Jyoti Mhapsekar is the child of Indian freedom fighters. Jyoti’s struggle was different from her parents. She fought not against the British but alongside and for the women of India. Her weapons were song and theatre.
Her story, told in this latest episode of Ratio Talks, starts with The International Year of Women in 1975. Women of Jyoti’s class and caste began to re-interpret the global renaissance in feminist thinking for the Indian context.
The work of these women coalesced into a movement called Stree Mukti Sanghatana, which roughly translates as Women’s Liberation Organisation.
The movement spread out from Mumbai into the rural areas across Maharashtra and then to the rest of India. They put on theatrical events and concerts and engaged with tens of thousands of women at each performance.
The conversations that followed revealed new challenges. Violence against women. Blocked opportunity. The loss of dignity from working in harsh conditions, as exemplified in this episode by the waste pickers who make their living sifting through garbage tips.
When Stree Mukti Sanghatana was formed half a century ago, two thirds of Indian women were illiterate. Today two thirds can read and write. There is much more to be done. But the tide has turned.
In this episode you will hear Jyoti sing as well as speak. In this link you can see a younger Jyoti and her colleagues performing one of the songs that inspired a generation of women on the sub-continent.
In addition to Jyoti, we hear from Noel Mathias, founder of Novel Solutions to Wicked Problems, an initiative to help listeners like you get more access to innovation and to learn more from people like Jyoti in the Global South.
Ratio Talks is available on Substack, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Get in touch with us any time by sending an email to hello@ratio.org.uk.
Ratio Talks is produced with the help of sound designer Nik Paget-Tomlinson and creative director Richard De Angelis. The show’s theme song and design is by Luca Picardi.
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