Gulaabi Gang spearhead Sampat Pal makes global headlines

Lucknow: In an effort to celebrate the movement of rural women empowerment, London’s Design Museum has decided to display the ‘pink sari’ at an exhibition on Indian fashion offbeat sari to be held in May. The ‘pink saree’ is a symbol of the sisterhood of women, popularized by a vigilante group known as the ‘pink gang’ of Bundelkhand.

Members of the Gulabi Gang, dressed in pink sarees, fight against oppression, beating pink sticks on the ground. This extraordinary women’s movement started in 2006 by Sampat Pal has attracted global attention.

Sampat Pal said, the fight against Gulabi gang has reached abroad. I was delighted to be invited to France for the first time in 2008. Now we have become 11 lakh members. I am sending my saree along with blouse, petticoat and stick to London by courier to be displayed there.

The Pink Gang was started to seek justice against those accused of committing atrocities against women or indulging in corruption. In an email to Sampat Pal, curator of the exhibition Priya Khanchandani said: Dear Pink Gang, I have watched your incredible work for a decade now and hope you don’t mind getting in touch with me. I would love to include in the exhibition a pink saree belonging to the pink gang as an example of a saree as a symbol of resistance and may you be able to lend us a pink saree worn by one of your members. Would you be willing to lend us a saree worn by Sampat Pal or any other prominent member of the group?

She wrote, “I would be honored to tell the story of the work of the Pink Gang to audiences here in the UK and to showcase the sari amongst a select selection of saris that tell the story of today’s contemporary India.”

Titled ‘The Offbeat Saree’, the exhibition focuses on the saree as a contemporary fashion garment.