vote. A lackof socio-economic power has contributed to their feeling of social, economic and political worthlessness.
Women, it would seem, avoid politics at all class levels, but for different reasons. Politics is tough and rough, and it has become violent in Sri Lanka. The brutalisation of Sri Lankan society has had a special impact on politics of late. Traditionally, women have not been socialised to handle violence. Politics is a dirty game and it is, increasingly, too dangerous. Not only is physical violence involved in politics, but another type of violence, character assassination--a tactic directed specifically against women--was mentioned by six who had fallen victim to it.
Character assassination, which hints at women politicians' liaSons with men, has kept many a women away from politics. The purity of women is a social value which is honoured and held in high regard in Sri Lanka. By entering into politics, women can tarnish their image and thereby bring their family into disrepute. They can also be accused of being impure by political opponents who can, in no time at all, collect pseudo-data to substantiate their case. This can cause untold psychological suffering, and is a direct result of the patriarchal value system. Women, unlike men (who are also frequent victims of character assassination), are not socialised to deal with problems of this nature. By succumbing to threats from socially deviant citizens, women are forsaking another right, the right to enter into politics. Slander is commonly aimed at women even in non-political situations such as in the work place and social activities. Even housewives are not spared this. But a public character assassination has broader implications as a woman's family, feeling their honour to be at stake, will frequently pressurise her and suppress her desire to enter politics. Women, more than the men, are considered to be carriers of family traditions and the honour of the family.

Page 20
22 Chapter II
"Politics is very demanding in terms of energy, time and resources: women are not up to finding these." What prevents women's political participation? Family responsibilities, husbands refusing permission, a lack of financial resources, patriarchal structures such as the family, and traditions which view a woman politician as a "she man" are the most important factors. Three women were emphatic in saying that they were very keen to take topolitics, and two of them, having come from political families, had a real aptitude for it. But they could not. One woman cherished her husband's friendship and support above political life and the other woman, whose husband was active in politics as a party leader, felt, having seen the husband making himself available twenty hours a day for party politics, that her own involvement would mean that she would neglect their children. One woman said that her instincts are pushing her into politics, but that she is scared of the dangers. Two others said that they were just not inclined to get into active party politics as they have aptitudes in life for such things as research and academic studies. Out of ten women, all of them except one said they were interested in politics. Five of them are highly interested and four very interested, but even so, none of them was involved in politics. Sadly, for the future of Sri Lankan politics, it is exactly this group which exhibited a highly developed political consciousness on gender issues and on politics in general.
Theorising
The reasons given by women for involving themselves actively in politics through electioneering and party politics can be broadly divided into two major groups, which can be labelled external and internal. That politics, being "tough, rough and violent", leads to character assassination, and that there is a general lack of resources to help one gain access to political life, are external reasons for non-participation. Simultaneously, family responsibilities, including child care and the husband's noncooperation, are internal factors based on the structure and ideology of the family. At a deeper level, the reasons fall into the dichotomy of public and private spheres and are constructed from a patriarchal culture whose restraints are internalised by women. The plea to share family responsibilities has again been shelved. Disobeying a husband to fulfil a desire and a right dear to one's heart has once again become a socially difficult task. Women fear public slander more than men do because the ideologies of purity and chastity weigh unreasonably and more damagingly on Women. Again, we

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 23
see how women are not challenging one-sided patriarchal expectations and are succumbing to a psychosis of fear. However, the idea that politics should be feminised leads once again into the trap of a dichotomy. If women were to see themselves as capable of entering politics in numbers to cleanse it of its roughness, toughness and violence, this would be a better alternative to the current apathy. This is certainly not to assume that all women in politics will be free from toughness and roughness and violence. Neither can we assume that all women politicians will be gender sensitive.

Page 21
CHAPTER III
Political Articulation and the Agency of NonPolitical Women
My selection of the ten professional women as subjects for interviews is not the result of class bias, because the nature of the political articulation that is needed for my analysis required a high standard of awareness of socio-political gender issues. The other twenty women who were selected to participate in my assessment of the levels of women's political participation in Sri Lanka have no understanding of the politics of gender, even in such apparently obvious areas as wage differentials and the need to regulate the wages, working hours and holidays of those in domestic Service. Theirs was a case of anomie and apathy which resulted from their personal problems. They are not politicised, even though it may be assumed that the level of non-politicisation differs from men to women in their class. This, however, has to be researched further.
Political Articulation and Women's Agency
The ten professional women were asked very specific questions so as to generate discussions on politically relevant issues. When feminists insist on women's political leadership and participation, the assumption behind their insistence is that they will bring gender issues into the political realm. When they were asked whether they think

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 25
women political leaders, such as the premiere and the minister for women's affairs, have contributed towards the improvement of the status of women in Sri Lanka, nine out often women categorically stated that women leaders have not given due attention to gender issues in their programmes. They had analysed the Sri Lankan situation for over fifteen years, and rightly concluded that having women as political leaders does not necessarily mean that women's problems will be sufficiently addressed. The same argument holds water in a consideration of the state mechanisms that are instituted for women's programmes. In Sri Lanka we have the Women's Bureau, the Ministry for Women's Affairs and, most recently, a Women's Committee which is tied up to a women's charter. The charter was drafted with the extensive participation of women from all ranks and the women's committee was appointed by the government to oversee the implementation of the charter. What was interesting in the responses of my interviewees was the vagueness and scepticism with which they answered questions about the usefulness and effectiveness of these state institutions. They were careful not to indulge in overt criticisms, nor were they categorical about the effectiveness of these institutions. Four of them admitted frankly that despite the large sums of money spent, and the extensive preparations made to set up the Women's Bureau, the overall impact of these on women was negligible since the efforts of the Bureau were sporadic and isolated. Six women expressed similarly negative views on the Ministry of Women's Affairs, although the other four were vague on this subject. Three women, who were from the women's committee which was formed to oversee the implementation of the Women's Charter, expressed the most disappointment at its shortcomings. The Charter, although approved by the cabinet, was not passed by the legislature and hence does not have the power of a legal document. The main obstacle towards the process of ratification comes, ironically, from the Ministry for Women's Affairs.
The manner in which the women's charter was treated, the manner in which the women's committee was delayed in its effective functioning, and the callous attitude of the Ministry of Women's Affairs to both of these are nothing new as far as state ideology is concerned. There has always been a non-cooperative attitude to gender issues on the part of the state. The space between women's conscience and bureaucratic state conscience has been, and continues to be, static. The state wants to ignore conflicts as long as it can contain them. A critical analysis of gender issues, of which the women's charter is an embodiment, fails to be fed into political activities or into policy decisions and implementations. Here is a case of the anomie and apathy of the state

Page 22
26 Chapter III
when civil society itself is active, participatory and intensively action- oriented. This governmental apathy may once again push the women's movement into becoming an alternative movement from within which women will strategise in order to counteract discriminatory practices, gender inequalities and oppressive structures. Does this mean that involvement in politics is conceptually and practically invalidated for the women's movement? This notion makes the women outside the committee sceptical of the need for the charter and the committee.
The views expressed by the women I interviewed further validate the assumption held by feminists that the state, in most cases, is patriarchal. They also second the view expressed above that having women politicians does not necessarily mean that adequate attention is being paid to gender issues. Gender awareness comes from having the right people, men or women, in the right places.
On the issue of violence against women in Sri Lanka, the ten women were found to be highly responsive and they had suggestions for dealing with the problem. Developmental projects organised by the state, such as the FreeTrade Zone and tourism, were subject to critique. The interviewees acknowledged the advantages of foreign exchange and the economic empowerment of women which came about as a result of these projects, but suggested ways and means of improving women's working conditions and instituting protective legislation and trade unions for women workers. The same progressiveness was extended to women workers on the rubber plantations, as well as to domestic workers and war widows. Training in skills, compensation, trade union membership, regulation of wages and the granting of leave and holidays were seen as ways of alleviating women's specific problems. Two other issues that merited attention were the plight of women prisoners and the role of women in the armed struggle. Women prisoners received sympathetic treatment and ways and means were suggested to integrate them into society. Five women out of the ten approved of women taking to arms to fight a cause. One woman argued that, if women are inducted into military service and into the police, then there should be no ideological barriers for them to take to arms to fight for a cause. It is obvious that we are moving, once again, into an arena which questions the dichotomy of femininity/masculinity. On the question of whether there should be reservations for women on a quota system to enter politics, five were for it and five against it, the latter arguing for a system based on merit.

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 27
On contemporary (relevant) issues that need to be addressed, these women had meaningful opinions and good suggestions to make. Night work for women, women's need to be sufficiently politicised, homes for battered women, and women's involvement and contributions towards solving the ethnic problem of Sri Lanka, are issues on which they had definite policy statements and decisive stands--both of which are seriously lacking among our women politicians.
The point I am trying to make here is that the arguments, suggestions, solutions and deliberations of these ten women comprise political statements made by women who are not only politically conscious and articulate on gender issues, but also have political agency even though they are not actively involved in politics. Placed socially and professionally at strategic points in Sri Lankan society, they do, because their opinions are political, influence opinion. And these women, unlike women in politics who are not demonstrating any consciousness of gender issues, are committed to gender equity. Here, the discourse on power becomes relevant again, because these highly articulate women have no power to implement their strategies and suggestions. Hence, as feminists, what we should argue for is not a resistance to power, since resisting the power of political men and women may not result in the implementation of our will. Rather, we should argue that having the power to enact a progressive feminist agenda is the need of the hour. There is, therefore, a need for politically conscious women to enter politics with a commitment to transform the status quo. This should also illustrate the futility of having more women in politics unless they are gender politicised. The concept of power needs to be redefined: since power and governance or rulership usually go hand in hand, this connotes a need for authority and an ability to wield the stick and to use force to make others comply with orders. But one also needs power to correct and rectify improper and wrong doings. Understanding this allows one to see power as a means to uphold respect and dignity.
Housewives’ Politics
The category of housewives is rather intriguing. In the selection of subjects for this category there was an implicit assumption that they would be different from the other women surveyed. The word housewife, no doubt, connotes images of women

Page 23
28 Chapter III
who are inside the house, who are not exposed to the public realm, and who, being overburdened with children and house-making, have no avenue to other vocations. Most often, the term also smacks of a conservatism. Without pleading that I am innocent of these assumptions, I deliberately chose to include women from this category in my survey, not only to add them to the number of women studied but also to ascertain whether housewives are under patriarchal control in being politicised or non-politicised, or whether they are so by choice. And lastly, I wanted to find out how much of the private/public dichotomy has been internalised by them.
Of the ten women interviewed under the category of housewives, only four Said that they make their own choice rather than voting with their husbands. For three women, the husbands always decided on the choice of candidates. Three of them were vague and unwilling to accept that their husbands decided for them. They felt that this was wrong, but may only have realised this at the time the question was posed to them. All but two said they were not interested in politics, although they do vote in elections. None of them attends meetings or demonstrations. In the words of one woman, “there will be rowdies and thugs at election meetings and election meetings are dangerous.” This statement, apart from being an excuse, also sounded like an attempt not to confront her political apathy directly.
If they are not interested in politics, how do these housewives choose the candidates for whom they will vote? The criteria for the selection of candidates are very simple for these women. In their words, those who promise to bring down the cost of living, those who promise to get rid of corruption, and those with whom they are aquintanted, or who have a family connection, are their candidates of choice. Surprisingly, (or should it be expected?) there was no mention of class, ethnic or gender issues influencing their decisions. In fact, the general lethargy towards gender in Sri Lanka is mirrored in the fact that party manifestos so far, with one exception, have not mentioned gender. After the resounding victory of Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunge in the last election, the B.B.C. correspondent complimented Sri Lankan voters on their literacy and sophistication. This, however, is true only in the sense that ethnic chauvinism was totally rejected and people voted for peace. There is certainly no evidence to determine how women perceived Kumaratunge's candidature.

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 29
On the question of women's entry into politics, the opinions expressed were somewhat similar to those of other women I interviewed, with the emphasis shifting, however, more to questions around family responsibilities and children. Women cannot enter politics, many of the housewives said, because:
Home will be neglected; Children will be neglected; Women's reputations may be tarnished; Politics is a dirty game; Women are not strong; Women cannot address meetings; Women have no time.
Having talked about the reasons for women's non-involvement in detail, they concluded that only under certain conditions can women enter politics. Women can think of entering politics only when their children are grown up and if they have familial support. One of the interviewees stated:
The degeneration of moral values and the widespread violence in society have to be stopped; women should stay at home and look after the family and children, they have to bring them up as good and decent children. Hence mothers should not enter politics.
This view was shared, and expressed rather elaborately, by five of the women. It seemed, from what they were saying, that men have been entirely exempted from any duties towards their children. "But it would be a good idea if more women enter into politics' was the ambivalent conclusion of this discussion with the five women.
Apart from legitimising the private/public dichotomy, these women also talked of the political incapacity of females. This was revealed in the expression of ideas that women are not strong and are unable to speak eloquently at election meetings. The extent to which they have internalised male values is just one side of the picture: one can also see that the overall absence of women (except the premier, the president, one minister and a few deputy ministers and provincial councilors) in the political scenario, has also been interpreted by this group of women as a sign of the incapacity of women

Page 24
30 Chapter III
to enter male domains. The truth, however, is that able and strong women have been avoiding politics for various other reasons, one of which is even philosophical. In politics, one woman said, there is "too much propaganda, too much untruth, too much self praise and egoism, too much blind loyalty and subjection to strict party discipline.' These compromises are not to be expected from women who have their own will and wisdom.
The conclusion I am compelled to draw from observing the process of internalisation and the wrong assumptions of so many of my interviewees, is that the absence of women from politics has further contributed to their marginalisation in the political process. The few women in Sri Lankan politics are merely exceptions who came into politics via their husbands' or their family connections or their membership of the upper class. The "family support” that two women spoke of as necessary for women to enter into politics is merely this patriarchal dynastic phenomenon that is common to many of the female political leaders in Sri Lanka, with a few exceptions. This phenomenon, it would seem, has acted as an impediment for other women who are not supported by such socio-political conditions. Women's political agency in this respect is thwarted, which has curtailed the dynamic and powerful aspects of the transformative politics that feminists are keen to have. One has certainly to differentiate between situational constraints and structural constraints, and to realise that gender socialization, which has constructed images of the feminine that are opposed to "unfeminine' qualities such as ambition, aggression and competitiveness, is not the only reason for women's political apathy. The absence of role models among ordinary Sri Lankan women is likely to be another reason for women's political inhibition. Apart from the actual socio-economic and cultural factors such as the burden of child bearing and rearing and the lack of economic resources for election campaigns, the ideological factors that militate against women participating in politics are most significant. As child bearing and rearing are not perpetual barriers for women, who will pass through that stage of life sooner or later, one must conclude that there is a subtle process of self-exclusion imposed by women themselves which is due partly to the domination of the public by men, and partly to their own internalisation of patriarchal values, the driving force of which is concern for children, family and

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 3 II
husband. The historical development of such a thought process cannot be ignored. Having developed over several generations, it has the force of legitimacy gained through the strength of continuity. But what we are concerned with, is its connections to the truth. Intervention becomes necessary when a statement's verity is analysed. The theory constructed by women to explain their non-participation in politics is not a reflection of reality, but evasiveness--a fear of entering new horizons. Their knowledge about, and interest in politics, and their perception of its relevance for women, (despite their so-called incompetence) have all flowed from a thought process which has defined women's understanding of the concepts of public and private. Family and motherhood, conceptually a part of a very powerful language, are intertwined into a series of other constructions.
The housewives' reactions, it should be emphasised, are different from those of the illiterate working class, the domestic aides, who do not have any reasons to hide from reality and are free from inhibitions. They are under no social compulsion to create an image of themselves as acceptable and honourable. The housewives' rhetoric is similar to that in Piyadasa Sirisena's Sinhala novel (1940) (Jayawardene 1994: 135) where he says that bad women are those who travel on their own, attend political gatherings and address public meetings. The image of a good Sinhala woman as constructed in this novel is still in existence fifty four years later, and is now attested to by the women themselves.

