How an Indian Woman Became an All-Female Gang Leader Through Social Organizing
Sampat Pal’s rebellion was a force to be reckoned with in rural India.
“Can’t you see they’re only interested in dividing us even further, so they can rule more easily? I’m warning you…I’m not leaving here until I get justice. Starting with the buffalo, you can keep your scrawny old thing. I demand to be given back the strong animal my father gave me.”
Sampat Pal: A Warrior in a Pink Sari
Sampat Pal has had enough.
She had left the comfort of her family home to move in with her husband and in-laws, who had made her life miserable. She had come with a sizable dowry, tolerated her in-laws insults when she didn’t give birth to a boy, and was told not to interfere with the crooks abusing the women in the village.
Her new ‘family’ decided that she was no longer worth the trouble, and would be publicly declaring that in front of the entire village.
Panchayats, or village elders, handled community conflict. In this case, it would be splitting the possessions appropriately. But in these cases, when the woman is cast out of the husband’s family, she’s left with nothing — not even the dowry that her family gifted her.
Sampat had stayed calm until the eventual verdict was delivered. It was clear she would be thrown out with just the clothes on her back. Years of anger spewed out at the panchayats and the gathering crowd.
They wanted a show? She would give them a show.
“Can’t you see they’re only interested in dividing us even further, so they can rule more easily? I’m warning you…I’m not leaving here until I get justice. Starting with the buffalo, you can keep your scrawny old thing. I demand to be given back the strong animal my father gave me.”
She chastised everyone for blindly accepting that two outsiders could decide their internal affairs. That it was injustice to be left with nothing when she came in on a cart of gifts.
Silence. In that village, no woman had ever spoken out like that.
A random, elderly man from the crowd spoke up, agreeing with her. He said that the castes represented by the panchayats in their village were always exploiting them. Why should the village allow outsiders divide their community even further? Several others started agreeing, and the attention was finally on something worth talking about.
Sampat knew there was no life for her with her in-laws anymore. She negotiated her severance and left with her husband to a new city.
But this was only the beginning.
Challenging the status-quo
“Recalcitrant daughters-in-law are always in the wrong, particularly those who dare to challenge the caste hierarchy.” — Sampat Pal
After years in her new city, Sampat’s rebellious streak never slowed. She opened a sewing school for the women, led women’s educational groups, and treated all people (especially from lower castes) with compassion.
That last point shouldn’t be controversial, but unfortunately it was. Many low caste people, especially women, are treated abhorrently by Brahmins — a caste that is supposed to be descended from clergy members and considered the “top” of the social food chain.
In her new city, she witnessed one slapping a boy.
“I don’t know what provoked the rage of this particular Brahmin, but I was there when it happened. What is certain is that the boy he struck had done nothing to deserve such treatment. He probably just looked at him in a way which the Brahmin considered insulting, or perhaps the Chamar’s only fault was that he was in the upper-caste person’s way.” Sampat Pal: A Warrior in a Pink Sari
She rushed to the boy’s aid, demanding the Brahmin to explain. The Brahmin shouted obscenities about the boy and his “low” caste, and Sampat couldn’t help what happened next.
She slapped the Brahmin.
The shock showed on his Brahmin’s face. No one had ever challenged him before. As the reality of the situation struck Sampat, she became proactive.
It was illegal to assault someone of a lower-caste, but that doesn’t prevent the police’s incompetence in filing complaints.
Having already known this Sampat knocked on doors, calling upon her fellow “lower-caste” women to support someone who had been unfairly treated. As her crowd of women gathered outside of the police station, Sampat went inside to register the complaint against the Brahmin.
Imagine the policeman’s surprise — and fear — to the hundreds of women sitting right outside, pressuring them to act. The case was filed and the assaulter was jailed for a few days before his release.
But what Sampat instilled in both the Brahmins and the lower-caste communities was undeniable.
The status quo is shifting.
A growing impact and paranoia to match
Pal continued to cause good trouble as much as possible, including:
- dismantling an illegal wall that cut off resource routes to a village
- applying pressure on police and magistrates to register complaints
- frightening rich thugs from scamming landowners out of their houses
She achieved this all by persuading women that they were more powerful together. And that they could play dirty, just like men.
As her influence grew, she wanted to make her efforts more concrete. In 2006, she created the organization “the Gulabi Gang,” gulabi meaning pink in reference to the members’ uniforms of pink sarees.
Pal’s movement grew exponentially. She distributed pink sarees to new members, keeping a ledger for group fees, and set up a network of “group heads” in various villages.
But with this great power came great paranoia. She found herself on the phone, communicating with her members so often in order to keep them accountable. She grew frustrated when women came to her for help, but then never offered to help others through her Gang. Even as she uncovered more and more scams, many started recognizing her and threatening her life.
What would happen to the movement without its leader?
While Pal kept in close contact with her business partner and group heads, she didn’t feel anyone was worthy enough to take on her role. She was always waiting for someone with the same drive, hunger, and resolve to face frustration, injustice, and death threats as she had.
Plus, while the Gulabi Gang was a great vigilante enforcer of justice, it was merely a bandaid, and Sampat knew that. She knew if she wanted lasting change for women throughout India, she would have to ascend into the realm of politics.
Fall from grace
While Pal thought her arrival into politics was necessary, many didn’t. She had decided to run on a party’s ticket that were against the Gang’s values and didn’t have any history of tangibly supporting the women in the country. She was accused of embezzling money from her own organization and being corrupted by her political desires — another story of a woman becoming “corrupt” when she tried to fly beyond her station.
Her removal from the Gulabi Gang has been wrapped in controversy, and I was disappointed to not find a lot more information about it. Whatever articles are posted online have comment sections decrying Sampat as power-hungry.
The Gulabi Gang, however, still lives on. While the intimate specifics of Sampat’s dismissal from the Gang might stay private, there’s still something to be said of her initial methods. She was able to rally a movement from her simple, yet extremely effective, methods of sit-ins, public shaming, and group organizing.
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