'She set her foot in Mumbai with dreams in her purse and love in her eyes.'
Ganga Harjivandas, also known as Gangubai Kathewali, entered the city of dreams with her husband Ramnik Lal, who promised her to show a world she could hardly even imagine. Ganga was an aspiring actress with great ambitions, but a sudden hit of betrayal and tragedy turned her life upside down, coercing her into a black hole of harassment and suffering.
She was sold to a brothel for 500 rupees by her husband and left to fend for herself in the dark alleys of Kamathipura, the largest and most ridiculed red light area in the city. Every tear shed from her eyes held regret; regret for leaving her home, for confiding in a man who left her in ruins. Ganga was forced to accept her fate.
She made the brothels her home and the sex workers her family. Thrown into the city of glam and dread, there were many other girls just like her who were forced to find a home in the isolated streets of Mumbai. The dark lanes which we certainly avoid going to were home to Gangubai. Right after being plunged into the world of prostitution, she was molested by a Pathan from the Karim Lala gang. Being as resilient as she was, Ganga held her head up high and demanded justice to Karim Lala, the leader of the gang. This particular incident gave a new meaning to her existence, ending her life as Ganga and commencing her journey as ‘Gangubai Kothewali, the madam of Kamathipura.’
The darkness instilled in her life made her resilient and strong-willed. She stood by her family in Kamathipura and openly advocated the need for prostitution belts in the cities.
In her speech delivered at Azad Maidan, she insisted on treating sex workers as equals.
“Several people among you look at this title as a stigma on womanhood, but it is this stigma that has saved the chastity, integrity, and morality at several thousands of women. By giving ourselves to the carnal pursuits of men, we are doing a big favor to all the women in society,” said Gangubai in her speech delivered at Azad Maidan.
Gangubai, with her voracious speech, stunned thousands of women present there and stood by sex workers to save their dignity in society. These sex workers who are usually looked down, are the heroes of womanhood, protecting the women of Mumbai by catering to the physical needs of men and helping to blunt the bestial male aggression.
“Just like the jawans of our country, who fight
endlessly on the battlefield so that you remain unharmed. Why is a jawan
rewarded and given national honors while prostitutes are insulted and treated like pariahs?” asked Gangubai to a throng of women sitting in front of her.
Gangubai was the first local brothel madam to secure an appointment with the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, where she explained the importance of redlight areas in Mumbai and the dire need to protect it. When the authorities of St Anthony’s high school, as well as the people living in the vicinity of Kamathipura, wanted to evacuate the brothels of Kamathipura, Gangubai, with the help of the government, spearheaded the movement against its evacuation and saved the sex workers from being displaced.
Although Gangubai found her home in the city of chaos, she was not able to forget the land where she came from. Hence, she decided to change her name from-‘Kothewali’ to ‘Kathewali'; to hold on to her emotional bond with her home in Kathiawad, Gujarat.
Adorned in a gold-bordered white saree and a red bindi, Gangubai became a mother figure to all the other sex workers in the brothels.
The women of Kamathipura found their lost home in Gangubai, giving birth to Ganguma, a mother, a protector, and a home to those who were stranded in the labyrinth of trafficking, prostitution, and misery. Though Gangubai is not in our presence anymore, her statuettes still reign over the brothels of Kamathipura.
Comentários