Version imprimableKamla Bhasin (24 April 1946 - 25 September 2021)
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My friend Kamla Bhasin
by Dr V. Rukmini Rao
I first met Kamla in the late 70s , when she came to visit the National Labour Institute. She invited me to stay with her in Bangkok when I visited and since then, we have remained friends. We may not have always agreed and maintained the same perspectives, but we could work together smoothly.
Kamla had the quality to draw in people with her charisma, her obvious love of life and fun side. Kamla was an evolving learning person all her life and contributed her learning generously to all around her.
While our journey together started by addressing violence against women, she worked to promote adolescent girls rights, and in Sangat training programs she specially invited me to address environmental issues. She worked on many other issues, health, sensitizing men, promoting democracy and others. Kamla did not believe in national boundaries. Having been born on the other side of the border before partition, she promoted Peace in the region and saw herself as a South Asian. She dreamed of a united South Asia on the lines of the European Union.
Kamla lived the slogan, the personal is political. When her daughter Meeto was born, she started writing nursery rhymes describing that girls were equal to boys. When she faced personal family crisis, she discussed how our suggestions of going to courts for justice did not work. She changed her inputs into her training accordingly. Kamla had a grasp of current social structures, therefore she invited influencers to South Asian feminist training programs be it government officials from the Maldives, media representatives or potential women political leaders in the region.]
Much will be written about her contribution to the women’s movement, but I would like to share the essential Kamla. She nutured friendships over generations,she turned her personal crises into opportunities for learning for all, she was strong and loving. She did not hesitate to apologize if she was wrong. Kamla quickly became the life spirit of every meeting she organized. She sang feminist songs she had written, and more recently only spoke and wrote in hindi. She could get everyone to move quickly and galvanized all women, young and old with the slogan, " Hum leke rahenge Azadi"..... we will take our freedom .
And she taught women to be spirited and free, teaching them to wolf whistle to gain attention. When she was in hospital she continued to worry about developments in Afghanistan and how to support young women who needed to leave or confront the taliban. A feminist to the end, my friend Kamla Bhasin - Rukmini Rao
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Kamlaben Bhasin’s contributions to the women’s movement have been immense. From song and dance, to storytelling and movement-building. We will remember you. Members of our domestic workers cooperative singing a song, which she wrote.
— SEWA Cooperative Federation (@SEWAFed)
September 25, 2021
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How Kamla Bhasin made South Asian feminism a force
Urvashi Butalia writes: She built institutions and solidarities with her unusual feminist weapons
