India Review, vol. 11, no. 1, 2012, pp. 46–64 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN 1473-6489 print/1557-3036 online DOI: 10.1080/14736489.2012.649126 Running From Elections: Indian Feminism and Electoral Politics NANDINI DEO Galvanized by the 1975 publication of Towards Equality, which is a report on the low status of women in India, hundreds of women activists formed groups to fight for women’s rights as part of India’s second wave of feminist activism. In 2005, a demon- stration in front of parliament for women’s day brought a few hundred women together to walk around waving placards in the name of the girl child. It merited a few minutes coverage on the 24 hour news channels but resulted in no new policy statement or pro- gram launch. Recent reports indicate that very little positive change has occurred: India remains near the bottom of the UN gender development index 1 . Over a span of thirty years, feminist activists have remained at the margins of Indian politics. The women’s movement 2 in India is composed of dispersed groups, some of which provide services while others engage in policy advocacy. While these groups have a few policy victories under their belt they remain outsiders in Indian politics. In recent decades they have been unable to garner the strength in numbers which is indispensable for political change in democracies. 3 This failure to use the democratic process to press for a feminist agenda is the focus of this article. In a time when women leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati, Jayalalitha, Meera Kumar, Vasundhara Raje, Sushma Swaraj, Sheila Dixit, and many others are leaders of political parties, holding offices in parliament and state assemblies, it is baffling that few among them can be counted as feminists. Why has the women’s movement failed to co-opt these leaders, not to mention the male politicians who need women’s votes to win office? The recent launch of India’s second all-women’s party—the United Women Front— caused little excitement within feminist circles. While the women’s movement in India has many accomplishments to be proud of, every activist is aware that there is a great deal left to do. Among the various goals of the women’s movement is the primary focus on advancing women’s socio-economic status. One path toward creating a more equitable society goes through the ballot box. The women’s movement in India has been most powerful when cooperating with the state through its involvement in electoral activity and welfare provision. The cre- ation of autonomous women’s groups in the 1980s which some hail as the high-point of Indian feminism was actually a blunder in some ways. At the time, there were compelling reasons for pursuing a policy of autonomy from political parties and the state. However, the consequences of that rupture have led to a different danger of co- optation by international development agencies with their own agendas. The division Nandini Deo is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Lehigh University, PA, and a Visiting Fellow at Sarojini Naidu Center for Women’s Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi.