‘Movement missing voices of Dalit, Adivasi women’

An interview with Raya Sarkar about #Metoo and ‘The List’.

IN 2000, Ammu Joseph, a journalist based in Bengaluru, wrote in her landmark book Making News: Women in Journalism: “Sexual harassment is a sensitive topic which many women are either embarrassed to talk about or prefer to dismiss as a relatively minor irritant that they can handle.” She catalogued story after story told by women about the atrocious behaviour of many of their male colleagues in newsrooms across the country. Ammu Joseph, along with Laxmi Murthy and others, helped found the Network of Women in Media, India (NWMI), in 2002. The book captures the atmosphere for women inside the news business. But, as Ammu Joseph says, any profession could have provided her with the same kind of material.

Anyone who has worked anywhere knows the validity of the assertion that workplace sexual harassment is not only pervasive but, until now, had been little talked about. There had been the occasional public story linked to a powerful man—be it Tarun Tejpal or R.K. Pachauri—but there was not the necessary outburst that came in the period after the gang rape in Delhi in 2012 (the “Nirbhaya” case) and in Haryana in 2013.

The All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) and other such organisations consistently beat the drum to raise awareness, but they were not taken seriously.

The election of Donald Trump to the United States presidency angered many women in that country. The Women’s March, which came alongside Trump’s inauguration, put the question of sexual harassment and violence against women on the table. Trump’s disregard for women’s concerns raised the level of consciousness among women across the U.S. It was in this atmosphere that accusations of sexual assault were made against the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Those who spoke out against Weinstein emboldened others to speak about other powerful men.

In 2006, Tarana Burke, a community organiser, used the phrase “Me Too” to start a conversation on Myspace about sexual violence against women of colour. She said that she once encountered a 13year-old girl who told her that she had been sexually assaulted. Later, Tarana Burke wished she had said to the girl, “Me too”, as a way of offering her empathy and solidarity. Then, she did not. Now, she did. The term did the rounds and then seemed to die off. In October 2017, in the midst of the Weinstein furore, the actor Alyssa Milano took to Twitter and encouraged people to use the hashtag #Metoo. It took off.

#Metoo came to India through a list of South Asian academics who had been charged with sexual harassment and rape by young women. This list was curated by Raya Sarkar, a law student at the University of California (Davis), and others around her. It was made initially to simply collect the stories that had been sent to Raya Sarkar, who emerged on social media as a touchstone for many of the conversations around violence against female students by their teachers.

Raya Sarkar spoke to Frontline on her list, the ascension of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court and accusations about the Indian newsroom. Excerpts:

Last year, after the Metoo campaign started in Hollywood, you began to produce a list of South Asian academics alleged to be sexual predators and rapists. Could you tell us a little of the origin of that list?

I created the list after Christine Fair’s Huffington Post article, where she accused the Indian historian Dipesh Chakrabarty of sexual harassment, was abruptly taken down, despite passing their vetting process. I was enraged that the article was taken down because students deserve to know if the person who sexually harassed them may have also harassed someone else.

I made the list also to warn students about allegations against professors in power who have allegedly exploited students who have worked and studied in very precarious labour conditions under them. Precarious because most graduate work is paid with a measly stipend, the college-to-job pipeline is dependent on letters of recommendation from professors, and many universities do not have functional complaints committees.

The “naming and shaming” bit was an unintended consequence.

What was your reaction to the debate that broke out following the appearance of the list?

I understand the list was not perfect. It was a crude form of dissent. At my end, I vetted everyone’s testimonies and evidence as best I could so we would not lose a libel or