….and a deja-vu moment.
Courtesy Sridhar, this news-item from earlier today: Karuna does it again, flays Hindus for sporting tilaks
Flaying the Hindu practice of smearing ash or saffron or sporting a ’tilak’ on the forehead for yet another time, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi questioned the need for ‘such things in a country which preached equality of all religions’.
which reminded me of Don’t wear a “tilak” to work ! …
…and of Mark Tully’s memorable quote:
Secular fundamentalism is alive and kicking in India too.
Next target, Sanskrit?
P.S. I doubt that Thiru Karunanidhi needs any education in the significance of either a Tilak or a “Bindu/ Pottu” in Hinduism but I thought it would be nice to refresh my own memory.
A brief excerpt from Ten Questions about Hinduism on the “Bindu/ Pottu”:
Question Eight: Why do many Hindus wear a dot near the middle of their forehead?
A: The dot worn on the forehead is a religious symbol. It represents divine sight and shows that one is a Hindu. For women, it is also a beauty mark.
Longer answer: The dot worn between the eyes or in the middle of the forehead is a sign that one is a Hindu. It is called the bindi in the Hindi language, bindu in Sanskrit and pottu in Tamil. In olden days, all Hindu men and women wore these marks, and they both also wore earrings. Today it is the women who are most faithful in wearing the bindi.
The dot has a mystical meaning. It represents the third eye of spiritual sight, which sees things the physical eyes cannot see. Hindus seek to awaken their inner sight through yoga. The forehead dot is a reminder to use and cultivate this spiritual vision to perceive and better understand life’s inner workings…to see things not just physically, but with the “mind’s eye” as well.
…In addition to the simple dot, there are many types of forehead marks, known as tilaka in Sanskrit. Each mark represents a particular sect or denomination of our vast religion. We have four major sects: Saivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism and Smartism. Vaishnava Hindus, for example, wear a v-shaped tilaka made of white clay. Elaborate tilakas are worn by Hindus mainly at religious events, though many wear the simple bindi, indicating they are Hindu, even in the general public.
Related Posts:
“Who is this Ram?” - Will Thiru Karunanidhi look at this evidence?
If you thought banning a “tilak” was funny, think again
November 6th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
A Hindu Identity, Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Hindu Dharma, Hindu Social System, Sanatana Dharma, Spirituality & Philosophy, Women in Hinduism & India |
7 comments
I received this email yesterday and could not stop before reading it right through to the end…It is a long read…quite a long read, in fact. And it is seriously thought-provoking. Below, excerpts from a speech delivered by Sh. Gurumurthy at IIT Chennai in 2003 which - although five years old - still retains its and relevance and punch. This is a *must read*.
*** Excerpts from “The Intellectual Scene in Post-Independence India“ by Sh Gurumurthy ***
A critical review of strengths and weaknesses
… Defeat and anger go together. Abuse and defeat go together. So, it is in this norm and with this understanding of what an intellectual debate means, I would like to place before you some of my thoughts today. Some of may find it provocative. I am confident that the audience is competent enough to absorb this and think rather than get into the mood which all of us have got used to in the last 30-40 years abuse.
Background: India before Independence
Let us see the pre-independence background, the intellectual content of India. See the kind of personalities who led the Indian mind Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Gandhiji, Tilak- giants in their own way. Most of them were involved in politics, active politics, day-to-day politics, handling men, walking on the road, addressing meetings, solving problems between their followers. And, meeting the challenges posed by the enemy, the conspiracies hatched against them. They were handling everything, yet, they were maintaining an intellectual supremacy, and a record and an originality which history has recorded.
