Page:Sharad Joshi - Leading Farmers to the Centre Stage.pdf/246

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men generally possess in larger measure, will decrease and the role of psychological strength will increase, which women possess in higher degree. It is important to note that Joshi never thought that the emancipation of women is something contrary or inherently against the menfolk. This is where his views were quite different from the usual feminist interpretation which often put men against women. Joshi emphasized that women’s liberation also meant the liberation of men who for the past thousands of years have suffered from the tyranny of the quixotic mask of warped masculinity that they have had to bear. He always maintained that biologically there is very little difference between the two. Women’s liberation and men’s liberation were only two sides of the same coin. He also believed that in the coming years men will become increasingly more feminine and women will become increasingly more masculine till the society acquired what he had earlier referred to as androgynous personality.

Chandwad Convention in which other organizations of women also participated, was held against the background of the above thinking. In all respects it was a massive Convention. The venue was outside the Neminath Jain School with vast open field on one side and the backdrop of tall mountain range. The Convention area was called “Punyashlok Ahillyabai Holkar Nagar” keeping in mind the historical link the Indore queen had with Chandwad. The programme on 9 November was exclusively for the 25,000 women who had registered formally as a delegate. They had come from all parts of Maharashtra and also from other states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Realizing that the trains would be overcrowded on the 9th many women had arrived on the 6th and 7th itself. They had carried their own food and bedding and stayed on the open fields. Those were the days Women Power - New Expression

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