The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword

chillibreeze writer — Sujata Patniak

Flashback to 1982 and remember a nineteen-year-old Dalit girl, one of the downtrodden classes in India. She chose to pick up the sword - to be more accurate, a .315 Mauser. She aimed in anger and shot for revenge.18 landowners in her hometown state of Uttar Pradesh were mowed down and a Bandit Queen was born. Phoolan Devi, a woman who decided to fight poverty and its injustices and indignities, with the same violence that was used against her. She decided to leave her home, join bloodthirsty brigands and wield the sword when all, even her own father turned against her.

It’s 2004 and an eighteen-year-old girl from the backward Mushhar community in Bihar, one of the more poverty-ravaged states in India, is debating her future. She picked up a pen two years ago, decided to leave her home and fight her illiteracy and deprivation by joining a residential education center. It took her just eight months to pass class 5 and in a year’s time she cleared class 7 and 8. Her determination to straighten out her life, made UNICEF choose Lalita Kumari as the cover girl for its global report on children.

Nothing has had a greater impact on the Indian woman more than reading and writing. The power of the pen has vindicated her in a way nothing else could. It has enabled her to think beyond her role as the wife, mother, sister who would traditionally put herself on the backburner of destiny. It probably began the hard way for a woman in a village who sent her daughter to school along with her son. She must have been chastised by the traditional village elders in her family who taunted her for planting the seeds of “evil-independent thinking” in a girl’s mind, instead of grooming her for an early marriage. Thankfully she didn’t give in and watched her girl-child scrawl her first letters. The daughter learned the might of the pen and with time passed it on to her own daughter.

As each generation of each family passed on the torch of learning, there grew a breed of independent, educated smart Indian women who poured what they knew into being teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, writers and entrepreneurs. One by one they conquered all the male citadels of power - even the armed forces. The Indian woman has become a prime minister, conquered Mt. Everest, written internationally acclaimed literature, flown a fighter aircraft, been the CEO of international business organizations and has left no stone unturned in her efforts to excel.

And to think that it all began with the might of a pen, that opened doors of learning, stirred her innate creativity and unleashed in her the power of imagination. Women in this country have rewritten their future. Writing has helped give a form to the body of thoughts that used to otherwise get stuffed into the corners of daily chores. It has helped the Indian woman communicate with the world at large. Reading and writing has filled a void and made her understood- sometimes even misunderstood, but what mattered is that she is heard. The people around her perceive all her feelings, her dreams, her ambitions and her love. Writing, for the Indian woman, has proved to be a powerful tool of self-expression and liberation.

Today women comprise a major portion of the Indian workforce, without eroding their position as the major caregivers in their homes. The access to reading and writing might not have solved all their problems, but it has given them the ability to scan the newspapers to find out what is happening around the world, the power to appeal the courts of law for justice as well as cast an intelligent vote to elect a leader, and the skill to nurture the next generation with a wisdom that sees beyond. They continue to face challenges both at work and home but now have the intelligence, courage and know-how to straddle both worlds with poise.

“The pen is mightier than the sword” is more than a cliché for women in India. It is a reality that can be concluded by yet another powerful adage, ringing out the warning that “He who lives by the sword, shall die by the sword”. Phoolan Devi was shot dead on July 25, 2001, by masked gunmen. Lalita Kumari meanwhile has made up her mind. She plans on higher studies, dreaming of medical school and a stethoscope around her neck. Lalita wants to live, heal and write out a brighter future for herself and other girls. She’s all set to pass on the baton- in this case, the might of the pen.

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Sujata Patnaik says,

The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword

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