Page 25
CHAPTER IV
Mainstream Parliamentary Politics and Women
Women's political involvement in the mainstream democratic process, it would appear, has consistently followed very clear class lines. From the beginning of Sri Lankan history, queens and princesses have ruled at various times. Some, like Vihara Mahadevi, have been honoured as noble and patriotic, and a few, such as Parakramabahu's queen consort and Kalyanawati, queen consort of Nissankamala (Vimala de Silva 1979:551) as good decision makers. This strong female presence was reflected at a later date when the women from the Ceylon National Congress formed themselves into The Women's Franchise Union to demand universal adult Suffrage by articulating a particular gender specific need, that of redressing the high infant mortality rate and the need for child welfare and midwifery (S.W.R.D. Bandaranayake 1928:177). The women who were instrumental informing the Franchise Union were all from aristocratic families. Interestingly, these women were actively supported and encouraged by their husbands and sons, who participated in national politics (De Silva 1979:553). Playing an active part in national politics at the beginning of political participation in Ceylon, it has to be admitted, enhanced the elitist and Social image of both men and women. However, class and elitism were not the only dimension to this process of inducting women into politics. Patriarchal and dynastic elements, as discussed above, have also shaped the emergence of women leaders in this country, a trend which continues to the present day. What is significant is the level

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 33
of education of the women involved in national politics, which demonstrates that they clearly understood the politics of rights and the international scenario. The educational level of the women in the Temperance Movement in 1912 and in 1915 in the Young Lanka League, which was the forerunner of the Ceylon Labour Party, was as significant as their class position. The Suriyamal campaign, which was started as a countercampaign against the sale of poppies to assist British Soldiers was the training ground for the rise of the leftist, socialist movement in Sri Lanka which spearheaded activities against British imperialism. For the first time, women entered into radical politics. Education, class position, and the husbands' and male relatives' influence were all equally important in shaping the radical political consciousness of these women. They became vocal and visible and a variety of Women's Organisations emerged ie. the Mothers' Union, the Ceylon Women's Union, the Young Women's Christian Association (Y.W.C.A.) the Women's Franchise Union, the Women's Political Union and the Lanka Mahila Samiti are some of these. Women activists like Sarojini Naidu and Kamaladevi Chattopadyaya (from India) who visited the island and Dr. Mary Rutnam, Hilda Kularatne, Doreen Wickremasinghe and many other non-nationals who lived and served in the country inspired these women of the Left movement.
In the 1930's the activities and aspirations took on an intensity which made them restless with mere education, employment and franchise rights and spurred them to challenge capitalist exploitation and raise claims for social equality for women, the minorities and the marginalised castes. They sought not only political reform but also freedom for the country from the grips of imperialism.
The formation of the Eksath Kantha Peramuna (the United Women's Front) EKP was another great event in the history of political trends in the country for this was the first autonomous socialist women's group in Sri Lanka. This party asserted its socialist policies in its declaration seeking changes in the fundamental structure of society. (Jayawardena, 1995:256) These women continued to take part in active politics as members of parliament and as cabinet ministers.
Post-colonial Sri Lanka presented a mixed scenario. In parliamentary politics, the representation of women both in the legislature and in the cabinet was low. In 1977, only four women were elected to the National Assembly and from 1931-1979

Page 26
34 Chapter IV
there were only three female ministers and one district minister although we had the world's first woman prime minister in 1960. At another level, however, high levels of politicisation were witnessed in 1972. Political analysts concluded that it was the women voters who were responsible for defeating the government, which had consistently rejected the demands of the people to lower the cost of living.
Women's Representation in Political Structures
The women who were interviewed gave some reasons for keeping away from politics, among which socio-economic and socio-cultural constraints appeared as structural impediments. The heavy burden of child bearing and rearing, and the lack of independent financial resources which are necessary for electioneering, were mentioned as the most important exclusionary factors. The latter can be clearly seen in the predominance of upper class women politicians which has been a continuous feature of Sri Lankan history. It is not surprising, then, that women who have assumed political leadership have two commonalities, namely the same class background and the fact that they belong to families where men, whether husbands, brothers or sons, were already active in politics.
Because of these structural impediments, women's entry into parliamentary politics has been lower than that of any other comparable fields where women have broken new ground. Political parties have women's wings but few women have been nominated by the party to contest elections. Except for Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Chandrika Kumaranatunga, who headed political parties after their husbands were murdered and who are presently in power as Prime minister and President of the country, Sri Lankan political parties have not been headed by women leaders. An examination of the statistical records kept by the department of elections reveals the small percentage of women candidates who contested and won both at nation level and in local government elections. The total number of women who contested elections in 1970 and in 1977 was 14, while the total number of men in 1970 was 410 and in 1977, 730, the percentage of women being 03.4 and 01.9 respectively. The percentage of women candidates in the provincial council elections of 1989 was 2.80 (De Silva 1979:82-86), while the percentage was 3.43 in the local governmental elections and 3.15 in the urban council elections in 1987. The percentage in the general elections

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 35
increased to 3.2 in 1989, but dwindled to 2.7 in 1994. The number of women ministers in the cabinet also shows an irregular pattern of rise and fall. In 1977 it was 7.1%, in 1989 only 3.7%, and currently the percentage has shot up to 13.7%
Despite their poor showing as speakers, debaters and elected party officials, women are highly visible within the activities of political parties. They do appear in numbers under the party flags, and at rallies, demonstrations, May Day celebrations and peace marches. It would appear that they are playing secondary roles and do not form part of the decision making bodies. However, my interviews with the party women have revealed several interesting facts which conflict with the general theory of marginalisation to which we are constantly exposed, because the women interviewees in this category belong to political parties which have contested parliamentary elections.
Subjective Perceptions of Women Politicians
One of my interviewees, who belonged to a party which she claimed was "revolutionary", was inducted into politics by her "progressive' father who took her to political meetings and even encouraged her to appear as a speaker on political platforms. She took part in student politics at the University and often came into conflict with the authorities, who once asked her why she could not behave like any other women. She later joined a revolutionary party which took a positive stand on the ethnic question and had visions of radical transformation and gender equality. As a committed feminist, what attracted her was the stand the party leadership took on gender issues and on the woman question. The liberation of women is a priority issue of the party and she was one of the members who was responsible for broadbasing this issue as part of the party's wider political agenda in day to day activities. She viewed this as a bold step because the idea of women's liberation is in conflict with the traditional patriarchal views of rural society in Sri Lanka. She maintained emphatically that the party stood by her all along on gender issues. As with any other controversial issue, the party took it upon itself to talk to and conscientise voters on the subject of women's liberation. "I contested election on various issues: women's liberation, democratic politics and means towards solving the ethnic problem of Sri Lanka," she said. Interestingly, when she went to campaign, the men in vehicles that went ahead of her announced, "Here comes the champion of women's lib! Long live women's lib! We are for women's lib!"

Page 27
36 Chapter III
However, she had many complaints. She argued that Sri Lankan feminists want to have an easy life. They avoid challenges and will not join pickets and rallies. The women's movement does not encourage women to take part in politics, and feminists do not join together on the ethnic question, or on human rights or environmental issues. In short, she blamed women for being apolitical because they want to avoid political problems; contrary to views that women are being marginalised, she believes that while political parties are ready to recognise the woman question as a priority, it is women themselves who are avoiding politics because they fear publicly treading on conflicting and confrontational grounds. She calls such women "elitist and middle class” who criticise the trade unions and the political parties as male dominated, while they themselves do not try to dismantle this male domination by making a meaningful entry into political activism.
The fact that she is a single woman and has had the right kind of political backing and patronage are factors which have contributed in important ways to her political activism. Her clear and loud articulation of the problem with women and politics, it may be added, is due to her long involvement in the women's movement, feminist organisations and leftist political parties.
It was the unresolved prolonged ethnic division of Sri Lanka that prompted another single woman to stand for election. She emphasised that the fact that her age, her marital status, and the fact that she had been in a role of power as Principal of a girls' college, were important factors in her decision to enter politics. She was in a position to spend money and she added that the availability of financial resources was most important if one wanted to succeed in politics. The fact that Sri Lanka has a woman Prime Minister was an added inspiration for her. She fervently hoped that by entering parliament she could make a contribution towards the resolution of the ethnic conflict and also take up numerous other unresolved issues.
As I have mentioned, the widow syndrome is common in South Asian politics. Two of the interviewees in this study are the widows of murdered political leaders, and both have had very similar experiences. Both stood for election in 1994. One woman, who was the wife of a popular M.P., lost her bid for power, while the other, whose husband had been aparty leader, became the Minister for the Environment and Women's Affairs. The latter woman was asked to become the leader of the party which her

