Fascinating Indian Women !! !

The Indian Women fascinate me. Her ability to give, share, bear, nurture, cook, work, qualities of head and heart, adjust are just some of the qualities that I admire. Throughout our country’s tumultuous history, she suffered so much yet she continues to retain qualities that make her unique. She has done great service to religion by preserving age old traditions, moral fervor and spiritual vein in our society. It is the mother who conducts puja in our homes, attends spiritual discourses, wears Indian clothes i.e. sari while men have adopted western wear completely.

This post is dedicated to the Indian women. As a nation, we progressed when the Indian woman was accorded her rightful place in society. Its time we treat her like she was up to 300 B.C. It is my belief that India will progress much faster if a greater number of women are educated, financially independent and realize that equality does not mean that you listen to yourself only. Let us resolve to allow her to blossom, flower and show her inner beauty.

Olden age:

The frequent reference to unmarried girls speaks in favor of a custom of girls marrying long after they had reached puberty. Among Aryans, marriage among brothers and sisters was prohibited. There seems to have been considerable freedom on the part of young persons in the selection of their life partners as they generally married at a mature age. Approval of the parent or the brother was not essential, the boy and the girl made up their minds and then informed the elders though their participation in the marriage ceremony was essential i.e. the blessings of the elders were sought.

Suprising as it may sound, in some cases a bride-price was paid by a not very desirable son in law. So also when a girl had some defect, dowry was given. A hymn in the Rig Veda gives us an idea of the old marriage ritual. The boy and his party went to the girl’s house where a well-dressed girl was ready. The boy catches the hand of the girl and leads her round the fire. These two acts constitute the essence of marriage. The boy takes the girl home in a procession followed by consummation of the marriage.

The wife was respected in her new house and wielded authority over her husband’s family. The wife participated in the sacrificial offerings of her husband. Abundance of sons was prayed for so, naturally so in a patriarchal society since the son performed the last rites and continued the line.

There is little evidence to show that the custom of Sati existed. Even if known, it was limited to the Kshatriya class. Remarriage of widows was permitted under certain conditions. Female morality maintained a high standard although but the same degree of fidelity was not expected from the husband.

Women enjoyed much freedom. They took an active part in agriculture, manufacture of bows. They moved around freely, publicly attended feasts and dances.

Birth of a Daughter Unwelcome – As in all patriarchal societies during that age the birth of a daughter was unwelcome. The son lived with his parents, earned money for the family, protected the family from enemies and perpetuated the name of the family. However, the latter’s birth was not considered so bad.

The feeling of dejection on the birth of a daughter did not lead to Female Infanticide in ancient India. This custom crept into India during the medieval period. Once the disappointment on the birth of a daughter was over, the family did not distinguish between their son and daughter.

‘Man is only one half” says a Vedic passage; he is not complete till he is united with his wife and gives birth to children. The husband is to treat his wife as his dearest friend. The wife is a companion friend of a man, says a Vedic passage. The Mahabharat and Buddhist thinkers concur with this view.

Marriage between the same caste was preferred although inter caste marriages were prevalent.

While girls continued to be married around 16, there was a tendency to marry them before they attained puberty. It was probably due to the anxiety to maintain their body purity. Lowering of the marriage age affected their education and culture adversely. After all, if she got married early then how could she study? Extreme emphasis was now laid on the physical chastity of women which discouraged widow remarriage, divorce and encouragement of sati. We must remember that India faced its first foreign invasion ie Greeks during this period.

Social customs are a product of the environment we live in. India had never seen, till 327 BC, an invasion like the Greeks. Quoting freedom fighter, writer K.M. Munshi “About the beginning of the Christian era, perhaps under the influence of foreigners, the spiritual disenfranchisement of women began. 

Remarriage - While Agni Purana, Visvarupa permits a woman to take a second husband under five circumstances, lost, dead, impotent, and outcaste or adopted the life of a recluse it is forbidden by Medhatithi, Brahma Purana.

