Strong women are the flavour of the month in India. Paeans of praise are being sung for them from Delhi to Patna. In a backward area like Bihar, not too long ago, women voters needed to be persuaded, threatened and tutored by men on how to cast or not cast their vote. In 2025, they have created a record, we are told, as voters who have outnumbered the total male voters who came out to vote. 

The TV cameras lingered on faces in the long queues that waited patiently outside polling booths for the first phase of Bihar assembly elections. Most were not the usual veiled and demure voters that one used to see. 

When they spoke into the TV mic this time, they exuded an easy confidence – in themselves and their choice of candidate. Even the highly controversial don Shahbuddin’s wife, who wore a Hijab, spoke without the usual humming and hawing and said she hoped her first-time candidate son Osama wins. “Jo hoga achha hoga (Whatever happens will be good),” she said with the quiet confidence of a woman who has led a rough life to say the least.

And then of course, there were India’s first ever winners of the coveted World Cup in women’s cricket. All glowing faces and supple bodies.

It was obvious as they beat South Africa, that Indian women’s game has become just as powerful and professional as men’s. The women's physical tenacity was impressive as was their awesome capacity to play the arduous game internationally as though they were waging a war.

The universe, said writer Muriel Rukeyser, is made of stories not atoms. And each of these women carried stories. Read the bios of our female wrestlers and cricket or hockey players, and you will find embedded therein stories of unimaginable kind: of grit, of struggling against poverty, often at odds with their own community and family elders, the unspeakable pressures of repossessing their bodies as their own and honing them for the game. 

They were playing when they did, like the Olympic medal winning female wrestlers, not only to throw off social, economic and physical restrictions as old as the mountains, but to be seen and accepted for the first time as legitimate human players like their male colleagues who nursed their human rights and a will to win. 

It is comforting to find that in the five millennia that have passed since we have heard strong voices of Gargi questioning a male Rishi, Yagnyavalkya’s definition of Brahman as the ultimate holy god particle that we all come from and merge with. “When even water is made of two elements” Gargi says, how can you not explain to me how that which you say is our one and only universal self, is not divisible into recognisable components for me?

“Don’t ask many questions girl, or your head may be knocked off”, the angered Rishi says. But goes on (in his collected words in Yagnvalkya Samhita) and gives some of the most liberal interpretations to women’s rights as wives or property holders . 

Hierarchical societies like ours have long been telling us that all power and well being for women comes from owning ‘things’. But sage Yagnavalkya is also truthful enough to confide to his wife Maitreyi that inheriting all his properties would not get her to achieve enlightenment, that only Brahma Gyan could. “So give me that!” she snaps, “What do I need your properties for?,” and he does.

Thus, woman power is leading change. 

The women queuing up to cast their votes, the Shefali Vermas and Dipti Sharmas winning like champions on the battle field may not yet have come out with many inspirational quotes but as Mary Angelou said, each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it, without claiming it, she stands up for all women. So across India, women athletes are celebrating the win. Speed skater Karthika Jagadeeswaran says “its not a trophy, its empowerment.”

But there is another side to becoming an icon today. 

Indian women cricketers’ historic win came smack in the middle of hysterical electioneering in Bihar, a state still tied to a BIMARU status – with uniformly poor figures for female survival and well being – and a large percentage of female voters. 

It was inevitable that in between the two phases of electioneering, the team should be ushered in to meet the prime minister, who has lately been seeking the blessings of India’s mothers and daughters at each election rally. 

His government (on the eve of elections), also announced astoundingly large cash doles for lakhs of women in poll-bound Bihar in the name of women’s empowerment through self employment. 

Watching the electoral meetings that all the major political leaders from the ruling party addressed, the road shows led by the prime minister himself – where women showered floral petals and did aarti from balconies of their frayed homes – back to back with images from the cricket grounds and fans celebrating women’s great win was an eye opener. 

But if there is honey, the bees will flock. After the news channels had extensively covered the players meeting with the prime minister, we began hearing about the Ad world fast gravitating towards use of women cricketers as icons of Stree Shakti in commercial brand ads. This made one screech to a stop. 

The development, though not unprecedented, underscored some inherent dangers of celebrityhood in India. Many male cricketers have succumbed to the lure of big fees and created cringeworthy images of male cricketing legends selling all kinds of goods and services from eggs to life insurance to clothing and even paan masala.

Undoubtedly, not only the politicians soliciting votes but scores of Indians too would like to be a part of the narrative these young and spunky female cricketers are creating of ‘Aagey Aagey Badhta Hai India’ kind of narrative. But aligned too firmly with the agency’s copy of what ‘Aaj ki Nari’ is all about, women may soon be reentering the old narrative they broke out of. A narrative wherein they had to deal not just with social heckling but also politicians who lead most sporting institutions and finally the market. This puts promising young players from small towns and villages in danger. Because they never know when our intricate sports bureaucracy today may even include letting a politician presiding over the selection board, grope them and get away with it. 

These girls must remember how much their fellow athletes, the girls from Haryana sacrificed, before they were even heard. At this point, any backsliding and they can turn into acting like giggly school girls and undo all that. Sitting with the most powerful political leader in India, could they not think of a better question than how does he maintain such a glowing face? If they are serious about their future and the game, freedom from traditional concepts of female behaviour is a must for these young women. Great ideas, as Thomas Edison wrote, originate in the muscles. 

The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.