The renowned feminist activist, poet and author Kamla Bhasin passed away on Saturday early morning. News of her demise was shared on Twitter by activist Kavita Srivastava.
“Kamla Bhasin, our dear friend, passed away around 3am today September 25. This is a big setback for the women’swomen’s movement in India and the South Asian region,” she tweeted. “She celebrated life whatever the adversity. Kamla you will always live in our hearts. In Sisterhood, which is in deep grief.”
Bhasin has been a prominent voice in the women’s movement in India and South Asia since the 1970s. In 2002, she founded the feminist network ”Sangat”, which works with underprivileged women from rural and tribal communities, often using non-literary tools such as plays, songs and art.
Bhasin’sBhasin’s works are on gender theory and feminism, and many of her books have been translated into more than 30 languages.
Born on April 24, 1946, in the district of Mandi Bahauddin, which is now in Pakistan, Bhasin’sBhasin’s family shifted to Rajasthan after the Partition. After completing her studies in India, Bhasin did sociology at the University of Münster in West Germany. After her studies in Germany, she returned to India and worked with Udaipur-based NGO Seva Mandir, working on rural development and women’s empowerment. Later in 2002, she founded the South Asian feminist network Sangat after quitting her job at the UN.
Bhasin is attributed for popularising the Azaadi slogan, which has reverberated across protest sites over decades. Pakistani feminists first used the azaadi slogan to protest against the Zia-ul-Haq regime. In February 2019, Bhasin had told The Quint that she had first heard the chant for ”azaadi” in 1984 among feminists in Pakistan, who were vocal against the regime of Zia-ul-Haq.
“Thirty-five years ago, I went to Pakistan. Pakistan at that time was ruled by Zia-ul-Haq. The first group that rose up against Zia-ul-Haq was not a political party, it was a group of Pakistani feminists. I witnessed one such meeting, and that’s where they chanted it.”
In a 2013 Hindu interview, she had said, “Often religion is used as a shield to justify patriarchy. When you question something, you are told, ”yeh toh hamara sanskar hai, riwaaj hai (This is our culture, our traditions)”. And when this is done, it means logic has ended, belief has come in.”
After the demise of Bhasin, many took to Twitter to express tributes to the feminist icon.
