Sabab, 7th Volume, 2023

2 2 Jones, Paul. 2014. “Situating universal design architecture: designing with whom?” Disability and Rehabilitation 36 (16): 1369– 1374. 10.3109/09638288.2014.944274. Krivý, Maroš, and Tahl Kaminer. 2013. “Introduction: The Participatory Turn in Urbanism.” Delft Architecture Theory Journal 7 (2). Mace, R. L. 1988. Universal Design: Housing for the Lifespan of All People. Rockville: Department of Housing and Urban Development. Mills, Colin. 2014. “The Great British Class Fiasco: A Comment on Savage et al.” Sociology 48 (3): 437–444. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038513519880. Mueller, James L. 1998. “Assistive Technology and Universal Design in the Workplace.” Assistive Technology 10 (1): 37- 43. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400435.1998.10131 959. Pullin, Graham. 2009. Design Meets Disability. Austin: Cambridge. Rose, David H., and Anne Meyer. 2007. “Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning.” Education Tech Research Dev 55:521–525. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-007-9056-3 Story, M., J. L. Meuller, and R. L. Mace. 1998. The Universal Design File: Designing for People of All Ages and Abilities. NC State University: The Center for Universal Design. Story, Molly F. 1998. “Maximizing usability: the principles of universal design.” Assistive Technology 10 (1): 4-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400435.1998.10131 955. University of Wisconsin. n.d. “Student Use and Perceptions of Closed Captions in the Fully Online Classroom.” National Research Center for Distance Education and Technological Advancements. Weber, Max. 1951. “The Theory of Social and Economic Organizations.” New York: Free Press. Wijk, M. 2002. “If anything, call it ergonomics: in search for a word in a world called science.” In Universal Design: 17 Ways of Thinking and Teaching, edited by Jon Christophersen, 81–104. Oslo: Husbanken. Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 39 | Universal Design

"Framing favourable dispositions, breaking down stereotypes and creating enabling environments" 40 | IV

Abstract Queer representation in media has been a balancing act for writers and artists throughout history due to social and/or legal constraints. In an ethos that does not allow for ‘canonically queer’ (a term used for individuals that are explicitly out of the closet) characters, creators have had to rely on indirect methods of representation to bypass censorship. Queerbaiting and Queer coding are two such techniques. While queerbaiting is employed solely to appease audiences, queer coding refers to the phenomenon of subtextual coding of a character in media as queer to hint/explore queerness meaningfully. In this way, queerbaiting is associated with tokenism as well as monetary benefits, akin to ‘rainbow capitalism’ or ‘pink washing’ (brand support for the LGBTQ+ community, especially during Pride Month which may or may not have any real advantages for the beneficiaries). Whereas, queer coding is considered to have more of a positive impact as it does not focus on pandering to the masses. Often, villains rather than protagonists are queer coded, which helps reinforce ideals of heteronormativity, an accusation of many of Disney’s children’s animated movies. In this paper, I try to analyse the positive and negative impacts of the aforementioned techniques of representation and situate it within a context of political representation. In essence, this study attempts to explore whether the existing trends of queer representation in media have aided queer representation at the social and political levels and predict the possible future trends of queer representation. Keywords: Canonically Queer, Heteronormativity, Rainbow Capitalism, Tokenism Queerbaiting and Queer coding: Techniques of Queer (Mis)Representation Medhavi Gupta B.A. (Hons) Political Science Indraprastha College for Women Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 | 41

Creator Bryan Konietzko commented in this regard that if this pairing seemed out of the blue to someone then they had watched the last two seasons of the show “only through a hetero lens” (Konietzko 2014). The antecedents for the evolution of queer coding on screen can be found in the censorship practices prevalent in Hollywood in the early 20th century (the Hays Code¹, for instance) and pressure from viewers to conform to the heteronormative society. Moreover, implicit hints were also used due to a lack of terminology to express same-sex desire. Coined in 1991 by Michael Warner, a queer theorist and social critic, the term heteronormativity refers to widespread and invisible norms of heterosexuality which “relegates sexual minorities to a marginal status position”. The privileging of heterosexuality in social relations devalues those who fall outside the standard. Heteronormativity is an omnipresent system embedded as a normative principle in social institutions and theory. It acts as a driving force in everyday life beyond sexual and romantic activities such as workspaces, education, media and so on (Robinson 2016, 1). Queer-coding is a quintessential technique associated with queer literary tradition and LGBTQ+ representation in other popular media. Hence, queer relationships have been portrayed through subtextual coding if not complete disguise until recently (Aldrich 2002, 7). Since creators could not include canonically queer characters (especially protagonists, as seen in Disney’s problematic Movies, series and tv shows convey ideas of worlds unlike your own; offering fertile grounds for anthropological delving into life styles and demeanours beyond that of only one type of people. When analysing texts, visual media and songs, one cannot miss out on the pervadingly discernable history of queer-coded characters. As in, the characters that are not explicitly showcased to be queer but possess the stereotypical attributes associated with the LGBTQ+ community (Kim 2017, 156). The phenomenon of artists, writers and producers using traits commonly associated with the queer community to indicate the characters’ queerness without explicitly displaying the same is termed as queer coding. The broader concept of coding originates from semiology or the systematic study of signs and meaning-making (Needham 2018, 37). Italian semiotician Umberto Eco once remarked, “There always exists a context that is capable of reproducing as new a codified catachresis or dead metaphor” (Goodreads). The cultural assumption of heterosexuality and the implications of social semiotics in the context of queer-coding in media can be gauged by the example of Nickelodeon’s animated series The Legend of Korra which aired from 2012-2014. A section of the audience of the series struggled to get beyond normative heterosexual codes and view the interactions of the two female protagonists as romantic when Korra and Asami (shipped by fans as “Korrasami”) were officially declared canonical. Queerbaiting and Queer coding | 42 Introduction Defining Queer-coding Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 history of queer-coding its villains), they relied on the subtext of the narratives to indicate a character’s implicit queer tendencies by utilising stereotypical notions of deviance easily understood by the audience (Svobodová 2022, 15). The traits ascribed to queer-coded characters are usually stereotypical such as portraying a male character as effeminate or a female character as masculine. This practice has existed since the early days of the stage and was brought to the discursive forefront in the landmark documentary of 1995, The Celluloid Closet². The movie highlights the historical contexts that queer people have occupied in cinema history and analyses the entertainment industry’s role in shaping perceptions of LGBTQ+ figures. The film was based on Vito Russo’s survey and 1981 book The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies. The methods adopted by creators to signal commonsensical deviant/odd attributes included non-verbal body language (such as effeminate gestures in case of “sissy men”), outfits and attires (Ursula’s character in The Little Mermaid was based on a Drag Queen), song lyrics (the song Let It Go of Disney’s animated movie Frozen is seen as an allegory for coming out of the closet) and so on. The dialogue is wrought with verbal cues that sets queer-coded characters apart and also entails acts of gender performativity³ (the idea of gender being an act or performance, coined by feminist philosopher Judith Butler). The techniques employed for the same are sexual innuendos, rhetorical puns, gendered language of the dialogues, etc. The prevailing practice of queer-coding has cemented various tropes and borne certain ‘stock characters’ that are often seen and easily recognisable as queer in film and media. Examples include the ‘sissy villain’, the ‘camp gay’, the ‘gay best friend’, the ‘sycophant servant’ the ‘bury your gays’/‘dead lesbain syndrome’⁴, the ‘bait and switch lesbians’⁵ and many more. Studies by various scholars have accused Disney of only queer-coding villains (as opposed to heroes) such as Captain Hook of the 1953 Peter Pan, Ursula of the 1989 The Little Mermaid, Gaston in the 1991 Beauty and the Beast, Jafar in the 1992 Aladdin, Scar of the 1994 The Lion King and many more. Hence, alternatively, queer-coding is also defined as the persisting characterization of villains with stereotypes often associated with homosexuality (Brown, 2021). Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 43 | Queerbaiting and Queer coding Queerbaiting: Definition and Context Queerbaiting is used to describe the practice of enticing and luring an audience with the promise of queer content without any intention of acting on it. This term has connotations situated in a historical context as it is based on the assumption that queer representation is possible in the given time and space and yet it is being denied (Nordin 2015, 63). Thus, a section of people who reprimand creators of the 21st century for employing the tactics of queerbaiting for monetary benefits, defend media representations from the previous century on the grounds that the circumstances of the time did not allow queer representation (citing reasons like legal constraints and public condemnation).

leaving gaps in the ways queer representation is negotiated in other media forms (Needham 2018, 2). For instance, Jessica Kathryn Needham has analysed and built a case of pervasive queerbaiting being employed in video games while Bennett Brazelton7 (2018) has argued that works of rapper MF DOOM are causing queer disruptions in hip hop by creating and embracing villainous identities. It is worth noting that queerbaiting is sometimes used as an unintentional tactic to spice up a narrative or attract viewers from a certain demographic by creating homoerotic subtext between two characters within a plot line without any intention of actualizing that subtext. However, even if writers have good intentions, queerbaiting is harmful for the people belonging to the queer community (Sheehan 2015). Queerbaiting does not counter or improve the features of queercoding. These two strategies might appear similar at the surface level as it is a difficult task to draw a clear line between them (specially in contemporary times) and the intentions of the producers do not have to be evident. Unlike queer coding, queerbaiting entices the queer community as well as its allies with the prospect of queer representation without ever delivering it; thereby cashing out profits off the queer community while simultaneously upholding a hetero-centric stance (Svobodová 2022, 32-33). The vexation with queerbaiting is the experience of queer representation being sparse and the anticipation that it is becoming a widely utilised technique to eschew adequate representation in popular media. Judith Fathallah coined the first academic definition of queerbaiting in 2014 as part of her analysis of the BBC’s Sherlock as a queer hauntology⁶ (Laclau’s perception adapted from Derrida) of its villain Moriarty. She has thus defined queerbaiting as, a strategy by which writers and networks attempt to gain the attention of queer viewers via hints, jokes, gestures, and symbolism suggesting a queer relationship between two characters, and then emphatically denying and laughing of the possibility. Denial and mockery reinstate a heteronormative narrative that poses no danger of of ending mainstream viewers at the expense of queer eyes. (491) It is not unusual that this exploitation occurs due to queer representation being scarce in general. Although Fathallah is credited with coining the first academic definition of the term, queerbaiting has been discussed and defined on the internet in social hubs like Tumblr since the early 2010s. Aja Romano (2014), a web culture reporter at Vox and past reporter at The Daily Dot discussed the growing trend of homoerotic tension in television and its failure to provide explicit LGBTQ+ representation as early as 2010. Alternatively queerbaiting is also defined as not only the practice of but also the ways in which consumers are lured in with a queer storyline only to have it taken away, devolve into tragic cliché, or fall short of delivering affirmative representation. Recent research on the term has focused mostly on television, Queerbaiting and Queer coding | 44 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 While most definitions of queerbaiting focus on the agency of creators to give or deny queer representation, the expanding definition also highlights the power of the audience to interpret the narrative as they like irrespective of the confirmation from the creators. It centres on the audience claiming to know the producers’ preferred meaning and calling out the producers for luring the audience under false pretences that the narrative will showcase canonically queer content. As the distance between producers and audiences is decreasing through constant feedback loops provided to creators by social media comments, fan fiction and discussion forums (like reddit), the strategies adopted to expand viewership are becoming increasingly entangled with commodification via merchandise sales and cosplay competitions at Comic Con, for instance. Hence, the term Rainbow Capitalism8 also known as pinkwashing, gay capitalism or homo capitalism has emerged in this regard. It refers to the prevalence of pride symbols, fashion and campaigns specifically in the pride month of June which are often fiscally motivated rather than aimed at genuinely filling gaps of queer representation. Queerbaiting is therefore connected to homonormative ideology. Lisa Duggan introduced the idea of homonormativity in her book, The Twilight of Equality? Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics, and the Attack on Democracy. In the book, she describes the cultural politics of neoliberalism, as a contradictory politic that incorporates conflicting views in an effort to garner the most support (Collier 2015, 2). This is well illustrated from the following example of queerbaiting being regularly used by producers in the form of lip service and nothing more, specifically in the case of multi movie franchises that cater to large audiences. A recent article published on the online platform of The Times of India (2022) stated about a Marvel movie: [‘Thor: Love and Thunder’] . . . has been accused of queerbaiting. It minimally acknowledges LGBTQ characters, yes, but has been billed by its director and star as ‘super gay’. Queer people, meanwhile, are sick of such marketing stunts promising presentation and recognition but giving no more than heavy hints or sideways nods at their existence. It's the kind of manipulation J.K. Rowling was accused of, when she asserted that Dumbledore is gay, but went no further to develop that idea. It is seen as an extension of ‘rainbow capitalism’, a mere ploy to address all audience niches and open up their wallets, without meaningfully seeing or including them. Queerbaiting as a technique can be considered to explore/play with/exploit (depending on the point of view) the grey area between the visible and the invisible, the explicit and the implicit, what is and what is not present in the text. From a hermeneutical perspective, it is a sublime example of how meaning is created and how the ownership of meaning is debated. Although there are not many academic definitions of the term, it has been variously defined in user generated lexicons such as Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary. Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 45 | Queerbaiting and Queer coding

