A group of women of varying ages play kabaddi in the morning in Himachal Pradesh and their faces beam, as they giggle while taking each other down. Women with white flowers in their hair sitting in the sea, talking animatedly at Marina Beach in Chennai. Two women dance at a festival, while others sit around them in a circle, clapping and cheering them on. A woman making full use of a public swing, at Sunder Nursery in Delhi. In these cases, one can spot exuberance, relaxation, and sometimes quiet introspection.
These are a part of ‘Basanti: Women At Leisure’, a photo series curated by Surabhi Yadav, on Instagram. She started the series, four years after her mother’s death, as a reaction to having missed noticing what leisure looked like to her mother. Since its inception, the project has tried to explore nuanced and layered questions about what constitutes leisure for women.
“Leisure is a game of permissions, which revolves around who is allowed to do what, with whom and when,” said Surabhi. “It’s a game of your social standing, which involves factors like class, caste, gender, geography and more,” she added.
HerZindagi spoke to Surabhi, and other women, in an attempt to decode what women’s leisure is and what it means for the broader feminist movements.
Leisure as a Powerful Feminist Tool
Given how rarely women’s leisure is discussed, it’s even rarer to see it as a feminist tool.
“I keep saying that we are at the survival level when we talk about feminism’s fights right now so we ask why women have been lagging behind men, and we’re playing a game of catchup. We’re fighting for equal pay, equal rights and such things,” said Surabhi.
She highlights that the benchmark of our feminist success depends on what patriarchy has achieved for men and the approach to the fight right now, is resistance.
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“I think there is a bigger and higher power of feminism which we haven't tapped fully which is its power of creation,” she said.
“With a new thinking, and a new ideology, can you create something absolutely new? That might resist the existing structure, but resistance here is the byproduct. So to me, leisure essentially takes you from survival mode to self-actualisation and it gives women a chance to discover their inner selves,” Surabhi explains..
She explains that leisure gives women an opportunity to think about their identities outside of their roles as a mother, wife, or daughter and she defines this process as self-actualisation.
“It becomes a powerful feminist tool, not just of resistance but also of creation,” she concludes.
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It allows women to discover themselves, setting them free from oppressive structures that often dissociate people from their true selves, or make people feel inadequate. Surabhi said, “Leisure says, your worth isn’t associated with your class or caste. Leisure celebrates you as you are, without asking for justifications for your existence.”
Leisure Under A Capitalistic And Patriarchal System
When we connected with urban women to find out what leisure meant to them, we received a variety of answers ranging from getting over 10 hours of sleep, painting, and travelling to watching favourite shows on TV in dimly lit rooms. However, much of what leisure feels like to women is shaped by societal conditioning and the surroundings they live in.
In a patriarchal society like India’s, women’s labour at home; managing the household and raising the children is often not considered as ‘work’, as it lacks an economic value. On the other hand, men, traditionally seen as breadwinners, assert their right to leisure and often control women’s access to leisure time.
Surabhi said, “When we think about resources, we think about money, property and also rights. But, we don't think about time as a resource.”Time is a crucial resource, but its access and quality are unequally distributed. How individuals use their free time is closely linked to their broader socio-economic status.
Surabhi highlights that casteism, capitalism, and patriarchy boils people down to productive machines, and don’t treat people as human beings with complex rights.
In a capitalistic society, leisure is further complicated by marketing gimmicks and brand agendas that often end up dictating what leisure should look and feel like for everyone. Capitalism even comes with its own agenda of taking time off.
“It is a capitalistic approach to leisure where you're saying you can be more productive when there is work life balance,” said Surabhi. “Capitalism isn’t saying that leisure is an inherent human need. Capitalism is saying if you take vacation, then you come back more productive. If you take breaks, then you're more productive. So everything ultimately revolves around capital and not around person self-actualisation,” she further added.
It’s for this reason that Surabhi steers clear of talking about productivity in her project.
Rural vs Urban Ideas of Leisure
The definition of leisure often hinges significantly on contextual realities, influenced by various factors, such as social class and other socio-economic factors.
An interesting thing Surabhi pointed out is that in her experience, she has seen people have more leisure in rural areas, as compared to urban areas. “Religion plays a big role in giving permission to women for leisure, especially in semi-urban and rural areas. It lets women take time off to go to temples, meet with the community, sit down to partake in activities and more,” she said.
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Even the idea of taking care of one’s body is very different in urban and rural areas. “For example, putting oil in one’s hair is a full-fledged activity in itself in rural areas. Women sit together, and do this for a while.” She added that activities like these are processes filled with rest and ease.
Community events too, are stronger in villages. Festivals and weddings bring people together in a broader way in villages.
However, in the urban areas, there are a variety of leisure activities, Surabhi highlighted. Women reading in a park or women going out and partying are some defined leisure activities in urban areas.
“The capitalistic demands in cities are very high. People may be earning a lot of money but may not have a lot of time for themselves. We’re caught up in a culture of hustling and racing. The pace of life is a little slower in villages. I’ve seen plenty of women in rural areas take afternoon naps, a concept that's lost in urban India,” she added.
Defining Leisure, and the Roles We Need to Abandon During Leisure
To understand the multi-faceted nature of leisure for women, it’s crucial to define what leisure is first. While this may be subjective and personal, broadly, it came down to the ability to choose what leisure meant for them.
“I think the ability to choose what to do with free time, without any compulsion or need is helpful. For example, if I choose to do gardening, it should be because I want to and not because my plants will die if I don't give that time to the garden,” said Trisrota Dutta, a 30-year-old, working in the public policy field.”
In essence, leisure could be defined as a state of mind, where a woman chooses to be herself, in her element and prioritises her needs.
Surabhi defined leisure is the time and space, when your guards are down as much as possible. Where you’re not playing a role. To whatever extent you can reduce the performance that your roles demand from you, that is a moment of leisure. The more you can do that, for longer amounts of time, the more liberated you are.
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A good way to analyse it is self-care. Women visit salons to get various treatments and procedures for their skin, hair, and body, in the name of self-care.
“The question to ask is, is this process making your role in patriarchy stronger? Is it making you uphold patriarchal notions of beauty? Or, are you doing it because you solely care about taking care of your body and how many roles are you still playing while doing this?,” implored Surabhi.
However, these actions may fall under the spectrum of leisure. Therefore, leisure can never have a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s a space, where only the person experiencing leisure can define their feeling in the moment, and if the leisure activity is a performance or not.
A crucial point here is that people haven't dwelled on the topic of leisure or been taught how to perceive it. In this context, it is only our own selves and consciences that can teach us how to navigate leisure as a space where we truly feel free.
Leisure, at its core, unites women beyond class, caste, and other barriers. While leisure may look different for every woman, at the heart of is a desire for liberation, relaxation, and self-discovery; a universal need and triumph.
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