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Indian women are demanding equal rights to worship, in sacred places. Have women attained social equality in India?
India is most probably the only country, where people worship Goddesses. The purpose for which they pray can be biased. It is totally strange that people pray for a son, offer ‘Prasad’, do ‘Mannat’ before the Goddesses and their masculinity does not get affected by it.
In our country, we worship daughters in ‘Kanya Puja’ and at the same time many of us are oblivious about the seriousness of female foeticide, infanticide, rape and the list goes on. Many people believe that the condition of women has changed drastically and it is far better now, while others believe that the situation of women has changed already and no further development is needed.
I always believed that the situation of women has improved in our country, however when I hear news of women being barred from entering temples, I feel that we still have a long way to go when it comes to feminine power.
In ancient India, social activists, like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Iswar Chandra Bidya Sagar, Savitri Phule raised their voices against ‘Sati’ and widow remarriage. They challenged these practices and succeeded to eradicate the evils from our culture. In the modern, contemporary world women are still struggling with several issues and one of the most debated and controversial issue which ignites a fire in our hearts and continues to be a hot topic is about the sacredness of a woman based on the purity of her body.
In our country, women are not allowed to go to temples or perform religious rituals during their periods and in some parts of our country women are not even allowed to enter temples. Recently, we came across the ‘Shani Shingnapur temple controversy’, where a 400 year old tradition is followed where women are not allowed to offer prayers at the ‘Chauthara’ (Sacred Platform) or touch the deity. The Shani Shingnapur temple controversy in Ahmednagar district of Maharastra finally came to an end after many debacles.
Another issue, of the similar kind, is the ‘Sabarimala temple issue’ where women between the age group of 10 to 50 years are not allowed to enter into the temple. The temple authorities claimed that the male God resides within the temple and thus women mustn’t be permitted to enter, as that would be a form of distraction. Are any such conditions for laid for men ?
In Odisha, a unique festival called ‘Rajo’ is observed every year, which celebrates the biological cycle of a woman which is often a ‘taboo subject’. But like many states in India, here too, the purity of a woman is judged, based on her biological cycle. It’s truly strange that we live in a country, where we’ve been worshiping Goddesses since eons yet we still question the woman’s purity. There are many countries who do not follow rituals of worshiping women deities. Countries like Japan, Indonesia, China, Taiwan and South Korea are giving ‘Period leaves’ to their female employees and we as a country are caught up in this messy debate, of judging the purity and impurity of a woman’s body. In my opinion it’s a real shame.
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Before expecting the daughter in law to love, respect and accept the new family, it is only fair that the family demonstrates all of these first.
If you are a married Indian woman, one of the first words you hear from your in laws is that you are now a daughter of the house. How true is that statement though? Are daughters in law really treated as daughters or is this only lip service?
A friend recently confided how hurt she felt when she wanted to visit her in-laws along with her husband but was told not to, because the in-laws wanted time alone with their son. Naturally, she was taken aback since she had always been fed this trope – that she was the daughter, not the daughter in law. Why then this sudden keeping at arm’s distance? Would a son in law ever be told not to accompany his wife on her visit to her parents because they wanted quality time with their daughter? That is unimaginable in a patriarchal society.
It is ok to want time alone with the married offspring but how does that meld into the Indian family system, where independent choices are less important than the whole family coming together?
Beauty is a very clever, very evil capitalist tool. It traps those who have it into hanging on to it for dear life and those who don't into mutilating, torturing themselves to achieve the unachievable.
I recently wrote a piece about MP Shashi Tharoor’s tweet in which he had shared a pic with six women parliamentarians tagging them and saying “Who says the Lok Sabha isn’t an attractive place to work?”
There was a rash of comments on the post shared on Instagram, which ranged from “chill, it’s just a compliment” and “stop overthinking compliments”, to (worried) men lamenting about “these feminazi”.
Here’s my answer to all those comments.
While some women celebrate Karwa Chauth of their own volition, others are forced into it. In either case, is the basis of the Karwa Chauth tradition regressive?
Karwa Chauth is a festival in which married women fast from sunrise to moonrise for the safety and longevity of their husbands. They starve for the whole day so that their husbands will live a long life. I believe that it is absolutely sexist, misogynistic and regressive. I had decided since forever that I would never succumb to the so-called Indian version of Valentine’s Day which is nothing but the mirroring of a dystopian mindset and totally gender biased.
India is a country where many of us follow what our parents have been doing, unaware of the reasons why are they doing what they are doing. To me, fasting of any kind, whether it is starving for God, for oneself or for anyone else proves nothing and doesn’t make any logical sense. I don’t have the tiniest clue as to how we can relate women starving to the life expectancy of their husbands. Is there some super secret science that I’m unaware of?
Indians worship female goddesses, but Indian women are denied an equal place in society. Do read this story of of 3 friends, and see how we can change that.
India as a country has a diverse past.
Our history is full of mythological stories of Maa Durga. Of the times when strong women ruled and were a part of decision making. We sing hymns like “Jai Ambe Gauri…”. We admire the sculptures and carvings at Khajurao and Ellora. Mention India and the West comes up with Gandhi, Chicken Tikka, SRK or a smirk to mean the Kamasutra. We were a nation that embraced it’s sexuality when others shied away. That’s one side of the coin.