Dariya Ki Kasam
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Written by Kamla Bhasin (1946-2021), an Indian feminist activist born in pre-Partition Punjab. This song became one of several protest anthems Bhasin composed using folk melodies to mobilize women across South Asia. It was performed at feminist gatherings in both India and Pakistan throughout the 1990s. Bhasin co-founded Jagori, a women's resource organization in Delhi, in 1984, and later led Sangat, a South Asian feminist network. She died of cancer in September 2021, and her songs continue to be sung at women's marches across the subcontinent.
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Breakdown
Tana-bana literally means warp and weft, the two sets of threads that cross each other on a loom to form fabric. It is a common South Asian metaphor for the fabric of society, the way everything is woven together. Bhasin is saying that the entire social structure, not just individual parts of it, needs to be rewoven.
Bhasin is asking women to trace patriarchal customs back to their origins, suggesting that traditions passed down as sacred or inevitable were likely created by people with interests of their own.
Parda, the practice of veiling and seclusion of women, is presented here not as settled religious doctrine but as something to be interrogated. Bhasin performed this at a time when questioning parda was considered blasphemous in many communities across South Asia.