Let us look at the academic side. Whether it is a P. C. Ray who wrote on Indian Chemistry in 1905 or Sir C. V. Raman who wrote about mridangam, tabala, and violin, and saw the Physics in it (this was in 1913); whether it was R. C. Majumdar or Radhakumud Mukherjee who saw greatness in the Indian Civilization; trying to bring up points, instances, historical evidence to mirror the greatness of India, to the defeated Indian race, they were all building the Indian mind brick by brick. Sri Aurobindo spoke of Sanatana Dharma as the Nationalism of India. He didn”t rank it as a philosophy. He brought it down to the level of emotional consciousness. Swami Vivekananda spoke of spiritual nationalism; it was the same Swami who spoke of Universal brotherhood. For them philosophy was not removed from the ground reality. The nation was at the core of their philosophy. Swami Vivekananda was called the “patriot monk”.
Mahatma Gandhi spoke of Rama Rajya. Bankim Chandra wrote Bande Maataram. The song, the slogans in it, the mantra in it made hundreds of people kiss the gallows smilingly and many others went to jail. It transformed the life of the people; this was the intellectual scene, this was the content…This was the core of India, the soul of the Indian freedom movement.
The symptoms: India immediately after Independence
…Let us look at post Independence India. The persons who led post-Independence India were also trained in the same freedom movement. They went to jail, but they were not rooted in the intellectual content of the Freedom movement!
The first Prime Minister of India, he was in jail for 7 years. He was a great intellectual himself, purely in the sense of his capacity to reason, understand, read, and expound a thought. He told Galbrieth once, “I would be regarded as the last English Prime Minister of India. See the intellectual capability of the man, the enormously competent mind.
But intellectualism doesn”t exist in a vacuum. It has to be rooted in something concrete. Vivekananda”s universal brotherhood was rooted in India”s greatness as a civilization, which proclaimed it. The concept of “Vasudaiva Kutumbakam” cannot exist without a living form, a population which believes in it and believes in itself. You need to have a society, which believes in it.
That is why India could invite the Jews who were butchered, raped, all over the world. In 107 out of 108 countries, this race was butchered. At least they had the courtesy and the gratitude to publish a book, the Israeli govt. published a book that out of 108 countries that we sought refuge, the only civilization, the only country, the only people, the only ideology that gave us refuge was the Indian civilization. They published a book, which most Indians are unaware of.
And we invited the Muslims. The refugee Muslims first landed in Kutch. And they are called the Kutchy Memons even today but not the Memons who bomb Bombay. But the Memons who lived with us.
Keep Reading…
October 26th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
A Hindu Identity, An Indian Identity, British Rule in India, Hindu Dharma, Identity, Politics and Governance in India, Post Independence History, Sanatana Dharma, Women in Hinduism & India |
7 comments
Many of you must have, read about the controversial move by the Maharashtra state government to amend the Criminal Procedure Code (Cr.PC) Sec. 125 with a view to legalising “live-in relationships”. I spent a few hours today gathering links in favour of and against the debate.
The arguments that have been made “for” this move are:
It will protect the interests and rights of the so-called ‘mistress’ or ‘other woman’. We may not admit it but we all know that these women are the worst sufferers in the current system in spite of giving up years of their lives (and more) to one man without any legal protection at all (especially in cases of abuse or harrassment). The move would equate such women to legally married wives in matters of property, inheritance and maintenance
In the words of women’s activist Flavia Agnes:
“…Men, who until now used to deny such a relationship on grounds that the marriage was never conducted as per Hindu rites, shall now have no escape route…” (and) this will protect the rights of such women who had limited protection under the Domestic Violence Act, 2005 [ link ]
As Ranjana Kumari, director of the Centre for Social Research in Delhi said:
You need a law that protects children and entitles these women to a share or property. It is a step forward in recognising the autonomous rights of women [ link ]
Keep Reading…
October 12th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Debates & Discussions, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Hindu Social System, Human Rights and Legal Issues, Politics and Governance in India, Women in Hinduism & India |
59 comments
Happy VijayaDashami, Durgotsab, Durga Pooja and Dussehra to all…
On this auspicious day, let us all pledge to do our best to get rid of the three major evils that plague India…Terrorism, Poverty and Illiteracy…and promise ourselves to work towards building a proud, strong and united India.
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat!
(Above) An effigy of the demon king Ravana go up in flames, marking the victory of good over evil, on the occasion of the Dussehara festival in New Delhi [ Original Link ]
A scene from the immersion the idol of Goddess Durga at the Ichamati river in between India and Bangladesh. The idol is loaded on a typical conjoint boat called ‘taki’. The other side of the river is Satkhira in Khulna district of Bangladesh. [ Original Link ]
Photographs Courtesy: Press Information Bureau of India
Related Posts:
Om Namah Shivaya
Happy Ganesh Chaturthi!
October 9th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Indian History, Hindu Festivals, Indian Culture, Arts and Music, Women in Hinduism & India |
2 comments
Last week, responding to a petition to ban a history textbook, the Supreme Court asked Delhi University’s expert panel to consider the views of petitioners before submitting a final report to the Vice-Chancellor.
As some of you would know, the textbook - prescribed as part of the BA (Hons) second year syllabus at Delhi University - is said to include offensive references to Shri Hanuman and Sita Mataa such as “Lord Hanuman was a henchman of Lord Rama” and “the little monkey was a womaniser” etc…The book was the cause of a protest led by ABVP earlier this year during which Dr Jafri, the Head of History Deptt at DU was manhandled…
Curious to know more about the textbook, I spent some time researching on the internet this morning…Here is a link to Ramanujan’s essay that is included in the textbook…
After reading it, I felt that the ABVP over-reacted on this one… The “offensive” passages are not penned by Ramanujan but are part of folklore and stories around Ramayana in different cultures and regions. Furthermore, I found them more “entertaining” rather than “offensive”…As an example,
One day when Rama was sitting on his throne, his ring fell off. When it touched the earth, it made a hole in the ground and disappeared into it. It was gone. His trusty henchman, Hanuman, was at his feet. Rama said to Hanuman, “Look, my ring is lost. Find it for me.”
Note that the word “henchman” is not Ramanujan’s translation and possibly part of the original folk-story…What is the problem in that? In another version of Ramayana mentioned by Ramanujan, Sita is Ravana’s daughter…
I hope most of you would agree that there is space for divergent views in Hinduism…and a big attraction of this faith for me is that it allows - and respects - alternative interpretations, viewpoints and thoughts….Let us not dilute this core feature of Sanatan Dharma.
***
On Sunday in far-away London, the home of the publisher of a similarly controversial book (although this was not a textbook but a fictional novel) was fire-bombed, just “hours after police had warned the man that he could be a target for fanatics”. The book, “The Jewel of Medina” is written by Sherry Jones and had already caused controversy in the US. Martin Rynja (the publisher) had bought the UK publishing rights earlier this month.
From The Guardian:
The book was originally due to have been published in August by US giant Random House. But amid controversy the company halted publication, a move denounced by Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses, as ‘censorship by fear’.
…One sex scene has been described as ’softcore pornography’ by an American academic, Denise Spellberg, an influential professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas. Spellberg made the comments after Random House sent her the book hoping for a favourable comment to publish on its jacket. Instead, in an email that was leaked to the US press, Spellberg described the novel as a ‘very ugly, stupid piece of work’.
‘I don’t have a problem with historical fiction,’ Spellberg wrote. ‘I do have a problem with the deliberate misinterpretation of history. You can’t play with a sacred history and turn it into softcore pornography.’
It appears Spellberg was instrumental in drawing attention to the book among segments of the Muslim community. In April, Shahed Amanullah, an editor of a popular Muslim website, claimed Spellberg had told him the book ‘made fun of Muslims and their history’.
The resulting furore prompted Random House to pull the book, a move that dismayed its author, who received a $100,000 advance…
My question to all of you is:
What do you make of Spellberg’s argument viz: “‘I don’t have a problem with historical fiction (but)…I do have a problem with the deliberate misinterpretation of history. You can’t play with a sacred history…”
- Is “Ramayana” part of our sacred history?