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 37
husband had led, and the other decided on her own to become politically active. She said, "One thought was circling in my mind--I had to enter politics and carry on the work of my husband which was unfinished.” The Minister, when asked to lead her husband's party, expressed similar feelings: "I had to do something to help all those who believed in my husband, all those who believed in his vision.” However, both women said that they had never had any desire to enter into politics while their husbands were alive. They had been content with being housewives.
At present, Sri Lankan women are waiting to see how much of the vision of the Minister for Women Affairs will be implemented in legislation for the benefit of women. It is obvious, however, that both my interviewees have very clear perceptions of women's problems and convincing arguments on ways to address these concerns. Gender issues get the least attention in the parties of which these two women are members, and both are keen to build up the women's wing and promote gender awareness among the cadres. At present, neither of the interviewees is happy with the women's wing of her party. The Minister, by virtue of the fact that she was the assassinated leader's wife, was accepted by her party, and for her, the process of taking leadership was easy. But the other woman had had to fight her way up in the party ranks because she had held no position before her husband's death. Being a woman was difficult within this party as party members did not appreciate a woman entering politics and holding a key position. Despite this, she is now the secretary of the Colombo branch of her party. She admitted frankly:
I would not be thought of as an equal candidate or person because I am a woman; the party is male dominated and women have hardly any role to play in decision making.
Importantly, she has realised that the party was willing to accept her because of the sympathy votes she would bring along with her. In a way, she accused the maledominated party of having used her precisely because of these sympathy votes. But because her husband was only an M.P., her position is different from that of the leader's wife.
A little probing into the implications of the "widow syndrome" brings out very clear patriarchal visions. Apart from the manner of succession there are other factors

Page 28
38 Chapter III
worth taking note of. The male leader's wife succeeded him as leader and assumed his position of power and rank. The M.P's wife, lacking this advantage, has had to fight her way up. Her political career was not determined by the party but was her own decision, the decision of a single woman. Nevertheless, the sympathy she has in the community was instrumental in her being accepted by the party. Both parties, for the sake of party success and to ensure continuity, were willing to accept women as leaders and politicians--without recognising women's rights perse within their party policy. These women by themselves, however, have articulated very clear gender perceptions on matters like violence and rape, the women's charter and the economic policies of the state which are detrimental to women. But there are no meeting points on these issues within their own parties.
Another two of the women I interviewed revealed even more interesting information about the role of women in politics. Both women belong to the same leftist party: one is a veteran debater and holds a position in the party. The other has long been a politician, was M.P. more than once, and even commands the respect of her political opponents. There are a great many differences between the maturity of the two. The woman M.P. is very much alive to women's problems at both national and international levels. She took up, issue after issue, such problems as sex tourism and prostitution, discrimination against female migrant workers, Free Trade Zone workers, women working on estates and domestic aides who are sent to the Middle East, and rape and violence against women. She was of the opinion that the women's wings of political parties should put gender equality on the agenda. As a veteran politician and unrepentant socialist, she is an advocate for gender equality because she is convinced that working class women also suffer from discrimination and face gender specific problems such as sexual harassment and rape in the workplace. She was also of the opinion that women should get together by organising around issues.
The other interviewee, however, did not think along the same lines. She was critical of women who organise separately and felt that there is no need to have a. separate Ministry for Women's Affairs. She emphasised that the women's wings in her political party were there only to educate the women about Marxism and not women's liberation. Ironically, this woman was working for a women's organisation, but in arguing against Women's separate organisation she is, perhaps, simply echoing the views of some men who are leftists and who hold the view that feminists are

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 39
dividing the struggle and that men and women should organise and work for salvation together.
Time and again feminists have argued against this male leftist position, contending that women lack control and mastery over their lives and that there are too many constraints on women for them to to act in unity with men. Women are generally prevented from challenging the existing order and that is why their separate political action is needed. The power structure of politics has to be invaded and stabilised by women so that they can pose challenges to the existing order from a position of strength. The current patriarchal political order denies women the right to speak of their individual experiences of discrimination and oppression or to articulate the conflicting interests between men and women. It also prevents the women from forming collective actions as women. At present, when women join men on issues of common oppression, like ethnic or class divisions, then women are coopted easily, welcomed, and used. Yet when women speak out against gender-specific oppression, they are treated as divisive elements and are told that they are threatening a solidary that is based on class or ethnicity. It is never accepted that for women, a common platform legitimises agency, and this collective agency empowers them. This kind of separatism allows the development of a positive identity which collects multiple agencies into action; that this multiple agency should have a political nexus is our argument.
As part of a tentative conclusion, it could be said that the fact that all the women who articulated political visions are single or have political connections through their husbands and other family members, is an important one since it means they have either direct or indirect connections to a patriarchal system. To emphasise this conclusion, it should be recalled that the so-called politically active woman who articulated anti-feminist positions and argued against the separate organisation of women is merely parroting patriarchal views which are sometimes shared by leftists.

Page 29
CHAPTER V
Women's Democratic Protest Movements and their Political Message
Peculiar situations in Sri Lankan politics have contributed to the emergence of women's political movements both in the South and the North of Sri Lanka. Women have not only actively participated in the armed struggle, but have also organised themselves, exclusively as women, for political reasons and to fight state terrorism. When the political history of the post-colonial period in Sri-Lanka is written, let us hope that historians take note of these phenomena.
While feminist praxis has rejected the idea of women's "duty” and the responsibilities of wife and motherhood which were placed exclusively on women, restricting and confining their identities, the women of Sri Lanka have used the roles of wife and mother symbolically in their protest movements. At the beginning of Tamil militancy, the Sri Lankan state ruthlessly hunted down the youth, but, despite the fact that women too had taken to arms within the militant movement, the state had not relinquished the ideology that men alone are capable of direct political confrontation and violence. Large numbers of innocent youths, who were non-combatant civilians, were arrested, tortured and killed. Torture was used extensively to subdue them into

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 41
confession and to get evidence about those who collaborated and sympathised with the militant struggle. Young men, especially, were targeted. The situation was so bad that the state came under severe criticism from local and international human rights agencies, which focused public attention on the large number of disappearances both in the North and the South of Sri Lanka.
The manner in which the army retaliated whenever state organs, such as police offices, army camps or the banks were attacked, was to go berserk and kill whichever youth and men were in sight, on the streets, on roads in the market, in shops and in schools. Mothers lost their sons and young wives their husbands. Every youth in the country was suspected of terrorism or viewed as a potential terrorist. The situation was very grave, and the statistics of those who had disappeared or been killed were frightening. Ordinary, non-political women became radically politicised by seeing and hearing of the killings and torture, but the dominant reason for this politicisation came from the experience of being either a mother or a wife. This political phenomenon centres around the traditional family structure but has/had introduced to it the radicalisation and militancy of direct political intervention, the specifics of which I shall now discuss. There emerged two Mothers' Fronts: the one in Jaffna, in the North, was formed in 1983 and was soon followed by the one in the South.
The Mothers’ Front in the North
Two women who were founder members of the Mothers' Fronts were interviewed to get their perspective of what happened, as opposed to the views of outsiders which were given wide publicity in the media of the time. In the words of one of them:
People were terrified but they were absolutely helpless, no organisation came forward to take up issues...but there was a lot of talking. “What can we do?' 'How to stop this?'...but since the men were the special targets they were afraid. Some of them left Jaffna. No one with leadership could defy the state terrorism or raise questions. Some of us, women also, got together and talked matters over. We were also afraid, confused, but we felt that we should organise and we did exactly that. There were many who discouraged us. They thought we were being silly and stupid inviting the guns and playing dangerously with a ruthless army. They thought we would be killed. But some