Widow – As in the previous period, the life of strict celibacy and self-restraint enjoined upon her was sought to be enforced during the period. The tonsure of widow came into vogue about the 8th century a.d. and was to help her lead an ascetic life.

General Status of Women – As in the previous period, the Smritis emphasize the duty of absolute devotion and obedience of wives to their husbands. Medhatithi says that a wife must shampoo her husband’s feet provided the husband follows a righteous path and is free from hatred, jealousy towards his wife. Equal right of the husband and wife to seek legal remedy is advocated by Medhatithi. He takes Manu to enjoin not the actual beating of the recalcitrant wife but only a method of putting her on the right path. 

A Note on Status of Women in Western Society:
 
The Doctrine of perpetual tutelage of women was not taken seriously by Hindu society can be gauged from the fact that a women’s share in property kept on increasing. If suppression of women was indeed the aim, her share in the property should have come down but the opposite happened. According to Dr Leitner, the Educational Commissioner of Punjab during the third quarter of the last century, the elderly women of the house had the difficult job of mediation in family disputes.
 
It must be noted that the doctrine of perpetual tutelage of women was universally accepted everywhere till recent times. Quoting Prof Gilbert Murray “To the average Athenian, it was probably rather wicked for her to have any character, wicked for her to take part in public life, wicked for her to acquire learning.” Even Aristotle’s thought that like slaves, artisans and traders, women should occupy a subordinate place. Their will is weak, virtue less perfect and self-sufficient and deliberative faculty rather inconclusive. Male by nature is superior and female inferior. The one rules and the other is ruled.
 
The Roman Law regarded the wife as the daughter of her husband as far as her juridical status was concerned, for a long time, she could not sign a will, make a contract or become a witness. Down to 200 AD, even mothers of several children, continued to be under the tutelage of their male relations. Women is always dependent says Confucius and owes due homage to her father-in-law and husband. In the Christian marriage, the wife has to take the vow of obedience at the time of her marriage; logically speaking this places her under the perpetual tutelage of her hubby.

The Bible argues that women should never usurp the authority over man, but be always subordinate to them, firstly because Eve and not Adam, was deceived and secondly because the former was created out of a rib of the latter. At the synod of Macon in 585 AD, the assembled bishops debated whether human beings were women at all and finally concluded they were. 
 
Numerous writers of medieval Europe have emphasized the inferiority of women. Milton held women ought to obey without argument. Rousseau, the apostle of freedom, condemned women to a servile position. Girls, he argues, should be subject to restraint. Even educated ladies of the 18th century felt that women should not dream of independence. The French Revolution which stood for Equality was not prepared to grant it to Women. The French National Assembly treated women so contemptuously that it even refused to read their petition.
 
Divorce – The earlier Dharmasastras tell us that divorce was permitted under certain circumstances at the beginning of the Christian era. Inspite of lots of opposition, it became well grounded around the beginning of the Christian era that a women could be married only once. To divorce one husband and to marry another, because the marital life was not happy, began to appear as a grossly sensual procedure. It may be pointed out that the Roman Catholic Church holds the same view today, as it regards marriages as indissoluble. (The book was written in 1956). In England, down to the middle of the 19th century, a divorce could be had only by an Act of Parliament. Between 1715 and 1855 A.D., only about 180 persons could get divorce through Parliamentary Legislation.

Duty of Obedience - The original Christian ritual, specify enjoined the duty of obedience upon the wife. She took the oath that she would love and obey her husband till her death, while the latter merely observed that he would love and cherish her. The deliberate differentiation in the oath was a natural corollary of the theory adumbrated in Paul, V, 22, that the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church. It is interesting to note that even in 1928, the British Parliament refused to sanction the proposal to delete the reference to obedience from the wife’s oath.  
The theory of wife’s subordination is dying out in the West.