- Can the folk-variants of Ramayana be considered ”deliberate mis-interpretation” of history?
Anyways, I will be watching the reaction of Indian government to this book whenever (if) it is released in India.
Suggested Reading: Academic Terrorists and The right to offend
Related Posts:
Leave Ashis Nandy alone
UPDATED: Is Taslima being treated differently from MF Husain?
Will Arundhati Roy pl. stand up for Francois Gautier?
P.S. Curiously, it appears that DU had not taken permission from OUP before reproducing Ramanujan’s essay in their textbook.
October 1st, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Indian History, Current Affairs, Debates & Discussions, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Indian Culture, Arts and Music, Miscellaneous, Women in Hinduism & India |
12 comments
In response to my previous post, a loyal reader emailed me and asked, what about reforms in Hinduism? or did I think that Hinduism was perfect and really did not need any changes?
That question prompted this post…Now, I have written on this subject before (pl. see list of related posts at the end) but I realised there was still some value in enumerating what is “wrong” with Hinduism and what needs to change for the better…
So here is my first cut (and I must say that this is an amateur’s attempt - I am by no means a scholar on Hindu-ism; more an interested observer…and of course a practising Hindu)… Please add your own thoughts and please do comment freely - especially those of you who have read far more widely than me - and are better versed in our philosophical/ religious texts.
How can we make Hindu-ism “better” or more in tune with our current lives? Here are some thoughts (in no particular order):
- Dowry: Publicly declare that Dowry is illegal and goes against the respect and honour accorded to a woman in Hinduism
- Untouchability/ caste-based discrimination: Unequivocally condemn anyone who indulges in this practice or condones such acts of others.
- Female foeticide: Anyone found guilty of female foeticide must be publicly named and shamed by the Acharya Sabha, the Shankaracharyas and community leaders…
- Temple entry: Seek free and unfettered entry to every temple (subject to regulations established by the trustees - such as no entry during the late hours) for every Hindu, regardless of caste, sex and birth, participation in every ritual/custom and access to every privilege which hitherto was limited only to certain classes (e.g. the “right” to become a priest or to conduct a “pooja”).
- Treatment of Widows: Unequivocally condemn the shameful treatment of widows in society - especially in Vrindavan and Mathura - and do something for the painful plight of child widows. For more, pl. read this post…There is some hope though.
- Cleanliness in Temples: I have written about this before: Why are our temples so dirty?
Are these things enough? Almost certainly not…
So please add your own thoughts…Looking forward to everyone’s responses, comments and suggestions.
Related Posts:
Hinduism, Caste System and discrimination - Join the debate
Is this too much to�ask?
Utterly shameful and�inexcusable�
Adjacent Posts: A Valentine’s Day “fatwa” and The last word on “Water”
September 9th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Debates & Discussions, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Hindu Social System, Sanatana Dharma, Women in Hinduism & India |
40 comments
Over the weekend, I came across this excellentcritique by Edward Hamala on the “caste system” in India andhow it is misrepresented in the West. Excerpts below:
***
…The Indian caste system that has so outraged Mr. Roger Williams, makes me wonder if he is equally outraged by the British caste system that is even more prevalent, although it is well hidden and invisible in the British and some European societies, where the nobility still exist, than it is in India today, where all noble titles have been abolished.
I would like to ask Mr. Williams when objecting to birthrights why has he failed to raise the same objection to the British Nobility and the Landed Gentrys birthright, inheriting their title, social status while they are also guaranteed perpetual political power by inheriting a peer-ship and a seat in the British House of Lords, the highest legislative body of the land?
…May I also remind you that the Indian Social Structure as it was depicted in the Vedas Millenniums ago, made it an edict to leave Tribals and Adivasis alone and not to impose Hindu religion, culture or values on them.
The word caste my friend is an English word! The Sanskrit word for caste is Varna and it means vocation or occupation and does not mean caste as it does in the English interpretation or translation of the term!