Page 30
42 Chapter V
of us thought that as mothers we have to protect our innocent sons. At this juncture terrible things happened, our quest for political intervention was triggered and the process was quickened. At one instance the mothers were asked to come with their children and with their national identity cards. Being very innocent and with hopes that their children would be safe, the mothers gathered in numbers with children and with national identity cards. The army got the boys in to check their identities while the mothers waited and the young boys were taken away...Many were tortured and some killed. Village after village was surrounded by the army. The Mothers' Front, as it was called, was getting organized when this happened and it was very easy at this juncture to get the mass support of the mothers whose sons were arrested. Many of them were traumatised. Though the army released many boys, the experience of arrest and torture that the sons underwent made their mothers also join forces with the Mothers' Front. When, in one instance, 630 young men were taken, many women were motivated to join the Mothers' Front.
Two events merit attention as far as the political actions of the Mothers' Front were concerned. In June 1984, the Mothers' Front organised a march with nearly 10,000 women participants who confronted the Government Agent of Jaffna and demanded that their sons be released immediately. After some deliberation, the Government Agent assured them that action would be taken forthwith. No amount of persuasion by the Government Agent to disperse the Mothers' Front yielded any result. The women insisted, in no uncertain terms, that they meant business. The principles of democracy and human rights were used as arguments for the fair and just treatment of Sri Lankan citizens. The mothers very clearly distinguished themselves as citizens of Sri Lanka and insisted that they were different from the rank and file of the liberation movement. Dissatisfied with the delaying tactics of the Government Agent who tried to stall by obtaining the release of a few youths, the mothers marched again on August 24th in protest against the arrests of 500 innocent youths who were suspected of "terrorist activities' after a few naval officers were shot at by militants. Nearly two thousand women, with banners which said "give us our sons back,' stormed the Government Agent's office in Jaffna demanding the release of the youths detained by the security forces. The protest march yielded only partial and momentary results but left a permanent impact on the activities of the state which slowed down arbitrary arrests and began to use some discretion in the arrests of youths.

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 43
Before I discuss the demise of the Mothers' Front, the important factors of this process of radical politicisation have to be considered. The politicisation of Women did not spring from the fact that they were biological mothers. Not all the mothers who marched had sons who were arrested or tortured, and many members of the Front were women who extended their solidarity and support to those who had lost Sons. Because of the political situation, many fathers had temporarily abdicated their rights, roles and duties towards their sons. The first march also employed symbols of another aspect of women's lives, for when the mothers marched they carried broomsticks to symbolize both their domestic supremacy and the removal of dirt, dust and rubbish: the protesters insisted on the removal of political discrimination and oppression and demanded an end to the violation of human rights in Sri Lanka. The Mothers' Front received wide publicity in both Sri Lankan and international media, which gave importance to this group for two reasons. Firstly, they emphasised the fact that the women had acted bravely in a climate of state terrorism and repression when many men, politicians and civilians were silenced by the power of the gun. Secondly, the fact that they were women was also given undue weight, which signified that women and politics are separate and usually do not go together. The Saturday Review of 25th August 1984 reported the event on the front page and commented, with rather typical bias, that "the significance was that it was entirely a mothers' affair without stressing the women's political involvement at all. How could such events as the massive march, petitions of protest, the brave conviction to fight and question stateterrorism and the clarity of vision that characterised this movement be classified as non-political? How can the very fact of political involvement against the state to demand fair treatment in the name of democracy, human rights and clean politics, be referred to as coming from a group "with no political involvement at all”? It was ablatant denial of the very political force of women. Surprisingly, the writer of the article missed not only the processes of politicisation and radicalisation which the marches demonstrated, but also the impact that such confrontations had on the political scenario. The two marches are symbolic of women's political awareness of their rights and their realisation that they have to act politically with action-oriented programmes based on a collective identity.
The demise of the Mothers' Front also signifies another phenomenon which has gendered overtones. When the Mothers' Front was in action, the liberation fighters gave it their covert support, for it gave wide publicity to state repression in the North,

Page 31
44 Chapter V
which fact was used by the liberation group as grounds for separation and self determination. But when the Mothers' Front was gaining popularity on its own merits as a democratic organisation apart from the violent armed struggle, one of the powerful resistance groups became unhappy and made an attempt to co-opt the activities of the Mothers' Front, to bring it into the fold as part of their own movement. The Mothers' Front was not willing, on two counts, to join forces. Primarily, they did not want to play second fiddle and submit to the dictates of the liberation group, and secondly, the Front was not ideologically committed to armed struggle. Hence, they decided to disband. The demise of the Mothers' Front sent out an important political message, that the liberation group was not willing to recognise the independence and autonomous functioning of the Mothers' Front, but wanted to use it for their own political ends.
The Mothers' Front in the South
The scene in the South of Sri Lanka was hauntingly similar to the one in the North. There were many disappearances when young men suspected of J.V.P. terrorism were taken away. Some who expressed dissenting opinions, and artists, journalists and lawyers who defended such dissenters, also disappeared. One mother had a particularly gruesome experience after her journalist son, who had produced a satirical play criticising the government, was abducted by the security forces in her presence while they were at home together. She confronted the authorities about his disappearance and was assured of his safety, only to find his mutilated body washed ashore two or three days later. Her recourse to legal action led to more problems in the form of death threats, and finally, she had to leave the country for her own safety.
She has now returned, and is fully aware of the experiences of the hundreds of other mothers whose sons were abducted, arrested, tortured and murdered. She says, "Basically I realised that I was one among the many women to whom something terrible had happened." She realised the need to form a women's movement with a political commitment, and the Mother's Front was the result. It had a membership of nearly 30,000 women, most of whom were victims of having their loved ones killed, and was an all-island movement which involved many rural women. The number of women who assembled under the flag of the Mothers' Front was a signal to the state that women had risen against repression. At public meetings, women came to the

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 45
stage and related stories of grief, fear, and poverty after their bread winners were taken away, and spoke of their loneliness and helplessness in the face of the all-powerful State. The formation of the Mothers' Front had two profound results: the mass killings and disappearances ceased, and there were no longer any death threats when one wanted to take legal action, so civilians could have recourse to seek legal remedy and lawyers were willing to assist the victims of state repression. Their loud and clear protests, expressed through meetings, marches, press briefings and interviews, alerted he state to the women's resistance. Human Rights agencies picked up case studies and publicly exposed the injustices done to the civilian population of Sri Lanka.
As in the North, the Front in the South began purely as a "mothers' affair" which had the support of progressive sectors in Sri Lanka. And history repeated itself in the process of its demise when the political parties that had strongly supported the ctivities of the Mothers' Front began to use it and its protest against the state as ropaganda material. As time went on, they wanted to take the Mothers' Front ompletely under their wing and to use it to serve their aim to capture power. This ntrusion resulted in the loss of the autonomy of the Mothers' Front, but, as the founder hember who was interviewed said, “that was the time I moved out.'
If the domineering political party had taken these women into their fold as part f their women's wing, and had encouraged their gender specific activities, recognising eir independent and autonomous functioning as their inalienable right, the history f the women's political movement would have been different in Sri Lanka. Male linking has always emphasised dominance and supported the idea of a singular adership. The lesson that is learned from the experiences of the Mothers' Fronts, is at multiple leadership, which recognises the specificities of problems and aims to are power equably, should become the operating principle of any political organisation hich seriously desires collective success.

Page 32
CHAPTER VI
Women's Agency Amidst Alternative Politics and its Implications for Future Strategies
After independence, Sri Lanka followed a capitalist mode of development, the main consequences of which were the deepening inequalities in wealth and income distribution, and uneven regional growth which failed to focus on anything but the centre. Widespread dissatisfaction with this uneven development has meant that postindependent Sri Lanka has witnessed two revolutionary movements which were, in effect, armed struggles that aimed to overthrow the state, questioning and challenging its legitimacy. Both movements grew up in reaction to the failure of the state to solve the specific socio-economic problems faced by any post-independent modern state. The two oppositional youth movements, however, have articulated their positions differently, which gives the impression that their problems are quite dissimilar. The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (the People's Liberation Front, 1965-1977 and 1983) of South Sri Lanka, grew up, in addition, in reaction to the alienation suffered by the youth as a result of Westernization which left many of them behind in terms of social mobility, as they had been educated only in the national language. The whole complexity of this phenomenon can be summed up through the idiom of deprivation and alienation.