specific fanfic sharing sites such as LiveJournal, Wattpad, DeviantArt and AO3 that recast heteronormative content with queer themes, characters and relationships. Slash then refers to fan fiction that focuses on the sexual and/or romantic relationships between characters of the same-gender. The term traces its derivations to the slash punctuation in between a couples’ name, such as Xena/Gabrielle, Tara/Willow, Kirk/Spock and more. The term slash is now being used as an umbrella term to describe male/male and female/female relationships, with the latter being also referred to as femslash (Koehm 2018, 5). While fan fiction and slash fiction share defining characteristics in general, slash has certain unique features. Slash fiction signifies a popular queer movement and quest for representation that engages with queer potential and political imagination. It is a cultural practice that allows members of marginalised populations to respond to and attempt to alter exclusionary normativity. Whether stated or not, slash fan fiction aims to parse out and explicitly show implicit connections between characters (Hazra 2021, 109) and the resulting pairings/relationships are subsumed under the fan practice known as “shipping”. Shipping signifies the fans’ desires for characters (or even real life personas and celebrities) to be together or become a canon couple. These pairings are given ship names such as Larry (Louis+Harry) in the case of singers and former bandmates Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles. Rizzles, Destiel, Stucky, Johnlock are some queer ships with huge fandoms. These queer As this term has emerged out of queer activism and fan discussions, the challenge with defining and subsequent analysis is that the definition changes from user to user (Nordin 2015, 1-2). Queerbaiting and Queer coding | 46 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Audience Intervention Any discourse on queerbaiting is incomplete without considering the implications of a fan practice it has borne. Fan fiction (also known as fanfic) is the phenomenon of fans of a popular text/show creating new and different stories and plots related to that text (Rodenbiker 2014, 1). Although fan fiction may have elaborate plots, its primary focus is on characterization and relationships, often romantic or sexual in nature. For readers and viewers desiring to critically engage with a text, fan fictions serve as a reclamation of the proto-text through which fanfic authors deliberately add onto or modify parts of an existing narrative for their (as well as other readers’) satisfaction. The original plotline, referred to as “canon,” is the original published work that the fan fiction is based upon. Typically, canon refers to explicit details or plots in a narrative as they are written or displayed by the original creator (DopeyPixie). Slash fiction is a subset of fan fiction which entails creation of queer identity, relationships, romance, sex, or desire where it was not apparently present in the original/proto-text (Rodenbiker 2014, 3). It refers to fan-written texts and illustrations commonly circulated on social media platforms of Tumblr, Pinterest and even

elation “ships” (despite not being canon) transcend oppressive dominant regimes of sexuality. The following example lays out the extent and influence the audience exerts on producers through slash fan fiction and fan art. In a cast segment of the series The Good Place (2016-2020) on the American late night show Conan, the host commented how fans of the show want Tahani and Eleanor (two of the female leads played by Jameela Jamil and Kristen Bell respectively and shipped as Teleanor) to get together while showing fan art of the two characters hugging and engaged in erotic and romantic embrace. Amidst all the laughter, members of the cast hooted and cheered in support of the pairing. When asked by the host Conan O’Brien, if something along those lines “could happen . . . Mike Schur’s [producer of the show] here, we’re giving him ideas”, Kristen Bell answered: Well, we've certainly alluded to it a lot of times . . . how attracted Eleanor is to Tahani, although I believe the consensus was there's not really a reason; it's not a pivotal point in the story to define either person’s sexuality and it almost just seems like indulgent and not necessary to go into it . . . Maybe Eleanor is just attracted to who she's attracted to . . . Eleanor is kinda bi and it's fine with me. (YouTube 2019) Shows accused of queerbaiting and those that generate a high amount of slash fiction have been found to have a direct correlation, hinting that the quantity of reparative readings9 (Sedgwick’s conception) of the text is a result of representation being withheld through queerbaiting (Koehm 2018, 34). In doing so, fan fiction has become the lifeblood of fan resistance and queer empowerment. 47 | Queerbaiting and Queer coding Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Queer Representation: Current Scenario At a time when media images dictate brand values, cultivate personal preferences (through AI) and change the course of political outcomes by the power of the click, representation is crucial for any group to bring forth their issues and advocate for solutions. Despite constant campaigns in support of the queer community, an unprecedented amount of anti-LGBTQ bills10 are being proposed in state legislatures across the US. According to the Council for Foreign Relations, homosexuality is still criminalised in around 70 nations of the world. Moreover, in 12 countries consensual same-sex relations can mean the death penalty (Angelo and Bocci 2021). On the other hand, it is a known fact that acceptance of the queer community has grown around the world since 1981, with 56 out of 175 countries experiencing an increase in acceptance, according to The Williams Institute's Global Acceptance Index11. Canada, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands are the top five most accepting countries, while the US ranks number 23 on the list. Although society has become more accepting of queer individuals, they have never been permitted full equality. While queer visibility and inclusion is on the rise, their everyday lives are still dictated by structural hegemonic restraints.

city welcoming for all genders and putting gender responsiveness at the helm of its urban function. The city not only offers safe meeting spaces for queer people, such as the Regenbogenhaus (Rainbow House), to discuss topics and address concerns of LGBTQ+ citizens in Zurich, but it also encourages all to participate in decision making as part of its whole-of-society approach to urban planning (Gavankar 2022). Various Indian cities are also making efforts towards gender-balanced planning. Delhi opened its first gay-only hotel15. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is also planning to build 500 toilets for the LGBTQ+ community (Singh 2022). Annual gatherings16 for queers and allies are becoming commonplace in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Pune, Bengaluru and more with Delhi Queer Pride Parade being held since 2008 and the sixth Pink Rally17 hosted in Mumbai in January 2023. The Chennai Book Fair 2023 had a stall set up by Queer Publishing House18, exclusively for books on and by LGBTQ+ individuals, in a first for the community. A 2021 Gallup poll found that 7.1% of the US identifies as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender – twice the percentage than in 2012 when Gallup started measuring the community. It is imperative to note that one in five Gen Z members (21%) now identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender and this percentage has almost doubled in just 5 years (Jones 2022). According to The World Economic Forum’s Audience Representation Index12, 59% of ethnic and racial minorities and 49% of people generally prefer to engage with brands that include and represent different groups in society. When looking at the present conditions of queer representation in media, this report is of crucial significance as it was launched in March 2022 to help measure and improve the state of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) in the content audiences consume across news, film and TV, publishing, gaming and sports. It found that the queer community felt they were least authentically represented in media portrayals. 1 out of every 2 LGBTQ+ consumers claim that they would stop using a service or product that they deem noninclusive. Businesses have an obvious motive to connect DE&I to their key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure their progress in addressing this issue over time (Zafar and Ellis 2022). On the bright side, institutional efforts are being made to accommodate and increase visibility of LGBTQ+ persons. For instance, Zurich topped the 2019 PICSA13 Index for inclusive prosperity (GZA News 2019). The city has a separate Office14 for Gender Equality, which works towards making the Queerbaiting and Queer coding | 48 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 What Next? In his 2022 Netflix Special Landing, comedian Vir Das proclaimed, “It is the prerogative of every generation to shatter your social constructs through conversation. For you, that's gender. So, go ahead, shatter it” (Netflix 2022; emphasis added). A 2006 study, conducted by Edward Schiappa, Peter Gregg and Dean Hewes, titled, “Can One TV Show Make a

Difference?” found that for viewers with the fewest direct gay contacts, exposure to Will & Grace (first aired 1998-2006, then returned in 2017-2020) had a strong influence on reducing sexual prejudice and that exposure to gay men on television was functioning similarly to interpersonal contact. The team built upon the work of Gordon Allport19 (1954), who proved that contact between minority groups and majority groups can reduce prejudice in the latter. With their study, Schiappa and his team proved that Allport’s theory also applies to mass media. Their theory came to be known as Parasocial Contact Hypothesis20 and has been proven time and again with follow-up studies on shows like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (2003-2007) and Six Feet Under (2001-2005). These studies elucidate how positive media portrayals of the queer community can work to combat prejudice and subsequently the discrimination faced by them in society (Borden 2017). A survey conducted by Boston Consulting Group and New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center showed that in case of queer people feeling included at their places of employment, what matters is essentially the work culture. It also found that workers who have negative experiences at work vis-à-vis their identity (such as insensitive comments and feeling isolated or unwelcome) are less productive, less innovative, and less empowered. They are not only more likely to quit their present job because of culture but moreover, are less likely to accept employment at workplaces that they perceive to have a non-inclusive culture. The objective is to create work atmospheres where queer people don’t have to hide a crucial part of their identity. The challenge in creating inclusive workplaces where queer people can not only feel accepted but prosper lies in moving beyond a monolithic view of the LGBTQ community. It requires new tools to increase awareness, modify norms, and implement enforcement mechanisms in order to embed these changes (Dupreelle et al 2020). What does a comedian’s social commentary, a theory given by a social psychologist reworked by media theorists and a survey done by a consulting firm and community centre have in common? They all point to the same thing. Mere representation of the LGBTQ+ community in the media has increased and will continue to do so in a post globalised, market-capitalist economy and social media governed polity. What is essential in framing favourable dispositions, breaking down stereotypes and enabling environments where queer people are not only included as a tokenistic stint but are in fact allowed to flourish requires realistic media portrayals, exposure to positive depictions and conversations about gender and sexuality destigmatized. 49 | Queerbaiting and Queer coding Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Endnotes 1. Lewis, Maria. 2021. “Early Hollywood and the Hays Code.” ACMI, 14 Jan 2021. https://www.acmi.net.au/stories-andideas/early-hollywood-and-hays-code/

9. Hanson, Ellis. 2011. “The Future's Eve: Reparative Reading after Sedgwick.” South Atlantic Quarterly. 1 January 2011; 110 (1): 101–119. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/00382876-2010-025 10. “LGBTQ Legislation Tracker | Freedom for All Americans.” n.d. Freedom for All Americans. Accessed December 26, 2022. https://freedomforallamericans.org/legislativ e-tracker/ 11. Flores, Andrew R. 2021. “Social Acceptance of LGBTI People in 175 Countries and Locations: 1981 to 2020.” The Williams Institute, November 2021. https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publica tions/global-acceptance-index-lgbt/ 12. World Economic Forum. 2022. “Benchmarking Diversity and Inclusion in Media and Entertainment: The Audience Representation Index.” 8 March, 2022. https://www.weforum.org/reports/benchmar king-diversity-and-inclusion-in-media-andentertainment-the-audience-representationindex 13. Carroll, David. n.d. “The PICSA Index - Prosperity & Inclusion City Seal & Award.” PICSA Index. Accessed December 26, 2022. https://www.picsaindex.com/the-picsa-index/ 14. “Gender Equality - City of Zurich.” n.d. Stadt Zürich. Accessed December 26, 2022. https://www.stadtzuerich.ch/prd/en/index/gleichstellung.html. 2. “The Celluloid Closet.” n.d. Wikipedia. Accessed December 26, 2022. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Celluloid_ Closet. 3. Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge. chromeextension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmk aj/http://lauragonzalez.com/TC/BUTLER_g ender_trouble.pdf 4. Hulan, Haley. 2017. “Bury Your Gays: History, Usage, and Context,” McNair Scholars Journal: Vol. 21 : Iss. 1 , Article 6. Available at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/mcnair/vol21/i ss1/6 5. “Bait-and-Switch Lesbians.” n.d. TV Tropes. Accessed December 26, 2022. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Mai n/BaitAndSwitchLesbians 6. Laclau, Ernesto. 1995. “The Time Is Out of Joint.” Diacritics 25 (2): 86–96. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/465146 7. Brazelton, Bennett. 2018. “The Politics of Madvillainy: Queer Interventions in HipHop.” Critical Theory And Social Justice, Vol. 7(Spring): 43-63. https://core.ac.uk/works/51718262 8. Gupta, Medhavi. 2021. “Rainbow Capitalism: Performativity Vs. Inclusivity.” PeaceX, September 25, 2021. https://www.thepeacex.com/post/rainbowcapitalism-performativity-vs-inclusivity Queerbaiting and Queer coding | 50 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

