Women’s liberation key to India’s democratic evolution: Meenakshi
CWC member Meenakshi Natarajan challenges the notion that sexuality and gender roles are biologically fixed
Hyderabad: CWC (Congress Working Committee) member Meenakshi Natarajan underscored the centrality of women’s liberation to India’s democratic and constitutional evolution.
Reflecting on the historical construction of gender and power, she challenged the notion that sexuality and gender roles are biologically fixed. Drawing on ancient spiritual traditions, medieval devotional movements, anti-colonial struggles, and constitutional debates, she highlighted how women have consistently resisted patriarchal control across history.
Delivering the 22nd C D Deshmukh Memorial Lecture, organised by the Council for Social Development (CSD) at Hyderabad, Natarajan also examined the systematic devaluation of women’s labour - particularly unpaid domestic work - describing it as a political mechanism that sustains gender inequality. Situating Indian struggles within a global context, she traced the evolution of women’s movements from early twentieth-century labour struggles to the United Nations declaration of International Women’s Year in 1975.
Highlighting Indias constitutional history, she drew attention to the 15 women members of the Constituent Assembly, including Hansa Mehta, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Sarojini Naidu, Durgabai Deshmukh, and Dakshayani Velayudhan, whose interventions significantly shaped debates on equality, social justice, secularism, and minority rights.
She emphasised that women’s political participation remains vital to nation-building and democratic renewal, asserting that the struggle for gender justice continues to be inseparable from the pursuit of a more inclusive and egalitarian democracy.