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 47
The Tamil Oppositional Movement, (1971-) spearheaded by militant youths, was formed in reaction to majoritarian state chauvinism which legislated the Tamil youths out of educational facilities and job opportunities. The Tamil protests, staged very often through democratic attempts to alleviate their grievances, were met with violent state repression. This repetitive process of government-sanctioned violence in the face of democratic protest, it is argued, has left the youth with only one alternative: armed struggle. Both these youth movements have women supporters at various levels who sympathise fully with the ideology of an armed struggle, but during recent years, both groups have developed tendencies towards ethnic chauvinism and fascism.
The Southern Insurrection
Aglance at the history of the J.V.P. and its activities points to the existence of an active women's wing only after 1983. The period before 1983 shows no evidence of women's involvement (Gunaratne 1990:213). Though it claims to have a very active women's wing, one is sceptical about the ideology of gender equality within the movement. That the J.V.P. had attracted a large number of men and women into its cadre is indisputable. Because the women members were young, and many of them students, issues such as family responsibilities, child care obligations, and husbands' non-cooperation were prevented from impeding their political participation. It is thus obvious that traditional notions that politics is violent and full of thuggery have no relevance to women who have committed themselves to participation in armed struggle. Intense and successfully planned indoctrination, based on theories of patriotism and nationalism and packed with emotion, the rhetoric of deprivation and alienation, and the promise of liberation and the achievement of a free and glorious mother country easily overcame traditional notions of femininity and motherhood. Women flocked to the call to arms, denying the feminine values imposed on them by the society and the Self.
It appears that within the movement there were a few who received military training, while some were trained in first-aid and many others as propagandists, as couriers, and in espionage. It is also claimed that women were instrumental in recruiting school girls, forming cells in schools and in government departments, organising strikes,

Page 33
48 Chapter VI
distributing leaflets and drawing posters. Though one is aware that activities such as these are an essential part of an underground revolutionary movement, the whole arrangement of words and language smack of a hierarchy of gender, which plays on the divisions between the powerful and the weak, and ranks tasks into those which are more important/less important. The most revealing evidence of this hierarchy can be seen in the following description:
Even though they had a male representative at politbureau level they often had female leaders at district level (Gunaratne 1990:213; emphasis mine).
An ex J.V.P. woman who was interviewed testified to the fact that there were no women at the politburo and that women had no role in in the decision-making process. Women did address political meetings, and marched along with their male comrades, and treated the injured. Many of them were killed after being tortured for not revealing information about the movement's activities. Despite the hierarchical and exclusionary language, the above-mentioned activities point to the crossing of the boundaries between private and public, and the elimination of notions of the safe haven of family/home versus the danger zones.
Another stereotypical gender phenomenon can be seen in the manner of women's recruitment: The J.V.P. used the problems women face in Sri Lankan society to recruit them. The heroic stories from the time Sri Lanka was a kingdom were used again and again to whip up patriotism and nationalism (Gunaratne 1990: 213).
This, perhaps, gave the women the idea that the movement was interested in women's rights. It would appear, however, that while feminist claims were made to recruit women, the movement had no feminist agenda on their programme. The deeds of heroic and patriotic women were used in their recruitment policy, but, unlike male heroes, who were acclaimed later as courageous and revolutionary, women's names never came into the forefront of J.V.P. propaganda. Many women were sacrificed on the alter of revolution, nationalism and patriotism without ever receiving due recognition.

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 49
An incident which occurred in 1971 was symptomatic of the role of gender specificity in the art of politics and state. Premavati Manamperi, the twenty-two year old beauty queen of a local district, was brought to an army camp, on the strength of information that claimed her to be part of the J.V.P. movement. She was first held in detention with four other women activists and then taken for questioning by the lieutenant. The rest of her story is as follows:
Wijesuriya then asked her to remove her clothes and in spite of her protests and pleading she was compelled to take off all her clothes. Wijesuriya then directed her to walk along the main road with her hands held over her head exposing her nakedness and reciting the words "I have followed all five lectures." Wijesuriya and Sergeant Ratnayake, armed with Sterling sub-machine guns, walked on either side. When she had proceeded about 200 yards along the road she turned towards the post office. Wijesuriya then kicked her on the hip and opened a short burst of fire on her. Then the girl fell, she crawled some distance and having got up, walked and fell again. Wijesuriya and his companion then returned to the camp. Then one of Wijesuriya's men shouted that the girl was still alive whereupon Wijesuriya ordered Ratnayake to go and shoot her. Ratnayake then went up to the place where the girl lay fallen and opened another short burst of fire on her. One Aladin, who had been asked by the Army men to dig a pit and bury the girl, reported twice that she was still alive and thereafter an unidentified soldier went up and shot her through the head with his rifle. She died immediately and was buried with her clothes in the pit (Ales 1977:99).
The fact that she was a woman and a beauty queen had much to do with the gruesome treatment she was subjected to. Though there were many women in custody not all of them were treated in the same manner. The beautiful woman's sexuality made her especially vulnerable even at the time of her death. Exposing her nakedness to the gaze of the public and the state's representatives was an additional punishment chosen specifically for a woman victim. That she was not stripped forcefully, but made to strip herself under the threat of a gun, was an added dose of male sadism. Another version of the story, supposedly from an eye witness, was that when she refused to confess, she was stripped and repeatedly raped, then told to put on her clothes--which she refused to do. Is this the kind of violence that other women feared having to face if they entered the arena of politics, the public realm?

Page 34
50 Chapter VI
It was a difficult task to identify women members of the J.V.P. Most of them were killed, a few have gone abroad, and the others have preferred to remain silent. However, one of them came up to speak out, on condition her identity is kept anonymous. According to her,
At the initial stages there were no women in the J.V.P. The manner of recruitment was through the family, mostly brothers. Their motivation was the promise of a better world--to transform society. There was absolutely no feminist pretension in the movement. Though the women knew they had specific problems, they were drowned in the common goal rhetoric. There was no literature published separately by the women's wing. Women got together and wrote poems for each other....Women were never in the politburo. The men even questioned why there should ever be a separate Women's wing since women never participated in decision making. One member of the politburo would come to the woman's wing to communicate decisions. The executive committee also did not have women. However, the male members of the J.V.P. did not oppress their women, they liked the women to go out and work with people. Within the movement, most of the time, women worked with their husbands; the husbands allowed them to go out and come in at eleven or midnight. This is as far as my experience goes. All along, class struggle was given priority in their discussion....After that, women activists had some awareness that there was some type of oppression, but we could not find out what it was. We discussed it a lot--but we had to work for a common goal, both men and women believed that the class struggle was the only thing. The women also believed that the women's problems would be resolved when the class struggle
WaS OVer.
The idea of a "common goal" was key; it came up a number of times as part of the indoctrination process. Without getting entangled in a psychoanalytical treatment of the ambivalence of this phrase, I conclude that women's problems were treated as secondary to the class struggle, much against the wish of the women themselves, who had had a different experience of oppression. Yet their needs were buried under the rhetoric of class struggle and common goals.

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 51
The Northern Phenomenon
Unlike the J.V.P. movement in the South, Northern militancy has not been subjected to extensive scholarly research. There are a few publications on the subject, but they are heavily biased or propagandist and it is doubtful whether they will stand the rigour of a scientific analysis. But however subjective the position of the authors is, it cannot be dismissed altogether. The Tamil Liberation Movement, as it was called, has a history of being hopelessly divided, both ideologically and around personality cults and personal rivalry for power and authority. Out of the five groups which constituted the original movement, four have given up arms, and have entered into the democratic process and registered themselves as political parties. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, (Eelam is the name given to the territory they are fighting to secede from the Sri Lankan state) is the only group which is still engaged in an armed struggle against the Sri Lankan state.
All the Northern groups had/have women's wings, information about which is scanty and not forthcoming. In the absence of published literature, it is difficult to reconstruct their history. Many of the women activists have migrated, and others do not want to be identified (except for one whose interview will be taken up for discussion later). The L.T.T.E. women's wing is involved militarily and is very active and well known for its power, capacity and strength. The women fighters are called Sutantira Paravaikal, or Free Birds. This section will briefly take note of women's agency in the Tamil Liberation Movement and its implications.
At this political juncture, no L.T.T.E. fighter will come forward to be interviewed. Presently the L.T.T.E. is under suspicion of having killed (allegedly by using a woman suicide bomber) the Leader of the Opposition and the presidential candidate. Information about the women in the L.T.T.E. is collected from ad hoc newspaper reporting and from a recent publication, Women Fighters of L.T.T.E., by Adele Ann (1993). The author is the Australian wife of the Tamil spokesperson and ideologue of the L.T.T.E. She is part of the L.T.T.E. and resides in the North. At one level she can be considered as someone giving eye-witness information about the movement, and at another level, one has to be wary of the propagandist intentions of a sympathiser and activist who subscribes to the same ideology as the women about whom she is writing.