Likewise, untouchable meant not to go near them, dont touch them, dont intermarry with them and dont corrupt their culture dont try to conform them. Leave them alone!
The unfortunate thing was that Mahatma Gandhi was also British educated, trained as a lawyer and had little or no knowledge about the ancient Vedic philosophy, history or culture.
…
How many societies does Mr. Williams know, where a group of refugees arrived and sought refuge as the Jews did in Kerala, India in 70 AD and were given sanctuary and freedom to practice their religion. This community lived and prospered in India without anyone trying to convert them and many returned to their homeland when the State of Israel was created!
The same holds true for the Parsi refugees arriving from Persia when the forceful Muslim conversion was taking place there and they are still practicing their own ancient religion as Zoroastrians and no one tried to convert them.
Recently, a large number of Tibetians arrived in India along with the Dalai Lama and they were all received graciously and were given sanctuary.
…
So I think, Mr. Williams your indignation is somewhat ill placed and perhaps it would serve a better purpose if you dealt with more dire social issues that you may be more knowledgeable about, and better qualified to deal with.
*** End of Excerpts ***
Related Posts:
Hinduism, Caste System and discrimination - Join thedebate
Is this too much toask?
Utterly shameful andinexcusable
Caste, Varna and Jatis: The need for clarity in intellectualdebate
Read Edward Hamala’sarticle in full here(and the letter he refers to is probably this one).
As an aside: Someone mentioned to me yesterdayhow Christianity (in spite of a 2000-year history)still has to come to grips with ordaining women as priests…while some of Hinduism’s best knowns “gurus” have been(are)women…(to wit: Mata Anandamayi Devi, Mataji Nirmala Deviand many many others).
Says something about the status of women in India and the question of discrimination etc, I think.
June 9th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Ancient Indian History, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Hindu Dharma, Hindu Social System, Women in Hinduism & India |
7 comments
This ishow an otherwise straightforward news-story gets distorted in reporting:
From rediff, “Do TV serials promote the Hindu way of life?“
“…The Afghanistan government has banned Indian television serials because they feel it wrongly influences their culture and traditions.
In their words: ‘Indian serials are un-Islamic.’
Most Indian serials are about traditional North Indian families, and tend to celebrate Hindu festivals with more gusto than any other festival.
Do you think Indian telly soaps promote the Hindu way of life? Was the Afghan government right in banning them?”
As a commentator has noted on the rediff board, pl. notehow the last question was artificially framed.
Instead of a straight-forward “Is Afghanistan becomingTaliban-ised (once again)” it somehow manages to putthe TV serials on the defensive!
Of course for most of us familiar with Indian TV serials, saying that they promote a “Hindu way of life” is at best, a stretch andat worst,a joke.
Related Posts: The great joke that is Indian media series:Part 1,Part 2,Part 3and Part 4.
April 10th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
A Hindu Identity, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Hindu Dharma, Hindu Social System, India & Its Neighbours, Indian Culture, Arts and Music, Indian Media, Women in Hinduism & India |
5 comments
I got an email earlier today from Dr Akalpita Paranjpe of Bharat Uday Mission (BHUMI).
She is the”energy” behindthis excellent idea of a “candle light vigil” in Mumbai this Fridayto show solidarity with women who are sexually harassed or are victims of “eve-teasing” in India (Many of you would remember the shameful incident at Juhu on New Year’s eve).
I would have loved to be there. Unfortunately I am not in Mumbai on that day.
I have written on this issue before…but we need many many more awareness-building exercises such as these…Well done, Akalpita-ji and BHUMI(Oddly, the website has no mention of this event).
If any of my readers do manage to attend, I would love to hear from them and would be delighted to post their experience(s) here onthis blog.
Related Posts:
Please cover yourself, I am feelingawkward
On Jeans, Indian Men and IndecentBehaviourand
Let us blow upKhajuraho
.