15. India's First Small Boutique Luxury Guesthouse and Art Gallery for MEN ONLY. Accessed December 26, 2022. https://www.misterandarthouse.com/ 16. Basu, Rumela. 2022. “Pride Month Special - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Goa, Pune and Bangalore are among India’s most LGBTQ friendly destinations.” Telegraph India. https://www.telegraphindia.com/mykolkata/places/mumbai-delhi-kolkata-goapune-and-bangalore-are-among-indiasmost-lgbtq-friendly-destinations/cid/1869754 17. India Today. 2023. “Transgender community members take part in 6th 'Pink Rally' in Mumbai.” Accessed January 15, 2023. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/photo/trans gender-community-members-take-part-in6th-pink-rally-in-mumbai-1636531-2020-01- 13/1 18. Kannadasan, Akila. 2023. “Queer Publishing House, exclusively for books on and by the LGBTQ, is now at the Chennai Book Fair 2023.” The Hindu, January 12, 2023. https://www.thehindu.com/society/queerpublishing-house-exclusively-for-books-onand-by-the-lgbtq-is-now-at-the-chennaibook-fair-2023/article66359951.ece 19. Allport, Gordon W. 1954. The nature of prejudice. Cambridge: Addison-Wesley. 20. Schiappa, Edward, Peter B. Gregg and Dean E. Hewes. 2005. “The Parasocial Contact Hypothesis, Communication Monographs.” 72:1, 92-115, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/036377505200034254 4 Aldrich, Robert. 2002. The Seduction of the Mediterranean: Writing, Art and Homosexual Fantasy. London: Routledge. ProQuest Ebook Central. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203160053 Angelo, Paul J. and Dominic Bocci. 2021. “The Changing Landscape of Global LGBTQ+ Rights.” Council on Foreign Relations, January 29, 2021. https://www.cfr.org/article/changinglandscape-global-lgbtq-rights Borden, Jane. 2017. “ ‘Will & Grace’ reduced homophobia, but can it still have an impact today?.” The Washington Post, September 15, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertain ment/will-and-grace-reduced-homophobiabut-can-it-still-have-an-impacttoday/2017/09/14/0e6b0994-9704-11e7-82e4- f1076f6d6152_story.html Brown, Adelia. 2021. “Hook, Ursula, and Elsa: Disney and Queer-coding from the 1950s to the 2010s.” The Macksey Journal Volume 2, Article 43 https://shorturl.at/avyT7 51 | Queerbaiting and Queer coding References Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

GZA News. 2019. “Zurich scores top spot in inclusive prosperity index.” November 22, 2019. https://www.greaterzuricharea.com/en/news/ zurich-scores-top-spot-inclusive-prosperityindex Hazra, Neha. 2021. “Queerer than Canon: Fix-it Fanfiction and Queer Readings.” SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal: Vol. 5 , Article 16. https://scholarworks.seattleu.edu/suurj/vol5/i ss1/16 Jones, Jeffrey M. 2022. “LGBT Identification in U.S. Ticks Up to 7.1%.” Gallup, February 17, 2022. https://news.gallup.com/poll/389792/lgbtidentification-ticks-up.aspx Kim, Koeun. 2017. “Queer-coded Villains (And Why You Should Care).” Dialogues@RU, Volume 12: 156-165. https://shorturl.at/elrO5 Koehm, Diana. 2018. “Revision as Resistance: Fanfiction as an Empowering Community for Female and Queer Fans.” Honors Scholar Theses. 604. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/srhonors_t heses/604 Konietzko, Bryan. 2014. “Korrasami is canon.” [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://bryankonietzko.tumblr.com/post/1059 16338157/korrasami-is-canon-You-cancelebrate-it-embrace Collier, Cassandra M. 2015. “The love that refuses to speak its name : examining queerbaiting and fan-producer interactions in fan cultures.” Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2204 DopeyPixie. 2013. “FanFiction ‘Lingo.’” Fanfiction, 3 April 2013. Accessed January 4, 2023. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9165581/1/FanF iction-Lingo Dupreelle, Pierre., Gabrielle Novacek, Jeff Lindquist, Nathan Micon, Simon Pellas, and Glennda Testone. 2020. “A New LGBTQ Workforce Has Arrived—Inclusive Cultures Must Follow.” Boston Consulting Group, June 23, 2020. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/incl usive-cultures-must-follow-new-lgbtqworkforce Fathallah, Judith. 2015. “Moriarty's ghost: Or the queer disruption of the BBC's Sherlock.” Television and New Media, 16(5), 490-500. Epub 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476414543528 Gavankar, Anusha Kesarkar. 2022. “Building Gender-Responsive Cities.” Observer Research Foundation. November 7, 2022. https://www.orfonline.org/expertspeak/building-gender-responsive-cities/ Goodreads. “Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language Quotes.” Accessed 19 December, 2022. https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/23 1412-semiotica-e-filosofia-del-linguaggio Queerbaiting and Queer coding | 52 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

Needham, Jessica Kathryn. 2018. “Queering player agency and paratexts: An analysis and expansion of queerbaiting in video games.” M.A. thesis, Wilfrid Laurier University. https://core.ac.uk/download/216874572.pdf Netflix. 2022. “Vir Das: Landing.” 26 December, 2022. 1:06:29. Nordin, Emma. 2015. “From Queer reading to Queerbaiting: the battle over the polysemic text and the power of hermeneutics.” M.A. thesis, Stockholm University. https://www.divaportal.org/smash/get/diva2:839802/FULLTE XT01.pdf Robinson, Brandon Andrew. 2016. “Heteronormativity and Homonormativity.” The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, pp. 1–3. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118663219.wbeg ss013. Rodenbiker, Austen James. 2014. “Imagining Queerness / Queer Imagination: Online Slash Fiction and Radical Fan Productions.” M.A. Thesis, The University of Texas at Austin https://core.ac.uk/reader/211359892 Romano, Aja. 2014. “How to kill your slash fandom in 5 steps.” The Daily Dot, July 21, 2014. http://www.dailydot.com/geek/how-to-killyour-fandom-sterek-queerbaiting/ Sheehan, Cassidy. 2015. “Queer-baiting on the BBC’s Sherlock: Addressing the Invalidation of Queer Experience through Online Fan Fiction Communities.” Undergraduate Research Posters. Poster 122. Virginia Commonwealth University. http://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/ 122 Singh, Paras. 2022. “Delhi to soon get 517 toilets for transpersons.” The Hindustan Times, August 6, 2022. https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhinews/delhi-to-soon-get-517-toilets-fortranspersons-101659723827150.html Svobodová, Tamara. 2022. “The Queer Outcasts: Three Decades of Queer-Coded Characters in Mainstream Animation.” diss., Masaryk University. https://is.muni.cz/th/y213w/495619_The_Qu eer_Outcasts.pdf The Times of India. 2022. “Using queerbaiting to market movies.” July 16, 2022. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/genderjuly-18-2022/using-queerbaiting-to-marketmovies/articleshow/92918220.cms YouTube. 2019. “Kristen Bell: Eleanor Is Kind Of Bi & It's Fine With Me.” CONAN on TBS. January 24, 2019. 1:35. https://youtu.be/r8WPaifjvFs Zafar, Hesham and Sarah Kate Ellis. 2022. “Why LGBTQ representation should be a priority for business and media.” World Economic Forum Annual Meeting. May 24, 2022. 53 | Queerbaiting and Queer coding Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

"In the field of foreign af airs, peace negotiations have an unconscious bias towards masculinised norms or traditions of power" 54 | V

The field of International Relations is a dynamic one. It witnesses the culmination of a range of disciplines, right from economics to environmental studies. A part of this includes the exercise of diplomacy in national and international contexts that actualises its practice. However, ever since its inception as a discipline, which is said to be after World War I, the field has been primarily dominated by men. The participation and recognition of women in diplomacy have been significantly scanting. As indicated by Ann Towns’ research, “the gender dimension in the diplomatic profession has been almost completely overlooked.” (Ardwing 2011)1 Scholarly works concerning this often indicate the existing gender bias2 and societal roles associated with gender to be the major reason for this difference. She also points out the country-specific policies that these diplomats represent. They also have their versions of gender policies that tend to promote or discourage the differential treatment of genders in the field of diplomacy. Female diplomats are seeking to find different ways to compete or interact in diplomatic circles, something that male diplomats aren’t expected to do so.3 Thus, indicating the gender codes prevalent in national and international diplomatic circles. Major decision-making bodies like the United Nations Security Council have witnessed less female representation. The statistics have relatively improved but there’s still a long way to go.4 Even though the diplomatic community seems to be cognizant of it, there is a serious lack of address for this concern. Exceptions do exist but they are countable, which reflects the grave under-representation of women in diplomacy. This paper aims to analyse and understand the crux of this looming disparity that overlooks women as competent diplomats. It goes beyond participation to look into female diplomats in decision-making and how gender codes prevalent in national and international diplomatic circles define their profession. Lastly, it seeks to evaluate the existing schemes for promoting women in diplomacy and suggest alternate desirable schemes to address the situation of women in diplomacy. Abstract Keywords: Women in diplomacy; gender bias; gender codes in diplomacy; gender equality in foreign policy Women in Diplomacy: A Reality Overlooked Alankrita Dutta B.A. (Hons) Political Science Indraprastha College for Women, Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 | 55

Women in Diplomacy | 56 Diplomacy has been in practice since time immemorial, with records of it being practiced in the ancient cities of Mesopotamia and Babylon. Various scholars have different interpretations of the term. Viotti and Kauppi (2001) define diplomacy as the ‘management of international relations by communications to include negotiations, leading to a bargain or agreement’ (Ruey 2017). There are several forms of diplomacy, the most common being bilateral diplomacy conducted in the form of missions via official embassies (Towns 2017, 188) In general, foreign affairs has mostly been regarded as a field associated with prestige, elitism, and highly knowledgeable bureaucrats. Broadly, the service has been resistant to the entry of women and tends to be male-dominated. Discriminatory rules were prevalent in Europe and India such as ‘marriage bans’ which coerced women to choose between their career as a diplomat and marriage. These gender-biased rules were in practice till the 1970s, indicating gender dynamics in foreign affairs. The 1970s saw the rise of several women’s movements and discussions around the inclusion of women in the international agenda. However, we haven’t come far in terms of the representation and participation of women in the field of foreign affairs. This data isn’t uniform and has regional variations. Towns and Niklasson bring this out in an article that provides a crossnational database, severely lacking in scholarly space on foreign affairs (Towns and Niklasson, 2016) Introduction Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 The aggregate share of ambassadors still stands at a mere 15 percent. Nordic countries lead the list in terms of appointment of female ambassadors at 35 percent whereas the Middle East and Asia stand at 6% and 10% respectively (ibid). Among Indonesia, Japan, and Korea India is leading in terms of appointment of female ambassadors and high commissioners at 18% (Tyler 2020). However, its proportion of ambassadors resembles its overall share of 18.5 percent female foreign service officials, given that the service is infamous for its limited inductions. As for Australia, more than 40 percent of its career diplomats abroad are women. However, it is to be noted that many of these changes have happened in just the last seven years (ibid). Historically, the domain of foreign affairs has been largely constrained by gender codes for women. These include marriage ban or aversion towards the promotion of female officials. Even though stringent rules as such no longer exist, but, there still exists considerable gender disparity in terms of representation and engagement of females in the world of foreign affairs. Women tend to be under-represented in postings to economically far-off states (Kreft, Niklasson, and Towns 2022, 297). Male career diplomats are over-represented in countries with economic clout (ibid). “Where are the women?”, feminist writer and theorist Cynthia Enloe posed this question way back in 1990 in her book “Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics”. Years later, this remains pertinent, especially in the domain of diplomacy.

To evaluate the representation and participation of women in diplomacy across the world. To critically assess the prevalent gender codes in national and international diplomatic circles. To analyse the existing schemes to promote women in diplomacy in different countries. Based on the examination of the above objectives, suggest alternatives for the inclusion and engagement of women in diplomacy. Since the field is primarily male-dominated, there are figurative connotations associated with female diplomats. The figure of a ‘diplomat’ has come to ‘overlap’ with ‘man’ and is assumed to be reflective of masculine traits (Towns 2020, 573). In countries like Indonesia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has recruited more women than men since 2005, and currently, they constitute 35 percent of Indonesian diplomats (Tyler 2020). Changes and reforms have been initiated and to some extent implemented. However, their rate of countering the gender gap has been significantly scanting, even in the twenty-first century. Although, there is a lack of prior scholarship on analysing diplomacy from a gender perspective, the study on the importance of gender in the field of foreign affairs has been on the rise, especially in terms of female career diplomats’ representation and engagement. This paper expands on the same and attempts to justify why there is a need for the engagement and representation of women in diplomacy. 1. 2. 3. 4. A qualitative methodology has been adopted for the research of this paper. Data collection has been primarily carried out through secondary sources like books, journals, websites, newspapers, and archives. Assessing literature from various libraries in the national capital such as the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) library, Delhi Public Library, and British Council Library to collate data for the same. This research focuses on both formal and informal roles of women in the field of diplomacy i.e., formal roles as career diplomats and informal roles in the form of diplomatic wives, daughters, agents, negotiators, etc. However, most of the literature available on case studies of individual foreign offices is mostly limited to North America, Northern Europe, and Australia. There is a lack of extensive study on foreign service and diplomacy from a gendered lens in Latin America, Africa, and Asia (Towns, Kreft, and Niklasson 2017, 193). A study conducted by the British Foreign Office in the late 1930s for diplomatic service recruitment concluded that since women were already playing the role of diplomatic wives and daughters, they weren’t entitled to be paid (US Institute of Diplomacy and Human Rights, 2020). This itself indicates the problematic perception towards the inclusion of women in diplomacy. Historically, they have played a pivotal role in the practice, however, their access to modern-day diplomacy has been recent. 57 | Women in Diplomacy Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Objectives Historical Context Methodology