Page 35
52 Chapter VI
The author's introductory quote is by no means mere propaganda but a third party evaluation of the ferocity and motivation of the women cadres in the L.T.T.E:
In the field tiger fighters, especially the women cadres, display a fantastic degree of ferocity and motivation so much so that they have won the respect of their foes. The Island 19/4/1992 (Ann: v).
From Adele Ann's description in this publication, there is no doubt that the women's military unit of the L.T.T.E. was given a rigorous training and is a welldisciplined body. Women fighters, she says, usually engage themselves in equally difficult and dangerous situations as their male counterparts. The women cadres' contributions are widely and readily acknowledged. Women commanders, majors and unit leaders are mentioned under assumed names, while their heroic battles, crucial operations, and the tactical support given to their male comrades, are acknowledged. Ann discusses the development of equality which is evident in the practice of including women as part of the suicide squad.
Drawing attention to two more aspects of the roles played by woman cadres of L.T.T.E. would perhaps give an even fuller picture of their role. Ann claims (43) that the women on their own had asked for an independent structure which, they argued, would free them from dependency and reliance on males. They wanted to manage their own affairs and make their own decisions within their own structures. It is also claimed that the leader of the L.T.T.E. appreciated their aspirations and gave his support to the women. (This goes well with their name, Sutantira Paravaikal). The second important aspect is the wide range of activities undertaken by women in the L.T.T.E. The usual division of labour assigned on the basis of gender does not seem to apply to them. Apart from their military involvement, they were also trained in the use and maintenanceof communication equipment, in electronics and in field medicine. They were also included in the political wing and intelligence network of the movement.
Amidst all this vocabulary of war, violence and high levels of politicisation, none of which are usually associated with women, there are a lot of questions which need to be answered. What triggered this increased politicisation of Tamil women, whose involvement in parliamentary politics has been spectacularly low at all levels from the time of independence? How did violence come so easily to the politically

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 53
apathetic Tamil women? Is it as simple as Adele Ann claims when she says that this is undoubtedly the outcome of relentless and intensified national oppression (11)? Ann does not discuss the impact on the women fighters of rape, both by the Sri Lankan army and the Indian peace keeping army which was in the North engaged in disarming the Tigers. Nor does she elaborate on the type and manner of the recruitment of women. What kind of material was used to motivate the women to join the Tigers? Usually the high motivation of the L.T.T.E. is talked of as the source of the continued vigour and vitality of the movement, but we have no evidence about the kind and manner of motivation imparted to the women. We have to wait till such time that the process of history unfolds itself in order to discover these facts. However, the feminist position with regard to the politicisation of women asks a few questions which are interesting and for which history has provided many answers.
Adele Ann makes no claims to any feminist theorisation in her book, but in my view, she takes positions which are ambivalent. Having said that she makes no claim to feminism, she adds cautiously and with implications that are obvious to the reader, that it is beyond the scope of her mission to provide a thorough exposition of the many feminist issues that women in combat confront. This, to me, sounds evasive, since it is well within her scope to discuss the many feminist issues that L.T.T.E. women in combat confront. She may have strategic political reasons, however, for not including this within her discussion. She also makes a claim that the Tigers' leader, Pirabhakaran, is particularly conscious of women's rights and is keen to give them the right to function autonomously. A contradiction emerges from her hesitance to discuss feminist issues, and her assertion that they are fundamental to the movement.
Even more problematic is the author's assertion, in implicit language often, and explicitly once (v), that Tamil women, who live in a deeply patriarchal society, have overcome some of their problems and projected a new image of Tamil womanhood. There is no doubt that Tamil society is patriarchal, like any other modern society, but what is the new image of Tamil women that has been created? It is solely the image of women who are capable of fighting, an image of ferocity, handling weapons and explosives and becoming a suicide bomber? Her argument that such an image of womanhood is desirable is further legitimised in the last section of the book (110111), where she argues that the leader of the Tigers holds the view that the independence of women is crucial to their liberation and that the assertion of courage and self

Page 36
54 Chapter VI
confidence is a pre-requisite for the realisation of such independence. This, in fact, is quite a general view, and is a political statement in support of women's assertion, self confidence and independence. There has been a historical neglect of praising brave women and recording their deeds, and so to say that women have joined the L.T.T.E. as fighters, as patriots and as the oppressed, is to make a statement of historical significance and perhaps a statement in praise of brave women. But to say that it is only by becoming militarily efficient that Sri Lankan women can be liberated, and to argue that this is the only means by which they would acquire qualities of self assertion and realise the goals of independence, is certainly untrue and unworthy of any argument. Ann iterates, in the introduction, the view that it is only through armed struggle, which is progressive, modernist, and nationalist, that women can belong to a new world outside the normal woman's life (pg ii). In so doing, she negates the feminist agenda which believes in democratic processes and resistance.
There are many women who are assertive, independent and self willed outside the militant movement, who have chartered a new world for themselves without recourse to armed struggle and there are many Tamil women and Tamil organisations with feminist consciousness articulating significant agendas for transforming Tamil society without taking to arms.
What are the implications of the emergence of the highly politicised and militarised women as far as women's agency goes? It has been argued that militarist and feminist agendas are antithetical. Patriarchal values such as power, dominance, aggression, and violence are associated with masculinity, and feminists want to dislodge these values from their vocabulary, challenge them, and subvert them by placing emphasis on ideals of peace, equality and justice while creating Sensitivity to these issues in their perceptions and practice. Self assertion and self-confidence, autonomy and independence, are prerequisites for launching challenges to the patriarchal order. While feminists reject aggressive male power, they do not do so without questioning the dichotomous constructions of femininity and masculinity, and furthermore, they see patterns of gender socialization as the root of dichotomous Social constructions. It is undeniable that experiences of national oppression, deprivation, discrimination, alienation, and gender specific atrocities suffered at the hands of the army and police, can quite easily propelagitators to form rebellious groups with violent and emotionallycharged notions of patriotism. While I concede this, it is the construction of the image

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 55
of a liberated women as synonymous with that of a woman soldier in the national liberation struggle that I strongly contest. The induction of women into the military does not necessarily lead to an erosion of gender stereotypes or to the elimination of patriarchal experiences. Because the leaders of the militant movements are concerned about women's rights and autonomy does not necessarily mean that all their male cadres have a similar vision. It is only when the women of the military movements have the freedom to talk to outsiders, researchers and civilians, that the truth of their experience of liberation as women, will unfold. Likewise the questions raised by Adele Ann's accounts of the Sutantira Paravaikal can be answered only when the L.T.T.E. woman combatants are free to tell the truth with self-confidence and to become self-assertive, independent and autonomous of the organisation, when they have entered a democratic process which values the freedom of expression. This, then, is crucial for women's agency in politics. The next section illustrates this point further.
Reflections on Women's Agency in the National Liberation Struggle
One of the women I interviewed, who was active in another Tamil liberation group which had a Marxist orientation, has a totally different story to relate from that which is discussed above. This woman was able to talk to me because the group now functions as a political party having entered the democratic process after giving up the armed struggle. When it participated in the armed struggle, the group had six thousand members of whom nearly 50% were women. They had a women's wing from their inception. The equality of women was very much on their political agenda. Along with the issue of class and workers' emancipation, the notion of women's rights was always part of their national liberation struggle.
However, there were constant lapses, conflicts and confrontations between the theory and the practice of the group. The woman question was a constant and recurring issue on which women members had to articulate their opinion. Nevertheless, such organs as the women's journal were edited by men writing about the male leaders and their greatness from Madras in India (as part of the group's underground propaganda machinery). When the women in Sri Lanka wrote articles with a particular orientation to feminism, Madras would reject them. And when these women refused to accept the journals and sent them back, the leadership was angry. As my informant explained.