March 6th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Women in Hinduism & India |
no comments
I stumbled on this news-item on Barbarindian’s blog. From anews-report in The Hindu:
“…Cyriac Joseph, Chief Justice of the High Court of Karnataka, on Friday said that the provocative dresses that women wear in buses put the men travelling in the buses in awkward situations and hence women must dress modestly.
Coming back to why attacks on women happen, he linked it to their clothes…”
I am stumped.
Please alsoread: On Jeans, Indian Men and IndecentBehaviourand Let us blow upKhajuraho
.
February 23rd, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Women in Hinduism & India |
30 comments
Stumbled across this news today: “No love on Valentine’s Day, Sena on a rampage“
“… In Delhi, about a dozen Sena protesters briefly blocked a road early on Wednesday and burnt Valentine’s Day cards and gifts, chanting ‘Down with Valentine’.
In Lucknow, Sena activists sent out a diktat against Valentine’s Day celebration and threatened to beat up couples found celebrating their love.
“Our volunteers will check parks, hotels and restaurants and swoop upon young lovers found walking hand-in-hand,” Vijay Tiwari, a Shiv Sena activist in Lucknow, said. “We are deadly against Valentine’s Day,” Sapan Dutta, a Sena leader, said. “We are for civilized love and affection.”
In Pune, activists of Sena Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, Shiv Sena’s student wing, protested outside prominent colleges. They tore Valentine’s Day cards and shouted slogans. Several Vidyarthi Sena activists were taken into custody and police pickets have been deployed outside the colleges.
In Indore, Sena activists demonstrated and raised slogans against Valentine’s Day celebration near the Gandhi statue.
…
The clarion call to Shiv Sena workers to oppose Valentine’s Day came from none other than the Sena chief himself. Writing on Sena mouth piece Saamna, Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray said the party’s opposition to Valentine’s Day will continue as it has ‘nothing to do with Indian culture’.
Only those who are not patriotic and has a lot of parents’ money to spend will celebrate the day, and ‘Sainiks’ will continue to oppose the foreign culture, he said through the article. “
I would love to rip this argument apart but unfortunately I am constrained by time today…so here are some extempore comments…
This is madness…
While I agree that Valentine’s Day has nothing to do with Bharatiya culture, does that mean that Shiv Sainiks have the authority to go about bashing people who may not agree or (more likely) are just having a nice time?
Vandalising property and threatening innocent, harmless couples is not Bharatiya culture either..
How far are we from a dictatorship? and what happened to the famed Bharatiya and Hindu virtues of tolerance and liberalism?
And in any case, what has allthis go to do with being “patriotic”?
Related Posts:
Lets shoot themessenger and
Dumb andDumber
And if you have some more time, let me know your thoughts on how far are we away from this?
P.S. Has anyone heard of Vasant-Utsav? Read this and this (recommended, unfortunately only in Hindi)
February 14th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
An Indian Identity, Distortions, Misrepresentation about Hinduism, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Hindu Dharma, Hindu Festivals, Indian Culture, Arts and Music, Women in Hinduism & India |
6 comments
One ofthe many unsung heroes whodeserve an “Indian of the Year” nomination:
Rerported by Kinnari Patel, CNN-IBN, Man saves woman from molesters, killed
“…Thirty-five-year old Keshav Vishwakarma tried to prevent 40-year old Lilavati a mother of two from being harassed.
Four hours later, the accused allegedly doused him with kerosene and burnt him in his house in the Pandesara area of Surat.
“A few people were teasing me and saying a lot of things. I saw him trying to prevent them. I don’t know what happened after that, says the molestation victim Lilavati. Just before he died, Keshav recounted the horror. “I tried to reason out with them that it was wrong and help the woman. Instead, they set me on fire, he said.
Such was his willpower that even after sustaining 75 per cent burns, Keshav walked about two kilometers to the Pandesara police station and reported the matter…”
Keshav later succumbed to his burn injuries at Surat’s Civil Hospital.
A sad day for India.
