Sharjah: Indian author Chetan Bhagat said he is a feminist while defending his new book One Indian Girl here on Saturday evening.
Bhagat, 42, said the feminist movement is hard to define and often misunderstood. One Indian Girl is a “crazy story from the point of view of a girl about love, dreams, career and feminism in modern India”, its synopsis says.
Bhagat was speaking during a session with the audience at the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF). “I am and I think we should all be. It’s about equal rights … Have your own definition of it, have your own sense of what it should be. Please don’t let some group of people tell you ‘this is feminism’ or ‘it’s not Indian culture’. That’s not true,” he replied when he was asked if he is a feminist.
Bhagat also defended his portrayal of the girl in the book, who is emotional and insecure sometimes. He said the “extreme feminists in India” complained “what kind of girl have you shown, how can she be a feminist?”
He added: “But to me, being a feminist doesn’t mean you can’t have feelings, you can’t be vulnerable, you can’t be weak sometimes. Because that’s not the issue, you’re allowed to be human.”
Bhagat also shared the lengths he went to to get in touch with his feminine side so he could do justice to the book’s main character. For the waxing scene in the book, Bhagat had visited a ladies parlour for a wax. “It was very painful. It felt like 50 bandages on your body all pulled at the same time. I don’t think I’ll try that again.”
The 11-day SIBF ends on November 12 at Expo Centre Sharjah.