Page 37
56 Chapter VI
There was a definite hierarchical relationship between the men as leaders and the women as workers. The gender-based sexual division of labour persisted, although it was often challenged by a few women. The men in the armed political wing took decisions and the women sewed uniforms and made tea. However, most of the women accepted these roles passively posing no challenges and asking no questions. Both the horizontal and vertical sexual divisions of labour in the social milieu were replicated with concepts of femininity and masculinity reinforced. There were no breaches, no challenges to continued gender socialization by most of the women who very passively accepted their roles. Quite consciously, they were made to believe that as part of a wider and nobler objective--the notion of liberation--they had to perform these stereotypical roles. Ironically, the men articulated theoretical feminist concerns as part of their revolutionary call. In practice, the women were dominated. There was a hierarchical nexus between the political wing and women who were not accepted into the political wing. The men drew up the codes and expected women to function within the codes drawn for them. There was no redistribution of power and the male power base remained exclusive.
At the time of their induction to the movement, women were drawn in with calls which placed equal emphasis on national liberation and women's liberation. The women, however, had not been exposed until then to either women's emancipation or to the leftist liberation process. Patriarchy persisted with the men remaining as leaders and the women going into the field as cadres.
Our conflict with the men persisted for the whole time I stayed in the organisation, and our attempts to separate the women's wing and have autonomous activities, plans and decisions were thwarted from the beginning to the end both by men and women on the grounds that such attempts would contribute to divisive elements in the national liberation struggle, which was perceived as eroding the strength of the movement.Hence the group, having taken to arms against repression and injustice, remained merely theoretical when it came to addressing the repression and injustice perpetrated on women.

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 57
An even more disheartening revelation is her description of the manner in which this gender blindness was operationalised in the personal relationships of the male cadres and leaders. Almost all of them were patriarchs in their personal lives, which could be seen in their relationships with their wives and sisters. Progressives became backward in many respects in the practice of women's equality in their personal lives.
Despite the male chauvinism that was rampant in the movement, the women's contribution in terms of organising citizens' committees and the role they played in politicising a whole community towards the realisation of their brutal oppression should be noted. There were many activists among the women in the field playing important roles in bringing feminist thinking to the conscience of men and women. This, considering the gendered nature of some sections of the Tamil community, is a great achievement. Patriarchal institutions in the Tamil community in Sri Lanka were effectively challenged, and gender was politicised institutionally at a community level, for the first time in the history of the North and East. This was done independently by the feminist women in the national liberation movement of this group.

Page 38
Bibliography
Adele, Ann. 1993. Women Fighters of Liberation Tigers. Thasan Printers, Mahendra
Veethy, Jaffna.
Afshar, H. 1987. Women, State and Ideology. London: Macmillan Press.
Agarwal, B. ed. 1988. Structures of Patriarchy. London: Zed Books Ltd.
Ales, A.C. 1977. Insurgency, Colombo Apothecaries Ltd.: Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Bandaranayake S.W.R.D. 1928. The Handbook of the Ceylon National Congress, 1919
1928. Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Brown. Wendy. 1988. Manhood and Politics. Rowman and Littlefield Totowa, New
Jersey.
Corrigon, Philip and Derek Sayer 1985. The Great Arch: English State Formation as
Cultural Revolution. Basil Blackwell Ltd. Oxford UK.
De Silva, Mangalika. 1994. "F.T.Z. Girls: Dignity and Daily Bread, Workers in the
Free Trade Zones: a Human Rights Perspective.” Sunday Times 2/10/94.

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 59
De Silva, Wimala. 1979. “Political Participation and Decision Making.” Status of
Women in SriLanka. University of Ceylon.
---. 1993. "Women and Political Participation : the current scene in the Status of
Women in the Sri Lanka Ministry of Health and Women's Affairs.”
Foucault Michel. 1980. Language, Counter Memory Practice: Selected Essays and
Interviews. Donald Bouchard, ed. Ithaca: Cornel UP.
Gadamer, Hans-George. 1975. Truth and Method. New York: Continuum. Gilligan, 1982. In a Different Voice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Gramsci. A. 1971. Selections from the Prison Notebooks. London Lawrence and
Wishart.
Grimshaw, Jean 1986. Philosophy and Feminist Thinking. Minneapolis: University of
Minnesota Press.
Gugin, Linda Carstatphen. 1980. “The Political Role of American Women." Mary Anne Baker et al eds. Women Today: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Women's Studies. Maunder: California.
Gunaratne, Robin, 1990. Sri Lanka: A Lost Revolution? The inside story of the J.V.P.
Institute of Fundamental Studies: Kandy, Sri Lanka.
Harding, Sandra, 1984. "Is Gender a Variable in Conceptions of Rationality? A Survey of Issues." Carol Gould, ed. Beyond Domination. Rowman and Allanheld: Totowa, New Jersey. 43-63.
Holcombe. L 1977. "Victorian wives and Property Reform.” M. Vicinus, ed. A Widening
Sphere. Bloomington: Indiana UP.

Page 39
60 Bibliography
Jayawardene, K. 1994. "Religious and cultural Identity and the construction of Sinhala Buddhist womanhood.' Nivedeni 2.1. Karunaratne and Sons Ltd.: Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Jayawardene, K. 1995. The White Woman's Other Burden. Western Women and South
Asia During the British Rule. Routledge, New York and London.
Kincaid, Diane. 1978. "Over His Dead Body: A positive perspective on widows in the
U.S. congress.” Western Political Quarterly. 31:96-104.
Kennedy, Ellen and Susan Mendus. 1987. “Introduction.” Women in Western Political
Philosophy: Kant to Nietzsche. Brighton: Wheatsheaf.
Lloyd, Genevieve 1983. Reason, Gender and Morality in the History of Philosophy.
Social Research. 50.3:490-513,
1984. The Man of Reason: "Male” and “Female' in Western Philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
MacKinnon, Catherine. A.Towards a Feminist Theory of the State. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press.
Manu. Women in Manu and his Seven Commentaries. 1961. R.M. Das, ed. Bodh
Gaya, India: Kanchana Publications.
McIntosh, Mary. 1978. "The State and the Oppression of Women.” Anette Kuhn and Ann Marie Wolpe, eds. Feminism and Materialism. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
McMillan, Carol 1982. Women, Reason and Nature. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
O'Brien, 1981. The Politics of Reproduction. London: Routedge and Kegan Paul.
Okin, 1991. "Gender, the Public and the Private." David Held, ed. Political Theory
Today. Cambridge: Polity Press.

The Politics of Gender and Women's Agency in Post-Colonial Sri Lanka 61
Olsen, 1983. "The Family and the Market: A Study of Ideology and Legal Reform.”
The Harvard Law Review. 96:1497-1578.
---. 1984. Politics of Family Law." Journal of Law and Inequality. 2: 1-19.
Pateman. 1983. “Feminist Critiques of the Public/Private Dichotomy.” Stanley Benn and Gerald Gaus, eds. Private and Public in Social Life. London: Croom Helm.
Parpart, J. and Staudt, K. eds. 1989. Women and the State in Africa. London: Lynne
Rienner Publishers.
Plato. 1968. The Republic. Trans. with notes and an "Interpretive Essay.” Allan Bloom,
ed. New York, 1968.
---. 1968. The Laws. Trans. R.G. Bury. Loeb Classical Library
---, 1961. The Collected Dialogues. Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, eds.
1961. New York.
Ramanathan. 1934. Memorandum on the Donoughmore Constitution. London.
Rousseau, Jean Jacques. 1964. The First and Second Discourses. Trans. Roger D. and
Judith R. Masters. New York.
Ruddick, S, 1980. "Maternal Thinking." Feminist Studies 6:342-67. Walby, Sylvia. 1990. Theorizing Patriarchy. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Wilson E. 1977. Women and the Welfare State. Tavistock: United Kingdom.
Zakia, Pathak and Sunder Rajan Rajeswari. 1989. "Shahbano.” Signs. 14.3: 558-582.

Page 40
Notes
Manimekalan is a Tamil epic poetry written by a Tamil Buddhist monk in the Post
Sangam period, around the 2nd centuary AD.
Rajini Thiranagama, a senior lecturer at the Jaffna Medical College, was an active supporter of the L.T.T.E and a feminist. She was allegedly gunned down by the L.T.T.E for having criticized the group for its degeneration into fascism and its repression of dissent.
Newspaper references are from The Saturday Review, June 1984 and The Saturday
Review, 25th Aug 1984. Jaffna: New Era Publications.

Page 41

ass
SBN 95.5925