"The Sangtin Writers Collective, for example, conclude Sangtin Yatra with a critique of how NGOs in rural India reproduce within their institutions the very social hierarchies they seek to undo. In a key passage, himmat appears as an impulse for change that moves across bodies but is blocked by powerful people: “when, as workers who play the most critical role of giving strength to village women (himmat aur taakat dene), we mustered the courage (himmat karke) to articulate our concerns to our bosses, they did not wish to listen” (Sangtin Lekhak Samuh 2012[2004], 116; Sangtin Writers and Nagar 2006, 115). Here, the Sangtins themselves serve as a bridge across social difference. They give himmat to the village women they work with, but they themselves must also muster courage (himmat karke) to explain their critique to their bosses. Giving himmat to others grants the Sangtins authority to speak. Yet when the Sangtins turn himmat upwards, rather than downwards, they are not recognized. Part of the critical punch of this passage comes from the fact that when NGO leaders refuse to listen, they fail to recognize the social progress that such himmat indicates—and in failing to recognize and reciprocate it, they block it from progressing further," (Kowalski 2021, 291).
Himmat as a tool for hearing and listening, though it is not always recieved.
Terms like wayyuu can similarly be used as a way to allow women to empower themselves, but this requires institutions and policymakers to understand and accept how different communities might view things like respect or empowerment itself, even if they differ from "mainstream" definitions.
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