Artist, Sheba Chhachhi: I’m Sheba Chhachhi, a photographer and installation artist. I live and work in New Delhi, India.
Songs are the lifeblood of the women’s movement in India.
Reaching women across differences—of class, education, occupation, religion, sometimes even country and language—music and lyrics bind us together.
Sharing our experiences, inspiring resistance, imagining a world free of patriarchal oppression, these songs have become part of the everyday lives of thousands of women.
Many have been written by feminist groups or individuals—friends of mine, my sisters in the movement. Others were adapted from folk or popular Bollywood songs.
You’ll hear three songs from Todo Bandhan—Breaking Barriers, recorded in 1985.
This first song is about the power of collective resistance, about women marching together to end oppression.
He’ ji re’!
Rejecting
family entanglements
binding conventions
Indoctrinated psyches
We have arrived
Arrived at the front
To wipe out the oppression of women
To stop violence
To destroy dowry and rape
eradicate repression
Arrived with our sisters
to destroy
all forms of discrimination
Of caste and religion
Of high and low
Of ruler and ruled
We have arrived
[Song continues to play]
The next song, Is this country free? is a song which criticizes the nation for asserting its independence and freedom while continue to be enslaved in their homes.
When most women in this country
Are humiliated, joyless
Place your hand on your heart
And declare this country free
Her very birth an ill omen
Her life a drudgery
slogging day after day
without recognition
This ungrateful land
Where no woman has value
Place your hand on your heart
Declare this country free
Yes, this land has innumerable goddesses
But not one has transformed
An ordinary woman’s life
When most women in this country
Are humiliated, joyless
Place your hand on your heart
And declare this country free
[Song continues to play]
The last song, The new woman. This song is an inspiring song about what it means to be a strong and independent new woman.
Come,
Let’s talk about the new woman
Yes, the new woman
She fears no one, this new woman
If she was stopped by fear, how could she be called a new woman?
Just think about it!
Yes, the new woman
She makes her own decisions
If the reins are held by another, how could she be called a new woman?
Just think about it!
The new woman helps her sisters
If she had ill will towards other women, how could she be called a new woman?
Just think about it!
Come,
Let’s talk about the new woman
Yes, the new woman