Women in Diplomacy | 58 During the fifth century, women served as active agents of Roman-barbarian diplomacy (Becker and Piriou, 2008). Thus, their participation in the space wasn’t just limited to the institutionalized role of diplomatic wives. In the early modern period, women were ubiquitous in the field of foreign affairs. They were mostly associated with the domain via alliances of marriage. Since ancient times, the institution of marriage has been pivotal in establishing diplomatic relations. Direct descendants, wars, and succession crises were highly interconnected in the then-European society (Pohlig, 2021). Even though women weren’t formally recognised as diplomats, they were active diplomatic agents. Despite this, they were neither deployed as ambassadors nor as envoys. It was only in the twentieth century that they were recognised as diplomatic actors. European history provides instances of women being instrumental in the practice of diplomacy. The early eighteenth century saw Francoise d’Aubigne, a French noblewoman and wife of Louis XIV, and Marie-Anne de la Tremoille, Princess of Ursins, being key players in the diplomatic relations between France and Spain (Towns, 2016). Thus, we observe that the history of diplomacy expanded beyond the spectrum of diplomatic actors, especially in terms of women, as they were mostly informally engaged via strategic alliances of marriage and descendency and occasionally as diplomatic agents, instances of the latter being limited. Renee du Bee-Crespin, Countess of Guebrient, was said to be one of the earliest appointed female ambassadors who accompanied Louise-Marie Gonzaga, Queen of Poland to Warsaw in 1645. Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 What’s important to note is that here she accompanied her as an ambassador and not as an attendant of the Queen (Pohlig, 2021). The wives of ambassadors started to be honoured with the title of ambassadrice from the mid-seventeenth century and they held precedence in diplomatic ceremonies (ibid). In the modern period, Alexandra Kollontai was one of the first women to be sent as an ambassador of the Soviet Union to Norway in 1923, marking the beginning of the appointment of women as diplomats. In India, the post-independence era saw many Indian women taking charge as envoys abroad. These include Vijay Lakshmi Pandit, the first woman ambassador of India to the Soviet Union and the first female president of the United Nations General Assembly, C.B Muthamma, the first woman officer in the Indian Foreign Services, Lakhmi Menon, Deputy Minister in the Ministry of External Affairs, Late Sushma Swaraj, Former Minister of External Affairs, etc. However, diplomats like C.B Muthamma were subjected to misogynistic gender codes like the marriage bar which was discontinued only in 1973, and being discouraged to join the service during her interview (Rathore 2020). A lot has changed since independence but women’s representation and participation remain scanting. Most of the literature on this agenda was written only in the last ten years, indicating the mere underrepresentation and disregard towards the role of women in foreign affairs (Towns, 2016).

Thus, history indicates that the rise of women in diplomacy is quite recent and their efforts as formal and informal actors have received low priority in scholarly work. Contemporary times have witnessed the growing debate over the relevance of participation and representation of women in diplomacy, international affairs, security, and peacebuilding at multiple levels. One of the reasons for this is the increasing realization of the presence of gender imbalances in these aspects, which are generally regarded to be a ‘man’s forte’. Studies have shown that there’s a favorable implication of including women in the areas of foreign policy and security policy (European Union 2022). Added to this, existing research has indicated not only gender equality peace but peace negotiations including women fair better in terms of sustainability and effectiveness (ibid). Kristen P. Williams brings out in her paper ‘Feminism in Foreign Policy’ that the study of mainstream international relations has neglected to address women and gender issues in terms of foreign policy, decisions, and outcomes, and countries inclining towards gender equality have less hostile foreign policies. Prominent feminist scholar Camilla Stiver brings out the existing gender bias and ‘glass ceiling’ concerns in administration in her scholarly work ‘Gender Images in Public Administration: Legitimacy and the Administrative State’. The disproportionate representation of women in foreign policy is a phenomenon witnessed in most countries of the international system. Instances of Scandinavian countries like Sweden recording impressive numbers in terms of representation of women in diplomacy isn’t consistent across the domain of international affairs. According to an article by the Council on Foreign Relations, the institution of American foreign policy remains ‘disproportionately dominated by white men’ (Lopez and Turkington 2020). Even though women constitute 44 percent of the permanent staff at the state department, there’s only 29% percent engaged as Foreign Service specialists. Women are under-represented in hard power issues like security and defence. In 2019, women accounted for only 39 percent of the senior executives at the State Department and in even meager numbers in the Pentagon and intelligence communities (European Union 2022). The State Department data reflects this disparity with near to 60 percent of Foreign Service generalists and 70 percent of Foreign Service specialists being men (Lopez and Turkington 2020). A report released by the ‘Shecurity’ Index in 2022, which is in alignment with the Women, Peace, and Security agenda of the United Nations, presented figures on participation and representation of women in the military and diplomatic service of EU and G20 countries in 2018 and 2019. Concerning this paper, in 2019, women were better represented in diplomatic services with Finland, Latvia, Slovenia, and Sweden recording above 50 percent (SHEcurity 2022). However, in terms of women ambassadors, all the countries were below parity, with all much below 50 percent. 59 | Women in Diplomacy Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Representation and Participation of women in diplomacy 1

Women in Diplomacy | 60 Only Sweden and Estonia were close to 50 percent women in EU and G20 countries as female ambassadors (European Union 2022). As brought in the methodology of this paper, the data for Asia, Africa, and Latin America is significantly inadequate. However, the paper attempts to analyse the available data. In the Asia-Pacific region, Australia has recorded significant growth in terms of representation and participation of women in diplomacy. In the security Index that presents the number of women in foreign affairs committees of the national governments, Australia stands holds a place in the top 10 list (Caso and Zimmerman 2021). However, this comes after years of underrepresentation, with senior positions in international affairs merely instituting women (Tyler 2014). As for countries like India and Africa, the numbers remain significantly scanting. The Indian Foreign Service accounts for a mere 16 percent of women and only 18 percent of the women are in senior positions in embassies across the globe (Panicker 2021). There have been conversations and discussions around instituting a feminist foreign policy (FFP) in the broader Indian Foreign Policy framework for greater inclusion and participation of women and their interests (ibid). This section of the paper seeks to analyse the prevalent gender codes in various national and international diplomatic circles. Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 This section of the paper analyses the prevalent gender codes by exploring the ‘gendered’ aspect of the institution of diplomacy and citing contemporary examples to substantiate it. From the analysis of the first objective, we can infer that the field of diplomacy remains grossly over-represented by men. This is not to say that men don’t have a role to play or they should be excluded. The point is to have greater representation of women as they equally are an important part of the population, be it in any civilization or era. Even though in recent times, the gendercentric dimensions have gained precedence, we still have limited knowledge about how and where men and women are positioned in the field of diplomacy. As Aggestam and Towns bring out in their article titled ‘The gender turn in diplomacy: a new research agenda’, diplomacy as an institution is ‘gendered’ and it has nurtured ‘homosocial environments ingrained in masculinity norms, scripts, and practices’. Feminist scholarship on institutions also states that institutions are gendered in some way or the other as they involve the ‘interrelated rules and routines that define actions in terms of relations between roles and situations’(Aggestam and Towns 2018). In the field of foreign affairs, peace negotiations have an unconscious bias towards masculinised norms or traditions of power as its majorly associated with security and military concerns (ibid). Aggestem analyzed the findings of an interview survey of more than fifty peacemakers and demonstrated how gender differentiates the institutional operations and procedural Prevalent gender codes in national and international diplomatic circles

angles of peace negotiations (2018). The findings of the study indicated how the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda is “ghettoized”, something that is exclusive to women negotiators, being invalid or nonexistent for male counterparts. She presses on the need to have scholarly work that ‘probes’ the expression of masculinities in these kinds of conversations. Institutional scholarship divides itself into the formal and informal sense, with ministries of foreign or external affairs falling into the former category. Towns and Aggestem (2018) in their work reflect the societal notion of predictable divisions of labour, with women being concentrated in “soft” policy areas and men mostly being in “hard” policy areas. For a long time, diplomacy has seen this pattern play out. As seen in the example of Norway, the Norwegian women first entered as typists and later shifted to positions of civil servants but with “softer” portfolios (Neumann 2012, 138). Similar patterns were seen in the U.S. State Department in the 1980s where Civil Service positions were occupied by women and men predominantly occupied Foreign Service (ibid). Aggestam, Karin, and Towns in their paper Gendering Diplomacy and International Negotiations analyse contemporary ministries of foreign affairs (MFA) to locate the position of men and women in such bodies. The cases include Turkey and Sweden. In Turkish MFA, women are represented more as consular and expert officers than career diplomats whereas in Sweden, over-represented in administration despite having overall parity in the ministry (Niklasson and Robertson 2018). Drifting away from the scholarly work, there are various contemporary examples and instances of disadvantages faced by being a women diplomat, especially when one perceives it from an intersectional perspective. Bimha’s interviews with African female diplomats serve as a relevant instance of this. One of the diplomats she interviewed stated that most African women diplomats were subjected to unfavourable decisions of male political leaders. They were left with no choice but to abide by it to make it to the top positions of ambassadors and consuls (Bimha 2021). Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, the first African woman to serve as the DirectorGeneral of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was subjected to racist and sexist statements from Western media (ibid). Her academic qualifications were undermined, with the media focusing on her “grandmotherly” age when history shows that the position has been held by people much older than her. However, they were not met with such scrutiny. Sweden heralded as the pioneer for promoting women in diplomacy did away with its Feminist foreign policy. This has been a critical concern of the subject as the newly installed government claims that the policy constrains Swedish values and traditions (Walfridsson 2022). In the year 2019, 50 out of the 193 Permanent Representatives to the United Nations (UN) were women. This indicates improved results in comparison to 15 and 20 women Permanent Representatives in the 1980s and 1990s respectively. Even though contemporary times witness more women representatives, statistically, in comparison 61 | Women in Diplomacy Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

Women in Diplomacy | 62 to their male counterparts, many still don’t occupy significant posts and are constrained by unequal access to opportunities and discriminatory prejudices and norms prevailing in society. With the growing discourse around the significance of gender in diplomacy, especially with the participation and representation of women, governments around the world have made efforts for greater inclusion of women in the field of diplomacy, however, the route to parity is a long time which will take time to channelise. On 9 November 2022, The European Union or EU established the WomEn Diplomats Network (WEDIN EU), a collective of EU Member States and European External Action Service (EEAS) women to advance the EU’s commitment to supporting gender equality in the rest of the world (EU 2022). The conception of Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) was been gaining wide traction over the last few decades, with various western countries like France and Canada following suit after Sweden. The concept can be understood in different contexts, based on the situation or region it is applied to as a unitary definition narrows its understanding (Magan 2022). Even though such policies reflect India’s high regard for gender equality, some of them being India’s commitment to UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 and India’s membership in the United Nations Commission on Status of Women in 2020, in the external affairs front, the number of Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 women workforce in Indian Foreign Force remains skewed, especially in terms of representation in high ranking positions (ibid). The Indian External Affairs Minister S, Jaishankar also recognises this and calls for more engagement of women in foreign policy concerns and reflecting women’s interest in foreign policy. The Indian Foreign Service has been particularly limited vacancies, merely allocating around 30 to 33 posts and debates have been going on for years now to expand the same. In Indonesia, there are around 35 percent of women diplomats and the government has been planning to support them by providing more opportunities for promotion and appointment to high levels. To some extent, the feminist movement in Asia has provided a space for working towards genderequitable policies. Here, we can acknowledge that there exists a disparity between developed and developing countries in their approach to the inclusion and representation of women in the field of diplomacy. However, from a broad perspective, the schemes still lack in establishing parity for women, much of them being stated than being implemented in actuality. So far the paper has explored the representation of women in diplomacy, the prevailing gender codes which shape how they work and are positioned, and the existing gender schemes that promote women in diplomacy which for the most part is still in the initial phase. A close look at the literature of this paper indicates that much Existing schemes to promote women in diplomacy The way forward: Alternatives

of the scholarly work on gender and women in diplomacy is focused on the West. There’s a need to diversify scholarly research on this agenda to African, Asian, and Latin American countries. The contextual differences will enable us to elucidate more on the modalities of women’s inclusion and greater engagement in diplomacy, not narrowing it down to one context and having a comparative study. This is indicative of the problem of Eurocentrism in comparative politics. Added to this, the field lacks sound feminist theories that substantiate the need for women’s greater engagement in foreign affairs, unlike mainstream theories of realism or idealism. The institution is highly centered around prevailing gender norms biased toward women. Even though the diplomatic community realizes it, the concern has a scanting address. Policymakers and governments should address the discipline of International Relations’ resistance to women, which is reflected in the underrepresentation of women in diplomacy by promoting holistic policies that call for their participation and active engagement. Other than this, there’s a need to have these conversations in the mainstream, which largely remains under-scored. For example, the US State Department initiative, the Diplomacy Lab, engages faculties from its partner universities to tackle policy-centric research questions (Dhar 2022). Lastly, we need to recognise the fact that a large section of the women population across the world remains disadvantaged, which is further aggravated by the gendered prejudices prevailing in societies, even in developed countries of the West. http://www.afsa.org/sites/default/files/06 19_diversity_data_for_web.pdf Diplomacy is a practice that is largely based on merit rather than gender, calling for a high degree of specialization. Thus, more women representation also calls for greater access to opportunities and resources for this section of the population. 1. Aldrich, Robert. 2002. The Seduction of the Mediterranean: Writing, Art and Homosexual Fantasy. London: Routledge. ProQuest Ebook Central. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203160053. Angelo, Paul J., and Dominic Bocci. 2021. “The Changing Landscape of Global LGBTQ+ Rights.” Council on Foreign Relations, January 29, 2021. https://www.cfr.org/article/changinglandscape-global-lgbtq-rights. Borden, Jane. 2017. “‘Will & Grace’ reduced homophobia, but can it still have an impact today?” The Washington Post, September 15, 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertain ment/will-and-grace-reduced-homophobiabut-can-it-still-have-an-impacttoday/2017/09/14/0e6b0994-9704-11e7-82e4- f1076f6d6152_story.html. 63 | Women in Diplomacy Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Endnotes References

Women in Diplomacy | 64 Brown, Adelia. 2021. “Hook, Ursula, and Elsa: Disney and Queer-coding from the 1950s to the 2010s.” The Macksey Journal Volume 2, Article 43. https://www.google.com/url? sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc= Collier, Cassandra M. 2015. “The love that refuses to speak its name: examining queerbaiting and fan-producer interactions in fan cultures.” Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 2204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/2204 . DopeyPixie. 2013. “FanFiction ‘Lingo.’” Fanfiction, April 3, 2013. Accessed January 4, 2023. https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9165581/1/FanF iction-Lingo . Dupreelle, Pierre, Gabrielle Novacek, Jeff Lindquist, Nathan Micon, Simon Pellas, and Glennda Testone. 2020. “A New LGBTQ Workforce Has Arrived—Inclusive Cultures Must Follow.” Boston Consulting Group, June 23, 2020. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/incl usive-cultures-must-follow-new-lgbtqworkforce. Fathallah, Judith. 2015. “Moriarty's ghost: Or the queer disruption of the BBC's Sherlock.” Television and New Media 16, no. 5 (2015): 490-500. Epub 2014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1527476414543528. Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Gavankar, Anusha Kesarkar. 2022. “Building Gender-Responsive Cities.” Observer Research Foundation, November 7, 2022.

"It becomes possible to trace, therefore, a dichotomy between the Tagorean Woman’s perception as subversive and her reality as oppressive—a dichotomy between her ghare and her baire." 65 | VI

Abstract An iconic figure in Bengali and world literature, Rabindranath Tagore is credited with modernising the Bengali short story, moving the genre away from the ‘romantic’ themes preferred by his contemporaries, and, significantly, creating the ‘Tagorean Woman’. His portrayal of female characters, especially in his short stories, is often seen as not only being deeply empathetic but also recognising their subversive potential, mirroring his progressive statements on social issues affecting women in his non-fiction. It is this perception that the essay seeks to problematise, first situating Tagore in his socioeconomic provenance and then moving on to an examination of his ideation of women in life, fiction, and nonfiction. In order to accomplish the above, this essay attempts to examine events from Tagore’s life, certain non-fiction essays by Tagore, lectures delivered in the United States of America, and four of his short stories - Khata, Postmaster, Thakurda, and Dena Paona. There is also an attempt to examine subversion and acts of agency and selfexpression, both within Tagore’s family and his writing, drawing on the work of scholars such as Luce Irigaray, Gayatri Spivak, Hélène Cixous, Judith Butler, William Radice, Bashabi Fraser, etc. However, the essay finds that Tagore had an essentialist understanding of women, evidenced by contradictory actions with regard to the women in his life, and conflicting statements made in his essays or lectures. In fiction too, all Tagorean women, like Khata’s Uma, Dena-Paona’s Nirupama, Thakurda’s Kusum, and Postmaster’s Ratan, have to undergo a process of transformation wherein they gain or realise certain inherent qualities in order to successfully become ‘woman’. Therefore, this essay posits that there exists a dichotomy between the Tagorean Woman’s perception as subversive and her reality as oppressive - a dichotomy, if we may put it thus, between her ghare and her baire. Keywords: Tagore, Feminist theory, subversion, agency, writing The Ghare and the Baire of the Tagorean Woman Pratyusha Chakrabarti B.A (Hons) History St. Stephen's College Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 | 66

Satyendranath Tagore, the first Indian to be part of the Indian Civil Service, and his wife, Jnanadanandini Debi, heralded the movement to modernise’ Jorasanko’s andarmahal. Women of the Tagore family were among the first to abandon the purdah, with a veil-less Jnanadanandini apparently accompanying Satyendranath on an evening ride in an open-top carriage, much to the consternation of the orthodox section of Calcutta (Fraser 2019). Rabindranath himself was vocal about issues affecting women, too. Critiques of the discrimination experienced by women in the status quo feature strongly in both his fiction and non-fiction. While his understanding of women and their role in society changes over time, Bharati Roy posits that by the early years of the 20th century, many Tagorean heroines displayed a distinct personality and possessed a certain degree of subversive potential, such as those found in Yogayog, Gora, and most famously, Ghare Baire (Ray 2010, 73). It is this Tagorean ‘New Woman —characters that “represented, rather than challenged, contemporary norms of kinship related to gender” (Sen 2016, 99)—that this essay seeks to ultimately problematise, both in his fiction and non-fiction. In 1887, Tagore delivered a lecture on the ‘Hindu Vivaha’ (Hindu Marriage), critiquing the views of conservatives like Chandranath Basu, who drew attention to ideas such as the purported ‘high status’ of Hindu women prior to the advent of Christianity and the incomparable nature of Hindu conjugality (Chakrabarti 1998). Poet, novelist, philosopher, artist, reformer, composer, playwright, and educationist - Rabindranath and his legacy stretch infinitely across the sociocultural horizons of Bengal, India, and arguably the world. Born at the cusp of a time of great ferment in history and into an exceptional family, Tagore’s (and the Tagores’) role in the shaping of the ‘modern’ Bengali as well as the soon-to-be-born nation’s consciousness is immeasurable. Rabindranath is also credited with modernising, if not pioneering, the Bengali short story, initiating the use of colloquial Bengali in the literary sphere, and moving Bengali literature away from primarily romantic themes. Tagore’s portrayal of female characters, especially in his short stories, is often seen as being deeply empathetic and recognising their subversive potential, mirroring his progressive statements on social issues affecting women in his non-fiction. It is this perception that the essay seeks to problematise, first situating Tagore in his socioeconomic provenance and then moving on to an examination of his ideation of women in life, fiction and nonfiction. The Thakur poribar (Tagore family) is often seen as embodying the progressive nature of the national movement in Bengal, especially with regard to women and their emancipation. Factors such as a generational involvement with the Bramho Samaj, the Tagores’ caste status as Pirali Bramhans etc. formed the basis for the aforementioned progressive and reformist attitude, no doubt also inspired by European ideas on the ‘status of women’ in India. The Ghare and the Baire of the Tagorean Woman | 67 6 1 2 3 4 5 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 Basu is evidently supported by Akshay Chandra Sarkar, who, in his opinion, holds the widow to a life of strict abstinence while excusing the widower from the same. Strongly dismissing the above ideas, Tagore posits (quoting from the Manusmriti to substantiate his argument) that stray shlokas can hardly defend this alleged reverence of women and, in fact, appear to be quite disrespectful towards her (Tagore 2003, 158). He states, Chandranath Babu, on the strength of a rather abstruse interpretation of Raghunandan, would have us believe that the Hindu wife embodies the elements of virtue, purity, supernatural powers, divinity, and grace. Now the commonplace understanding is that for the woman, the husband is the god... (Tagore 2003, 158) Instead, he advocates for a historical understanding of Hindu marriage, especially as an institution rooted in social needs and conveniences. Therefore, he appears to be disavowing an essentialist understanding of Hindu wives and, thereby, (Hindu) women. He also makes a case for the scientific revolution of the debate concerning the correct age for women to marry, which is especially significant given the fiery debates regarding the Age of Consent Bill that were to engulf Bengal not too long after (Sarkar 2000, 601-622). Tagore lays the burden of social change on the ‘educated," the category to which he belongs, stating, “The educated alone can bring about a quick and effective stop to the practice of infant marriages (Tagore 2003, 161).” In the same text, however, he also states, “A widower, for the sake of domestic and social convenience, may remarry, but the widow’s marrying a second time causes great social distress and dislocation (Tagore 2003, 159).” Further, as contemporary critics had also pointed out, only three years prior to this talk, he had married Mrinalini, who was, at the time, 10 years old and his junior by 12 years. His daughters, Madhurilata and Renuka, had later been married off at 14 and 12, respectively. His justification for the latter was that Mrinalini herself had found it easier to adjust to a new household at her tender age and that this was socially expected of them (Fraser 2019, 98). Here, it may also be of interest to note that ‘Mrinalini’ was a given name: Bhabatarini was renamed Mrinalini on account of the former being too ‘old-fashioned,’ and thus Tagore’s own wife was written into existence —a theme that shall be traced in detail later (Fraser 2019, 78). Of further interest is his lecture entitled ‘Woman’, delivered in the United States of America in the late 1910s, wherein he states, "Woman is endowed with the passive qualities of chastity, modesty, devotion, and self-sacrifice in a greater measure than man is” (Tagore 1917, 173), giving in to the same essentialism he found Chandranath guilty of. He critiques the Western woman for her unnatural ‘restlessness’ and ‘dram-drinking of sensationalism’, positing the domestic sphere as the “gift of God to women,” women who are the “mothers of the race (Tagore 1917, 174–177).” Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 68 | The Ghare and the Baire of the Tagorean Woman

This homogenised, unnatural Western woman may be juxtaposed with his vision of woman, elucidated in a 1922 essay where he speaks of ‘our’ women who know the Sati and Savitri legends by heart and whose suffering, which she “has to be ready” for, is romanticised as being “like sunlight, a creative force in their world (Tagore 2017).” At this point, it is important to ascertain that an essentialist understanding of ‘woman’ as possessing certain qualities that are ‘innate’ has been, both scientifically and theoretically, debunked. Drawing attention to scientific experiments disproving the alleged innateness of mothering, Marilyn French asserts, “Animals learn to mother: the female characteristic that most people believe is innate is learned” (French 2008, 25), something Cixous echoes in her refusal to “confuse the biological and the cultural (Cisoux 1976, 875).” The sex-gender divide and the recognition of intersectionality within the feminist movement, perhaps most famously and effectively by Judith Butler (Butler 1999), hold the idea of the homogenous, unidimensional, and especially natural woman to be suspect. A discussion on the critiques of essentialism within the feminist perspective can scarcely be complete without Simone de Beauvoir’s iconic pronouncement, “One is not born, but rather becomes a woman (Beauvoir 1953, 272).” It is this process of becoming that the essay seeks to trace in Khata and other Tagorean short stories. Tagore attributes his penchant for writing short stories to his association with the village and its ‘simple’ ways of life on his bbb. 2 2 sojourns to rural Bengal as a young landlord. Deeply hurt by accusations of lyricism at the expense of realism in his short stories, Tagore asserts in an interview, “There was never any want of realism in them [the short stories]. I've written what I've seen, deeply felt, and directly experienced (Choudhuri 1976, 73).” His best-known translator, William Radice, also identifies a ‘realism of feeling’ in his short stories, pointing out how they formed Tagore’s chosen medium for dwelling on social issues (Radice 2005). Khata, for example, draws attention to the interlinked evil of child marriages and the deprivation of girls/women from education. The use of ‘girls/women’ is deliberate, given the prior discussion on the invisible line dividing the girl, who has yet to become a woman, from womanhood. This essay, which draws inspiration from Hélène Cixous, contends that Uma experiences this significant social change during the time frame of the short story and that her writing played a significant role in bringing about the change because she writes herself into existence (Cisoux 1976, 881). Seven-year-old Uma, the Uma who caused “tremendous trouble” (Radice 2005, ch. 17) or was a “great nuisance” (Chaudhuri 2003), was evidently still a girl, as none of the innate qualities Rabindranath associates with women are yet conspicuous in her. Instead of being ‘meek’ (Tagore 1917, 182- 184), self-sacrificing, and accepting of her suffering, she is bewildered by it, reacting so strongly to her brother’s chastisement that he has to repent for it with the gift of the exercise book, even if of his own volition. The Ghare and the Baire of the Tagorean Woman | 69 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 Clearly, Gobindolal, who shares most of Pyarimohan’s opinions, would not encourage a woman to read or write; his gift of the khata indicates that Uma is still too young to be rid of her ‘feminine essence’ by pursuing education and thereby establishes that she is yet to become a woman. However, as a potential site of selfexpression, the exercise book was indeed instrumental in her later transition. When Uma is 8 years old, she starts adding original entries to the exercise book, which gives us our first direct impression of her. Until then, she is limited to ‘collecting’ lines from elsewhere; the contents betray nothing of her individuality apart from the actual act of writing. Her writings of this period, significantly, remain concise, sparse, and often contradictory. Thus, although the process has started, she is yet to become. According to this essay, the process begins in earnest at her wedding when she is nine years old and is ultimately complete by the end of the story. On the day of her wedding, Uma realises that “there would be no mercy in the house where she was going; she would have to learn after endless scoldings what things were regarded there as mistakes and faults (Radice 2005).” The full import of her realisation lies in the inevitability of its acceptance—she realises she cannot question but will have to perform duties perfected through repeated chastisement and thus learned through suffering. Herein lies a parallel to Spivak’s positioning of pain (in the case of childbirth) “within the concepts of normality and productivity (Spivak 1978, 244).” It is only after her intractable entrenchment into her husband’s home and the departure of her sole remaining connection with her parents, Joshi, that she takes to writing down nothing but her original ‘compositions’. Henceforth, as the narrator asserts, she had neither the time nor (more significantly) the inclination to copy down passages as was her prior practice. Therefore, this marks the crucial point in the story: in writing herself into existence, she has completed the aforementioned process of becoming. Uma is now a woman. Her becoming a woman is apparent from her unquestioning acceptance of Pyarimohan’s caustic comments regarding her meagre attempts at self-expression. She still does not understand the reason for her chastisement, but unlike before, she only feels a sense of shame and humiliation, not indignation. Uma’s action of transcribing the agomoni song that served as a painful reminder of home reveals the crucial role of the exercise book in the limited reclamation of her lost agency in so far as the exercise of her deeply restricted opportunity for self-expression could provide. Juxtaposing Uma’s writing with Pyarimohan’s or Gobindolal’s also proves to be an interesting endeavour. Keeping in mind the repeated assertion of their inherent lack of intellectuality (Radice 2005, ch. 17), their writings, too, seem to be intrinsically creative in so far as they enable two interrelated phenomena. Firstly, the verbalisation of an obviously manufactured justification of patriarchal practices allows them to crystallise, further cementing patriarchy. Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 70 | The Ghare and the Baire of the Tagorean Woman 7