Physical Assault of Wife – With the reduction in the average age and education of girls, physical assault of the wife did happen in India. But was the situation any different in the West? In medieval Russia, the bride’s father supplied his son-in-law with a new whip as a symbol of his authority and it was hung over the bridal bed. 

Sati – The custom of sacrifice of the widow at the funeral of her husband was widely prevalent since ancient times. Although there is no direct evidence that it prevailed during the Indo-European Age, the fact that it was practiced among the Gauls, Goths, Norwegians, Celts, Slaves and the Thracians would justify that it was probably well established among the Indo-Europeans. 

The rite of sati was enjoined by some authorities but condemned by others but the custom was mainly confined to royal families. According to Arab writer Sulaiman “the wives of kings sometimes burnt themselves on the funeral fires of their husbands, but it was for them to exercise their option in this matter”.  Remember the first Muslim invasion in Sind, 712 A.D. was during this period. 
 
Purdah – There is no doubt that Purdah was unknown in India down to 100 B.C. It is only after the starting that some sections of society in Northern India, notably royalty, began to advocate greater seclusion for women, ie they put a veil. (Could be the impact of foreign invasion). The Chinese travelers of the 7th century A.D. did not mention it too. The Purdah system became widely prevalent in North India subsequent to the Muslim invasion.
Seclusion of women was not confined to India alone. In Athens, 500 B.C., women could not meet their husband’s guests or go out of the house without proper guards. 

A bridegroom could not see his bride before marriage in ancient Greece. At Sparata, women had separate apartments and could not be present at banquets. In Assyria veil was worn by all married women. In Persia, seclusion of women had become quite common before the beginning of the Chrisitan era. The Bible lays down that women should not speak in public at the Church.  Tertullian says “For a virgin of virtuous habits every appearance in public with an unveiled face is equivalent to suffering a rape”. 

 
To come down to modern times, women lived under restrictions. Down to 1850 A.D. in England, a woman could not take a walk, much less a journey, alone, nor could she ask a fellow worker to visit her, unless the worker was a girl. When two ladies spoke at a meeting convened for the purpose of supporting a women’s cause in Parliament, a Member of Parliament said “Two ladies have disgraced themselves for speaking in public”. When the House of Commons was built in 1844, it was great difficulty that a Ladies Gallery was sanctioned. 
 
Child Marriage – In the Vedic Age down to 400 B.C, girls got married between the age of 16 to 18. They encouraged early marriage. The Sarda Act of 1929, made the marriage of girls and boys before the age of 14 and 18 an offence.
 
Child marriages were common in Europe for a long time. In ancient Rome, maidens were married at the age of 10 or 12. In the age of chivalry, girls were often married at the age of 5 because marriage was a matter of military tactics and alliances. The rule of the Church that boys and girls should be married at the age of 15 and 12 was openly flouted. In England, except in the upper classes, child marriage was common in Tudor times. 

Nudity – The real explanation of women appearing without covering their busts properly in the sculptures, paintings of Southern, Central India seems to be the artistic convention of that age. Breasts are the most significant symbol of motherhood and the artistists felt that they may be uncovered in works of art, though they may be actually covered in real life. Let’s not confuse the matter .

Convention in India or European countries prescribed a scantier dress for woman than what is actually used in real life. This will be apparent to all students of ancient and modern sculptures & paintings of Europe. We cannot conclude that women in modern Europe move about in a nude condition because they appear uncovered in some works of art, so also the same logic applied to the Indian women. 

India is a vast and complex capitalist society. Said to be the largest liberal democracy in the world with a population of over 1 billion, India is not easy to assess. Viewed through a western perspective it can often seem an impenetrable place. Often we see the Indian woman cast as a victim of patriarchal and religious control. Images of instances of ‘sati’ and stories of mass foeticide have helped form in the western mind the stereotypical ignorant and backward Indian women. However there is a ‘rich history linked to the social reform movements’ that were taking place in India in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries . This history has a direct link to the women of today and in this essay we will show how the Indian women’s movement is a vibrant and complex movement that includes millions , yet is not a diverse and often of a contradictory nature. We will show how the movement varies according to geographical area, how individual organisations are run along differing ideological perspectives and how they are tackling the many problems that Indian women face.