(Somewhat) Related Posts:
Three stories, Onetheme
Let us blow upKhajuraho
January 20th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Women in Hinduism & India |
3 comments
By now most, if not all, of you must have read about the shameful and disgusting incidents of molestations of young women in Mumbai and New Delhi on New Year’s Eve…
What shocked me even more was this ridiculous (I wish I had a stronger word…) statement from one of the accused*:
…Addressing the media, the accused…said that while the newspapers splashed ‘molestation’ pictures, they did not write a word about how the girls in question were drunk.
“The couples were in an inebriated state. They were smooching on the road. What were they expecting?”, they said.
Extraordinary…Get out your pickaxes and shovels…Let us smash the Khajuraho temples 
.
I am reminded of Mahatma Gandhi’s words to the effect that India shallbe independentthe day when a woman can walk the street atmidnight without fear of being harassed…(does anyone have a source, exact quote? - thanks). When will we have this kind of “Ram-rajya”?
* “We are innocent: Mumbai molestation accused”, Zeenews, Jan 09 Mumbai report
Related Posts:
On Jeans, Indian Men and IndecentBehaviour
Exposing Purdah the Truth behind theVeil
Who Will Listen to Paras SilentScreams?
Also read: On Husain, Khajuraho and moralpolicingand
please also have a look at this whole catgeory of posts on Women in Hinduism and in India
.
January 10th, 2008
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Current Affairs, Distortions, Misrepresentations about India, Hindu Social System, Women in Hinduism & India |
4 comments
I read about this shameful and horrifying rape in Tehelka’s recentissue and it filled me with rage and a deep sense of frustration…Rage at what happened and theindifference ofpolice authorities andfrustration that these kind of crimes are still being seen through the prism of caste.
Here is a shocking excerptof what happened to Para Devi (from Tehelka):
“On June 23, Para, a Dalit daily wage labourer from Santoshpura, left home for work at 8am with her husband, Ranglal.
Feeling unwell during the day, she set out for the hospital; on the way, her neighbour Kalu Ram offered her a ride in his car. Two other men, Harsahai and Kajod, were in the same car and three others, Sohan Lal, Indraraj and Jagdish, were later picked up.
For the next three days, the six men drove Para from village to village, raping her in turn.
When she protested, they beat her; when she asked for water, they gave her country liquor mixed with Limca. She was made to urinate in the car and given no food.
On June 26, Para was dropped, wounded, torn, only half-conscious, at the Phagi bus stand with Rs 20 and a threat not to open her mouth or her family would be killed. When her husband tried to lodge an FIR, he was turned away…”
.
What happened to Parawas not (just) a crime against a Dalit women - it was a crime against a helpless woman, it was a crime against humanity, it was a murder of values that we cherish…(sadly the story has been published under “Dalit Window” in Tehelka)
All the talk of women empowerment comes to naught in the face of such incidents…and no amount of condemnation will ever heal Para’s wounds…
What will help is a steely desire to bring the culprits to book - and make an example of them.
What I also find very disturbingis the “silence” of the mainstream media, the political parties and the NGOs on this issue.
But then why should anyone bother?
Paracomes from a remote village in Rajasthan - which most of us would have never heard about…She is a poor, illiterate and unemployed.
To a glamour-obsessed media, she has zero value and offers no soundbites.
To the vote-obsessed political parties, she representsnothing - except theinsignificant votes of 20 Bairwa families.
To the publicity-obsessed NGOs, she is not a good opportunity since the Women’s Commission seems to have gotthere first.
The Women’s Commission is probably the only one that comes out of this cesspool with some credit(in as much asit intervened to get the police to register an FIR).
But is it not ironic that in a state with a woman as Chief Minister, the women had to organise a “dharna” to be heard?
My head hangs in shame today.
.
UPDATE: I cross-posted this on DesiCritics on Sunday (14th Oct).
It has already attracted almost 80 commentsthere (and counting). Some are truly disgusting.
October 16th, 2007
Posted by
B Shantanu |
Indian Media, Women in Hinduism & India |
5 comments