2 2 Secondly, this glorification of patriarchy imbues otherwise ‘worthless’ men such as Pyarimohan and Gobindolal with sociocultural capital. Thus, their intellectual acumen is not above being written into existence. At the end of the story, when Uma is forced to give up her precious khata forever, she is bereft of all degrees of agency, individuality, and personhood. With the disappearance of writing, Uma is forced to unwrite herself from existence. Similar trajectories are visible in other Tagorean short stories, of which only three will be touched upon below. In Thakurda (Radice 2005, ch. 23), for example, Kusum is introduced to us only as Kailashbabu’s granddaughter; the reader is made aware of her name in the last paragraph of the story. The narrator-voice embodies the Tagorean archetype of a “shallow, jaunty, self-regarding individual, who is changed and deepened by the events of the story” (Radice 2005) - and minces no words regarding his high value in the ‘marriage-market.’ Interestingly, Kusum becomes the site of the (perceived) tussle of egos between Kailashbabu and the narrator, to the extent that the narrator’s staunch disapproval of Kailashbabu is justified by positing Kailashbabu’s ‘arrogance’ in his refusal to worship (Radice 2005, ch. 23) the narrator as an ideal husband for his granddaughter. The narrator makes it clear that he had every intention of marrying a girl who was both rich and beautiful, while Kusum was evidently neither. As a result, the almost malicious prank he pulls on jhkhkjhj. Kailashbabu is not the result of unrequited love but rather the reduction of a girl to a mere pawn in the conflict between male egos. By the end of the story, the narrator asks for Kusum’s hand in marriage, by which time, however, both Kusum and he have undergone qualitative transformations. Kusum chastises the narrator for his prank (on behalf of a man—her grandfather) and thus, in the narrator’s eyes, changes from “an item of merchandise waiting on the shelf till some unmarried man’s notice was attracted” to “a girl with a human heart inside her.” Even more interestingly, it is her “maternal deception” towards Kailashbabu that convinces the narrator that she is not just a girl but worthy of marriage. This perception of her ‘innate’ motherliness exhibited towards men, both in her consolation of her grandfather and chastisement of the narrator (usually associated with a mother’s role), makes Kusum a woman. Further, the descriptives used for her eyes—sojol, bipul, and krishnochokkho—romanticise her pain, a pain that was essential in the fading away of Kusum the balika. As Cixous asserts, “A woman is never far from "mother"... There is always within her at least a little of that mother's milk. She writes in white ink (Cisoux 1976, 881).” One of the first things told about Ratan, an 11- or 12-year-old girl in ‘The Postmaster,"’ is that she was unlikely to get married (Radice 2005, ch. 2) and throughout the story, her illiteracy is painted both as ggggggg The Ghare and the Baire of the Tagorean Woman | 71 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 11 10 9 8

2 2 making her unworthy to be the urban, literate Postmaster’s confidante and also as the exact reason he chooses to confide in her: he naturally told this “illiterate young girl” things he would never divulge to others. On behalf of Ratan, however, this ambivalence does not exist; she soon comes to see his family as hers and, more importantly, addresses them as such, writing into existence her closeness to the Postmaster. Longing for a “human object for the heart’s most intimate affections” prompts the Postmaster to begin teaching Ratan the alphabet, which marks the initiation of her process of becoming a woman. Interestingly, the transformation is completed during the Postmaster’s illness, when her child or mother… adult blurs (Chakravorty 2012, 132) briefly, although Tagore continues to refer to Ratan as a girl till the end of the story. Tagore writes, He wished his mother or sister were sitting here next to him, soothing his illness and loneliness with feminine tenderness. And his longings did not stay unfulfilled. The young girl Ratan was a young girl no longer. From that moment on she took on the role of a mother… (Chakravorty 2012, 132). Significantly, however, the incompleteness of her language learning remains a metaphor for the abrupt end of their mutual affection; when she is summoned to be informed of his permanent departure, she is revising her lessons. With his departure and the departure of the source of literacy, her agency also disappears. Her sorrow, when philosophically reflected on by the Postmaster, is poignantly but pointedly described as “inarticulate.” Their brief closeness and ultimate separation are paralleled in her ephemeral journey towards writing and the premature halt thereof. The last short story to be discussed in this essay, Dena-Paona, (Radice 2005, ch. 3) is touched upon primarily because of the resistance exhibited by Nirupama. Unlike Uma, Kusum, and Ratan, Nirupama verbalises her objection to seeing her father exploited for dowry. For a young bride to have a voice in itself is a subversive action, no doubt exacerbated by the content of her articulation - Do you think I have no honour? Do you think I am just a moneybag; the more money in it, the higher my value? No, Father, don’t shame me by paying this money (Radice 2005, ch. 3). However, despite the presence of these ‘I’ and ‘me,’ which only appear for the length of this dialogue, she remains, paralleling Kusum, the site of the tussle between her father and father-in-law for the rest of the story. Ramsundar, in his desperate and heartbreaking attempts at repaying his ‘debt’, while giving the reader the impression of a devoted father, is actually seeking reassurance of his position in the patriarchal structure. The repeated notion of indignity at his daughter’s in-laws’ house is seen as being detrimental to him, while the oppression suffered by his daughter is continually nnnnn Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 72 | The Ghare and the Baire of the Tagorean Woman

2 2 expressed as a subtext or posed through insults targeted at the family she was born into. The text poses its argument against dowry by highlighting Ramsundar’s inability to provide for the rest of his family. By seeking to reinstate the “natural claims that a father has to his daughter” which “had been pawned in place of a dowry”, Ramsundar is attempting to re-ascertain, as Spivak puts it, his “legal property rights over the product of a woman's body.” To return, however, to Nirupama’s moment of subversion, it is important to highlight that it resulted in her ultimate death. As the narrator points out, her ill health was not only due to her mother-in-law’s callousness but also to Nirupama’s own internalisation of her oppression, developing a “fixed belief that she was herself a servant in the household, dependent on the favours of her master.” Therefore, it can be surmised that what gave her the courage to articulate her resistance was her father’s “grey hair, pallid face, and permanently cowering manner” and not her own suffering. In taking on her father’s burden and bearing the consequences of the same without protest, Nirupama too forsakes her brief moment of subversion and returns, self-sacrificing, to become the ideal Tagorean woman. In this essay’s examination of Rabindranath’s ideation of women, both in fiction and non-fiction, and briefly touching upon the real-life implementation of the latter (or the lack thereof), a clear picture of the Tagorean Woman emerges. Despite his commonly perceived resistance to orthodoxal patriarchy, not least by virtue of his sociocultural provenance, it appears that he believed in an essentialist understanding of women as possessors of ‘natural’ or ‘innate’ qualities such as self-sacrifice, maternal instinct, and the ability to bear suffering without articulating protest; so much so that it was only in the acquiring or manifesting of these qualities that women became. Hence, this essay argues that, although the Tagorean Woman sought to exercise agency by writing (or articulating) herself into existence, she ultimately had to sacrifice that hard-earned agency in order to attain womanhood. It becomes possible to trace, therefore, a dichotomy between the Tagorean Woman’s perception as subversive and her reality as oppressive—a dichotomy between her ghare and her baire. 1. It is important to note that this essay does not attempt to undertake an exhaustive analysis of all of Tagore’s works. The inferences drawn are based on four short stories by Tagore, apart from some of his non-fiction work concerning women. However, the author believes that this framework could apply to more of Tagore’s works, including texts such as Chandalika. Further, this essay seeks to draw on Tagore’s ideation of women, and hence, apart from events and instances directly concerning Tagore, historical context is kept to a minimum. 2. Raja Rammohun Roy was in charge of the reformist Bramho Samaj movement. It placed itself within the fold of Hinduism, particularly drawing on the Upanishads, but The Ghare and the Baire of the Tagorean Woman | 73 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Endnotes

2 2 rejected practices such as idol worship, sati, child marriage, etc., instead advocating for monotheism and widow remarriage. Prince Dwarakanath Tagore, Rabindranath’s grandfather, helped in its foundation, while Debendranath, his father, converted (along with his family) to Brahmoism. Rabindranath himself was born and remained a life-long Bramho. 3. Pirali refers to a comparatively ‘polluted’ or low status within the Brahmin caste. This resulted in the Tagores facing a certain degree of ostracization from the Brahmanical fold, especially in socioreligious institutions and occasions, such as marriage. 4. The ‘status of women’ or the women’s question was seen as being the marker of a nation’s civility, and the ‘low status’ of women in India was often raised by colonial scholars as evidence of Indian society’s backwardness and barbarism. 5. Literally ‘inside-palace’, the andarmahal was a feature of most affluent Bengali households. The women would remain inside this part of the house and step outside only when absolutely necessary—that too, in full purdah. 6. The tussle regarding the ‘Women’s Question’ in ancient India played out substantially in the historiographical sphere too, where nationalist historians such as A.S. Altekar and R.C. Majumdar posited a ‘golden age’ where women enjoyed ‘high status’ as opposed to the colonial historians' accusations discussed earlier. 7. Gobindolal is described as someone who could never be ‘accused’ of “thinking on any subject”. Meanwhile, for Pyarimohan, it is said that “modern ideas had not penetrated him at all.” The fact that his writing was not only misinformed but, in fact, malicious is also acknowledged in the concluding lines of the text, referring to his “subtly barbed essays”; Rabindranath Tagore in “Exercisebook”. 8. The narrator states, “Parents fulsomely sang my praises and offered me various pūjās; and this (whether I liked their daughters or not) was quite congenial to me. A decent fellow like me deserved their pūjās!”; Rabindranath Tagore in “Thākurdā”. 9. Radice’s translation says, “never considered her beautiful.” However, the original Bengali states, “rupoboti boliya bhrom hoy nai” - he never made the mistake of thinking she was beautiful. 10. She is qualified with the word matrihridoya, "possessing the heart of a mother.” 11. ‘Sojol bipul krishnochokkho’, while translated by Radice asteary, “large, black eyes,” may also be understood as ‘tear-filled, measureless eyes, as dark as Lord Krishna’s.’ Radice also translates balika as girl, but that could perhaps be better qualified as little girl. Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 74 | The Ghare and the Baire of the Tagorean Woman

2 2 Beauvoir, Simone d. 1953. The second sex. London: Vintage Books. Butler, Judith. 1999. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge. Chakrabarti, Uma. 1998. “Beyond the Altekarian Paradigm: Towards a New Understanding of Gender Relations in Early Indian History.” Social Scientist 16 (8): 44- 52. Chakravorty, Mrinalini. 2012. “Picturing ‘The Postmaster’: Tagore, Ray, and the Making of an Uncanny Modernity.” Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media 53 (1): 117-46. Chaudhuri, Supriya, trans. 2003. “The Exercise Book.” In Selected Short Stories: Rabrindranath Tagore, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri and Sankha Ghosh. N.p.: Oxford University Press. Choudhuri, A. D. 1976. “Tagore’s Short Stories.” Indian Literature 19 (5): 72-79. Cisoux, Hélène. 1976. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” Edited by Keith Cohen and Paula Cohen. Signs 1 (4): 875-893. Fraser, Bashabi. 2019. Rabindranath Tagore. London: Reaktion Books. French, Marilyn. 2008. “Part One: Parents.” In From Eve to Dawn: A History of Women Volume I, 19-67. New York: The Feminist Press. “Rabindranath Tagore - Stories - গল্পগুচ্ছ - খা তা (khata).” n.d. Tagoreweb. https://www.tagoreweb.in/Stories/galpoguch chho-84/khata-352. “Rabindranath Tagore - Stories - গল্পগুচ্ছ - ঠা কুরদা (thakurda).” n.d. Tagoreweb. https://www.tagoreweb.in/Stories/galpoguch chho-84/thakurda-604. Radice, William, trans. 2005. Selected Short Stories. Northumberland: Penguin Books. Ray, Bharati. 2010. ““New Woman” in Rabindranath Tagore’s Short Stories: An Interrogation of “Laboratory.”” Asiatic 4 (2): 68-80. Sarkar, Tanika. 2000. “A Prehistory of Rights: The Age of Consent Debate in Colonial Bengal.” Feminist Studies 26 (3): 601-622. Sen, Nandini. 2016. “Women and Gender in Short Stories by Rabindranath Tagore: An Anthropological Introspection on Kinship and Family.” Anthropological Journal of European Cultures 25 (2): 94-115. Spivak, Gayatri. 1978. “Feminism and Critical Theory.” Women's Studies International Quarterly 1 (3): 241-246. The Ghare and the Baire of the Tagorean Woman | 75 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 References