Therefore in order to evaluate the position of women in India today it is necessary to first look at some of the fundamental changes that occurred through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries ; in particular the nationalist and independence movement. These movements and the changes they brought about in India profoundly altered women’s standing in society.

Education of women became a popular idea in India (amongst the higher castes at least) in the early nineteenth century/ This was done in the context of the nationalist movement as it was seen as desirable that women became educated in their own language, and desirable that they could achieve a superiority over western women, women of the preceding generation and over women of the lower classes. This gave the women of the higher classes and castes a sense of freedom and self-emancipation. This, however, was part of the dichotomy that Chatterjee identified and in fact led to a new form of oppression.

It was around the 1970’s that the contemporary women’s movement began to be more radical and active, especially against the Indian state who for a time declared a state of emergency which led to the repression of all political and progressive groups, not just women’s. This repression led to a fight back by women’s organisations which greatly increased their scope and power. Today issues are fought over a large spectrum of issues including  union rights, abusive partners, the rights of ‘dalit’ women (the lowest caste in the Hindu religion), worker’s rights, sexual assault and much more. It is not just left-wing and progressive causes that are fought over by women, but right-wing issues too.

However this elevation of the individual through sexuality gives women the power to enter political debate with religious symbolism, muddying the waters of the Indian states already shaky secular status. This extension of the dichotomy of ghar and bahir, and the empowering affect the ‘protective inner sanctum of the home’ has on Hindu women enables them to attack politicians, Muslims and the secular state, often in a violent way. The assertion of female dominance over Muslim men has led to widespread violence against them. Propaganda from the right has helped build up the caricature of the Muslim man as attacker of Hindu women and therefore attacker of all Hindus. It is the case that this violence is an example of the right-wing Hindu movement’s abilities to co-opt women’s issues in the name of their own causes.


The Indian woman is not, however, defined wholly by the right’s attempts to appropriate them. Many millions of women are engaged in a variety of protests against such gender distinctions as ghar and fight many other battles, small and large. Before we detail some of these battles we must first look at how these battles arise and why.
In India it seems that the types of protest that occur are very much dependent on the locale. Different parts of India seem to produce different types of protest from women. 

Protest by women in India against oppressive conditions comes in many forms. Today the women’s movement ‘exists in a highly decentralized form with hundreds of organizations in both urban and rural areas throughout the country’ Desai  shows us that the Indian women’s movement has become more affective by distinguishing between national and local level organisation. 

Through autonomous, flexible and informal structures and collective types of organisations the Indian women’s movement has been able to achieve in both political and cultural spheres : National organisation and collective work with other groups to achieve political goals and local successes through initiating collective responsibility in cultural matters. 

This is supported by Bush in his study of the Indian states response to and dealings with issues of domestic violence. When the state recast the problem of violence as a social issue it had the effect of providing protection against violence but no actual empowerment. This led to only superficial successes. This study points out that the institutionalisation of women’s movements may lead to diminished effectiveness. 

I would say, then that whilst the Women’s movement in India is an energetic and modern movement, influencing over social movements both nationally and internationally, there are still many problems to confront. Particularly the inversion of feminist values by right-wing groups and the problem of defining what exactly women’s rights should constitute : The narrowing of feminist values. In this essay we have shown that the Indian women’s movement is diverse and that women in India today are involved in redefining their own gender roles. Indian women today are far from the ignorant, oppressed stereotype perceived in the west. They in fact are active in both an individual and collective approach to organisation, and are centrally engaged in transforming their own lives.

I respect and bow my head down to such wonderful people. :)