2 2 Tagore, Rabindranath. 1917. “Woman.” In Personality: Lectures Delivered in America, 167-184. London: Macmillan. Tagore, Rabindranath. 2003. “Tagore Answers an Orthodox Critic.” In Social and Religious Reform: The Hindus of British India, edited by Amiya P. Sen. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Tagore, Rabindranath. 2017. “Was Rabindranath Tagore a feminist? Read his essay 'Woman and Home' from 1922 to find out.” Scroll.in. https://scroll.in/article/836967/wasrabindranath-tagore-a-feminist-read-hisessay-woman-and-home-from-1922-to-findout. Thakkur, Rabindranath. n.d. “Rabindranath Tagore - Stories - গল্পগুচ্ছ - দে না পা ওনা (denapaona).” Tagoreweb. https://www.tagoreweb.in/Stories/galpoguch chho-84/denapaona-464. Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 76 | The Ghare and the Baire of the Tagorean Woman

"Understanding the concept of love as one that is not to be mistaken for blind emotion but one that integrates reason and emotion and unites the self and the other" 77 | VII

Abstract For long, politics and love have existed as two dissimilar entities, each contrasting the other at several points throughout history. While the former is notorious for being a haven for corruption and deception, the latter is largely hailed as a uniting and passionate force. Several philosophers have also chimed in with their theories of love, including Plato and Aristotle. However, the changing times and culture call for the re-imagination of this very concept, particularly as the crux and end goal of politics. The paper aims to make an argument for perceiving love as a theory of major political ideals instead of focusing on its existence as an ‘illogical, emotional, and private’ value. Love has developed this reputation over time, partially because of its historical interlinking with ‘women and their feeble emotions’. Emotions have thus been denied appreciation for their transformative power and acknowledgement of how they centrally fuel politics. In a world constantly engulfed by a sea of paralysing cynicism, the way forward lies in attributing importance to morals and love and transforming them into political action. The paper provides a foundation for these arguments by drawing from the lived experiences of several aboriginal tribes’ cultures, second-wave black feminism, and specifically diving into the perspective of love in governance in the domestic arena and in the international arena, particularly in the spheres of foreign policy, immigration policy, and environmentalism. The research uses the larger question of the place for emotions in politics as a window into analysing the existing faults with the law enforcement system, the need for other-regarding politics, differentiation in the distribution of love in contemporary times, and how love as an ideal can serve as a probable key towards disentangling the moral dilemmas that have perturbed us since time immemorial. Keywords: Love, Feminism, Political Ideals, Culture, Politics, Transformation Denouncing The Vilification Of Love: Reimagining Emotions As The Core Of Politics Sifat Kaur Keer and Srujana Samsani B.A (Hons) Political Science Lady Shri Ram College for Women Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 | 78

Love is undeniably an emotion by definition, but it is also a conscious choice that is overwhelmingly affected by the social and political environment as well as several systemic biases. It does not exist as a single entity; rather, political institutions frequently deny the distribution of love to those who have experienced systemic discrimination. This goes against the perception of love, and the aforementioned dispensation is considered an act of structural violence. Contrary to misguided common perceptions, love, however, is not an all-encompassing space that allows evil to exist within it. It is represented through notions of warmth and kindness, and yet, it is not godly in the sense that it is meant to alleviate all suffering and grant us true bliss. Rather, it can be theorised that love is a humane force that not only allows one to liberate themselves from the shackles of oppressive entities but also opens their eyes to see the interconnectedness they share with their fellow beings. To love is to move towards a society that is tender towards those who have been marginalised and discriminated against for ages. It means balancing those ethics that have been devalued in the name of being too "fragile," namely, forgiveness, a sense of moral and practical responsibility, fairness, and compassion. To love, as Bell Hooks has put it, is to establish a love ethic that presupposes that everyone has the right to live fully and be free. A process that is all too common within societal structures today is that of ‘othering’. The distribution of love directly relates to this concept and assists this research in Aristotle, Jean-Paul Sartre, Plato, and James Baldwin are just a few of the philosophers who have contributed significant conceptualizations of what love is. The glaring majority of these pre-existing notions offer a respite from the cynicism that clouds political discussions. Anger, hatred, and fear are the driving forces behind the area's current overabundance of depressing emotions. Every day, more reports about violent crimes surface, and stories about how nefarious politics have impacted people leave one in a state of shock. The system that rules, guides, and forms the basis of human existence is soulless and lacks empathy. It then becomes crucial for humans, as a society, to move towards a politics based on kindness, generosity, forgiveness, and most of all, love. However, prior to establishing a concrete structure and placing love at its epicentre, it is first important to lay out what it means to love. Theorising what love connotes is inherently essential to providing a concrete structure for it to blossom practically in politics. However, by no means is it the intention of the authors to attribute a selfimposed, static definition to love. It is something that is experienced diversely in society. Judith Butler has also highlighted the somewhat uncertain nature of the idea in the sense that all humans do not perceive love in the same way. For some, it’s an intrinsic feeling; for others, it represents unconditional giving. It is difficult to contain these ideas in a single box, and therefore, there is a need to focus on what the idea of love encompasses and consider what the process of loving entails. Denouncing The Vilification Of Love | 79 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Theorising Love

2 2 establishing a variant concerning the current scenario of the world. Recent trends suggest an uprising in politics that is overwhelmingly concerned with placing a dichotomy between ‘them’ and ‘us’. This distinction is believed to be due to a systemic lack of actualization of the politics of love in society. Clarifying further, in the dismissal of believing love to be a transformative force, society has been led into a place that lacks love in every dimension. This society is deeply divided; it has traces of prejudice in every single corner. As a direct consequence of failing to establish a politics of love, humans have instead adopted a politics of fear and division. One dehumanises their adversaries; it is easier to give in to corrupt, manipulative tactics used by biassed media, and society values triumph more than humanity. As Iris Murdoch has reiterated in her book, ‘The Sublime and the Good’, humans have moved away from what should have been the motive in the first place. Mankind does not know how to love. Humans do not realise that to love is not just limited to interpersonal relations and the act of giving but also the profound realisation that something other than one’s own self is real; to love in politics is to be mindful and appreciative of other-regarding actions (Salami, 2020). A proposal for a new vision of politics raises deep, pertinent questions about what the end goal of politics is. The goal shapes the contours of politics and how the state approaches the multitude of issues that confront it. Society needs greater articulation and deeper discourse about what it means to be political. Invoking the need to interrogate one’s own positionality and subjectivities is required to construct the narratives that will fill the gap that persists today in public debate on the politics of love. This new vision of politics strives to untangle disillusionment with politics. It demands an acknowledgement of the inclusive quality of love. The disdain for and disillusionment with politics also stems from the alienation from politics and political ideals. The grand ideas of political philosophy often come across as rarefied scholarly pursuits disconnected from the realities of everyday life. Academic works on the conversations dominating political philosophy are undoubtedly rich in intellect, but they’ve failed to inspire confidence, which is evident from the relegation of love to the private domain. A politics grounded in love and informed by love may usher politics closer to the people and weave a tapestry of collectivity by integrating politics with everyday values. The apathy in the current discourse around climate change, which is a key conversation currently gripping political philosophy, underlines the challenge of confronting the idea that love is too soft for politics. The problem of “causal impotence”—individual moral obligations in a world in which many of one’s actions make no difference, particularly in the context of climate change —could inspire action on these crucial issues that confront us. Interpreting emerging critical social issues through the language of love has the potential to transform relationships of power and be a tool for radical political analysis. Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 80 | Denouncing The Vilification Of Love Tracing the Narratives: Why Do We See Love the Way We Do?

On further research, it was revealed that, more than the sex of the leader, it was the country’s culture that was more significant. Countries with egalitarian, more caring, and equal societies fare better in navigating crises. Thus, the impact of having more women in the political sphere is evident. Women leaders reorient politics and bring politics closer to people by prioritising issues that carry greater weight in people’s day-today lives. To reframe the argument, it is not whether female leaders or male leaders perform better in the political arena, but whether the former is doing something different in the execution of their duties that is the need of the hour. These examples point with greater substance to the changing concept of effective leadership and the need for a politics of love. However, there is still a widespread prevalence of the assumption that women are “too emotional” for politics and hence not as capable of performing the duties of their political office as effectively as their male counterparts. This prevalence points to a very troubling reality: perhaps society has failed to take cognizance of the political potential of love. Instead of seeing emotion as a weakness and deriding it because of its traditional association with women, there is a need to realise and acknowledge that love equates to care, and a culture of care brings politics closer to people’s homes and their daily lives. The emotionalization of politics can be associated with the feminization of political culture, leading to the breakdown of the traditional cultural binaries of gender that have shaped the representation of politicians It is necessary to understand emotions to explore human nature and one’s capacity for politics. However, the traditional association of love and emotions with women and the private sphere, and thereby their relegation to a position of insignificance, has acted as a barrier to filling the gaping lacunae in the understanding of love and its political potential. Women are considered to have more emotional intelligence and empathy. Women entering the political sphere have been considered to have long-term benefits for not just women but for the whole society, particularly the most vulnerable. The issues that women political leaders and policymakers focus on are predominantly social ‘care’ issues such as healthcare and education. Women in the political arena seem to strive for more caring societies. Studies on women in India and South Africa point out that women politicians are more likely than men to prioritise access to clean water and providing good-quality sanitation. This prioritisation of ‘care’ issues extends to the international sphere as well. There is evidence that states with more women legislators tend to have lower military expenditures and are more likely to be generous in terms of international development aid. Countries with higher levels of female political representation are also less likely to perpetrate human rights violations. A spate of news articles proclaiming that countries with women leaders at the helm performed significantly better in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic were written in the background of the effective leadership of female leaders like Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand and Angela Merkel of Germany. Denouncing The Vilification Of Love | 81 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 and their policies. This progressive approach to politics, apart from allowing a greater plurality of expression, rightly shapes a new meaning for emotional expression that is not bound to the private sphere and limited in its association to women, moving beyond the traditional boundaries—love will explore its political potential. As has already been established in the previous few sections, love has not been attributed to a very kind position in the world today. Major propagators of the idea have been mocked and ridiculed for being too ‘emotional’ in their approach and foregoing ‘logical thinking’. Despite those claims, several real-life scenarios stand as a testament to how political thought operating on ideals of love can actually be more beneficial than the current system. The Maori culture in New Zealand is one example that comes to mind as far as this discussion is concerned. The aboriginal tribes there function on values that prioritise connectivity with each other as well as gaining a spiritual understanding of the world around them. Even their conflict resolution is based on values like forgiveness and responsibility (referred to as aroha), something that has been lacking in worldly structures. Another aspect to be considered here is their apparent focus on building a tight-knit, collective, community-based society wherein everyone feels at ease to exist and relay their concerns easily. Owing to these instances and their judicial use of emotions in political advocacy, it can be said that the Maoris have constructed their own political thought based on love. They operate differently from the dominant international and domestic structures, and the preservation of their harmonious culture is a tribute to that. Taking a leaf out of their book, in this research there is an aim to alter the preexisting political thoughts to suit the model the authors are proposing, based on the ideals of love. Firstly, conceptions of major political thoughts like realism, justice, liberty, equality, et cetera, are based on a partial and severely male-centred understanding, as has been highlighted by several feminists like J. Ann Tickner and Sara Gillian. Taking the case for justice in itself, it is witnessed in its exercise, which is heavily dependent on ideas like retribution, revenge, and incarceration. The aforementioned doesn’t only dehumanise those on the receiving end but also does nothing to alleviate the deeper issues at hand. Instead, justice should be reimagined in a more humane and restorative manner. To instill love in this political thought is to reimagine the existing structures in a way that doesn’t instantly villainize someone but rather works at uprooting the problem from its core. The rehabilitative transformation of prisons and the judicial system is one way to go forward with this approach. In a similar vein, there needs to be an alternative to prevailing political philosophies, the ones that mask their oppression and exploitation under the guise of ‘looking at the bigger picture’. This needs to be reimagined. The system has to be 82 | Denouncing The Vilification Of Love Creating Alternatives: New Political Thought Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

establish a foundation based on humane ethics early on in childhood, considering how young experiences shape the course of a human’s life. Primarily, while formulating this newfound political thought, there should be a focus on the revolutionary and empathetic idea of love since that leaves little space for malicious exploitation of the concerned idea (Lorde, 1984). However, having stated that, it is acknowledged that the introduction of mere political thought will not be enough to restructure a society that has been perturbed by lovelessness for ages. To tackle that, there needs to be elaborate planning of structures and policies operating on both international and domestic levels. The following sections aim to construct a reality operating on ideals of love by looking at the aforementioned levels. Having established the guiding political thought, it is imperative to dissect the existing world structures and posit an alternative based on the narrative established so far. The general understanding of law and policies refers to them as a means for attaining social welfare, adequate regulation of societies, and striving for a better future for humankind. However, as stated above, the current systems are also culpable for perpetuating systemic biases and preserving discriminatory rhetoric. Particularly in India, there is an overwhelming apathy towards people who live on the periphery of uprooted and replaced with something that treats humans with respect and empathy. This thought needs to be deeply intertwined with the idea of love, something that connects mankind and brings out shared humanity. It needs to be secure, encouraging the construction of a loving society while being vigilant enough to oppose any destructive institution. It needs to be mindful of the socio-political environment and considerate towards how it impacts people differently, something that is absent in liberal notions of equality and, to some extent, Marxist as well. Secondly, the political philosophy the authors argue for needs to also showcase how political ideas like freedom, equality, et cetera are all impassioned rather than existing as dry concepts, as is usually believed. Accentuating the responsibility that lies in letting each other exist freely and the empathy that is invoked when humans come together as a community to revolt against oppression against the marginalised are observations that need to be brought to light to signify just how intimately love operates with politics. The political institutions will then be guided towards the preservation of others, values of rehabilitation, not retribution, and community-based values, while still allocating space for practising love towards ourselves. It will also base itself on advocating for constant social change and promoting creative strategies for the distribution of material and emotional resources. The language it will use will be uniting, not alienating. The authors imagine it to be functional even at the smallest level of the private sphere since it is essential to Denouncing The Vilification Of Love | 83 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Aspects of Love in the Domestic Arena

2 2 the cities. The law of the country grants them rights that they barely have access to or real use of. The legislative bodies are incessantly engrossed in extracting profit from any situation and rarely pay any heed to the problems rooted within the structures. A law that is based on love, therefore, becomes of utmost importance. The authors proceed with this argument by laying out three major focal areas. Accessibility A reformed legislative system not only concerns its functioning but also its accessibility. What is the worth of a law meant to protect people if it is beyond the reach of those it is meant to serve? Several critics have pointed out the inherent exclusionary nature of the language used in jurisprudence. It is barely readable by the common man and often needs white-collar assistance that is not available to large chunks of the population. This is lovelessness at its core; it exists right under one’s nose, and yet society fails to take note of it. Instead, society needs to move towards a legislative system that establishes its foundation by providing a safety net for the marginalised that allows them holistic access to the resources that are so readily available to anyone else. It places the importance of legal awareness among people on par with legal practice. It aims to rid itself of its exclusionary nature and instead is considerate of the realities subjected to those who, for centuries, have been at the receiving end of cruel bigotry. The law, therefore, does not merely serve as a collection of regulations but also as a document reflective of the contemporary environment. It is firmly believed that love should lead politics; the law is where it begins. There is a need to reimagine what runs with the undertones of being ‘right’ and ‘necessary’. The current system is superficial at best, with a gruesome draw of luck and power that is usually tilted in the favour of rich men. Bruce Cannon Gibney’s description of the law as a "nonsense factory" garnered quite the talk, and yet, it was, again, left stranded on the surface level owing to people’s apathy for anyone that doesn’t concern themselves. Truthfully, they are not to blame, for the very system one aims to protect has imbibed within them a division so hateful and individualistic in nature that it completely hinders one from considering others in their politics. A reformed system of legality would, in its capacity, ensure the practice of love to propel the citizens into being loving and compassionate while still working on correcting historical injustices and expanding its accessibility. The Roots of the Legal Structures The second focal area of a reformed system concerns itself with the roots of the legal system. As it turns out, heteronormative, patriarchal, classist, casteist, and colonial roots are something that has been conditioned so deeply into the law that one sees it as anything but normal. The sources listed above have not only made the legal system a mere lackey in the hands of those with power but have also rid itself of any kinship with the citizens. 84 | Denouncing The Vilification Of Love Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

provides satisfactory space for it to grow and bloom. In addition, the law also recognises that it is deeply enshrouded in colonial roots and is complicit with those standards. It works towards deconstructing that through the creation of a diverse advisory board meant to reform and amend the Constitution with the changing times while helping it connect with the essence of the Indian public. Policy Lastly, there needs to be focus on the reverberations of the law, which ultimately result in policies. India is usually notorious for enacting fruitful policies but failing to follow through with them. More often than not, this is the unfortunate conclusion of rampant consumerism and capitalism around us. It has conditioned one to view love and ethics as a business deal, a mere means to achieve success (Thomas Merton, 2008). However, the authors particularly examine two main influential arenas of policy in this discourse: health and education. Primarily, the Constitution gives citizens a few basic rights regarding access to healthcare as well as primary education. However, data comparing economic growth around the world stands as a testimony to their inability to aid development. Countries with universal healthcare and education systems have significantly improved relational connections between humans and given way to a more resilient generation. With education, specifically, India has a lot to work with. Schooling systems are designed to alienate and dominate; those Taking the case of the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961 assists in further illustrating the point. Dowry has been an unfortunate reality in India since time immemorial. Dowry has placed Indian women at the bottom of the barrel, with their existence being objectified and reduced to a paltry source of money. The Act aimed to abolish the practice, but considering its cisgenderheterosexual male narrative, it failed to grasp its extent and left in its place a severely broken system. Several feminists have then raised questions about whether their rights were considered equal to those of men and whether the supposed guiding power was so opposed to letting women themselves be a part of decision-making. However, a law that considers love as a radical uniting force recognises the contradicting nature of dowry, approaches the situation with care, and attributes to women the respect they have been denied. It puts in mechanisms to primarily offer material and psychological assistance to those who have been on the receiving end and then moves towards dismantling the patriarchal norm. It does so not by executing harsher punishments but rather by focusing on rehabilitation and guided educational programmes meant to work at the core of the problem. Taking it one step further, a reformed legislative system would value love in its most intimate form as well, something found to be lacking in today’s world. Recognising the right to marriage and the right to adopt a child for queer marginalities forms the basis for this. A law that assimilates love within itself respects its portrayal and Denouncing The Vilification Of Love | 85 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 without satisfactory social capital find themselves stuck in a classroom with minimal care and support for growth provided to them. People do not care. They look the other way. Society does not love these children in the same way it fosters other well-off kids, and that is a fatal flaw for both humanity and economic development. The curriculum, too, does not escape this. Government-mandated courses reiterate age-old rhetoric and bury the formation of opinions and individual growth. Most children are unknowingly bound within the limiting four walls of lovelessness. How can society then aim to establish a successful, loving, and ethical society when one is taught so disparately from their very childhood? What the authors mean to advocate for is in direct opposition to the current system: universality in these basic rights while demanding proper acknowledgement of the marginalised and their needs; love as a guiding ideal to motivate one to work towards the well-being of their fellows; and a radical universal basic income (UBI) to come into force to protect the people. There is no need to again bind them in an echo chamber of one’s own personal ideals but to constitute an institutional structure that provides an equal ground for everyone to set out and determine their journeys. The aim of imbibing law with love is not to just make it moralistic but to help it realise the potential of human beings and the heights one can achieve if mankind works communally. The domestic arena is just a step towards a bigger change that will come into realisation once the ideology sets itself in motion. Traditionally, international relations had been shaped in a way that would help it portray itself as positivist and behavioural science. Hence, the role of love in international relations has been historically overlooked. Galtung's criticism of thinking of peace in peaceful terms had a similar outcome. Galtung perceives love as a metaphor for peace in which love, representing the union of body, mind, and spirit, or the "union of those unions," would lead to “positive relations between parties”. Despite the shortcomings of this definition, Galtung’s definition is important in peace studies because of its success in establishing the significance of love as an underlying feature of human relations towards peace. The authors will study the place of love in international relations through a postcolonial and mainly feminist approach. The perspectives of the subaltern colonial subjects served as the foundation for postcolonial perspectives in international relations, with the collective trauma they experienced as a result of the oppression to which they were either directly or indirectly subjected serving as the discourse's overarching theme. Postcolonial perspectives aim at acknowledging and resolving the historical injustices meted out to the “others," those left out of the traditional narratives. Similarly, the feminist approach to international relations, by calling for the inclusion of women and gender issues in the international relations discourse and 86 | Denouncing The Vilification Of Love Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Aspects of Love in International Relations

issues of sex trafficking and prostitution, the establishment of queer asylums and rehabilitation centres, fast-track ways towards safeguarding rights, attaining citizenship with ease, as well as a gentler approach harboured by the citizen towards refugees. Environmentalism An underlying aspect of all the preceding arguments that propose an entry point for love in politics is the emphasis on relationships. These relations mean not just human relations but also relations between humans and non-humans. Indigenous ethics and feminist care ethics provide a variety of ideas and strategies for environmental ethics. Environmentalism and environmental ethics are also closely tied to relationships and explore in depth the moral obligations between humans and non-humans that influence how one treats the environment. These approaches acknowledge and emphasise the intertwined nature of relationships. Feminist environmental care ethics underlines the significance of the social and ecological communities in which their lives and interests are intertwined. By steering the direction of society and the collective to rethink the nature and extent of the multiple interactions as part of the fabric of society and ecological life, indigenous ethics and feminist care ethics provide a solid basis to reconceive an environmentalist form that allows love to be its foundational feature by advancing a reintegration of humans and nature. In the same spirit, ecofeminism advocates subverting the dichotomy that has long existed. This particularly in foreign policy, not only leads to a more rooted understanding of international relations but also provides crucial insights into the role of love in international relations by requiring scholars to view the world from the position and within the context, environment, and narrative (or lack thereof) of the other. Particularly, this rhetoric was predominant during second-wave feminism, where black feminists advocated for love politics. Feminist thinkers (Jackson, 1993; Irigaray and Martin, 1996; Sedwick, 1999) also pointed out how love has been a result of social and gendered relations. Reflecting this in international relations, there is an emergence of love as a source for women and other disregarded communities to find an apt space to exist and thrive. Immigration Policies Continuing that line of thought, feminist thinkers have also advocated for a reformed set of immigration policies. The authors hold the opinion that migration appeals to the general public, who historically have not been fond of major political structures. It is as much a gendered experience as it is a class issue or a reflection of xenophobic sentiments. International institutions continue to fail immigrants and marginally deny them basic human rights. What the authors posit as an alternative to this is an approach based on the aforementioned rhetoric of postcolonial and feminist perspectives. There needs to be an adoption of a nonessentialist approach that aims to address Denouncing The Vilification Of Love | 87 Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23

2 2 approach means more than a mere statement, whose essence has enormous ramifications for one's life. By managing social relations through care, ecofeminism sees the prospect of a new perception of the universe, linking everything with love, in the background of the historically sidelined household work of women. Ecofeminism believes that this reconceptualization has the potential to bridge the modern divide between economy and ecology, which have the same Greek root, oikos, which means household, domestic, or family—the source of all economic activity. A significant ethical issue that persists is about how one should connect to one's surroundings in terms of other living creatures and the natural world at large. Even if nature does not communicate vocally, ecofeminism and other similar perspectives point to reconceptualizing an integration of humanity with nature that implies opening up to one’s own humanity. Comprehension can only take place when the sensibility and potential of love are explored, which becomes crucial in the context of the current global ecological crisis. As several theorists have previously stated, loving is not just centred on what walks and talks but is also meant to incorporate that which gives us life—that is where love first begins. The brief outline the authors have drawn throughout the entirety of this paper is meant to particularly distinguish itself from other prevailing ideological systems. For one, it is transformative in the sense that its origins are rooted in indigenous cultures rather than Western ones. It honours the cultures that have been brutally degraded by Eurocentric banality and offers a ground for them to realise their potential in changing the world. The authors understand the shortcomings this approach poses. Some have contested that it is a fragile and unstable means of rule. However, the aim is not to let love be the only force in politics; rather, the aim is to open the floor for discussions around love and allow people to see how realities and myths revolving around it have been fabricated to alienate the voices of the marginalised. When placed as a focal value, love has the power to let people recognise the importance of emotions in politics. It is a gateway to a humanistic and moral worldview. To love is not to blindly believe in everything; rather, it is the power of being sympathetic and having the courage to have anger and fight for what is right. The Politics of Love is value-based, which affirms the importance of not only one’s own self and other humans but also giving voice to the voiceless: nature. Love is what has kept mankind together for millennials and has been the major shaping factor in societies. By understanding the concept of love as one that is not to be mistaken for blind emotion but one that integrates reason and emotion and unites the self and the other, as understood by Hegel, the authors have emphasised the sense of genuine integration that is selftransformative and self-evolving and can serve to fill the vacuum in the current social and political system. 88 | Denouncing The Vilification Of Love Sabab, Volume VII, 2022-23 Conclusion