National Comission for Women

The National Commission for Women (NCW) in India has recently released a
report on rapes in India, titled as, ’Rape-A legal study.’ It is a
significant step in the wake of recent spurt in the incidents of rapes
throughout India. Though the Report deals with the problem of rape in
India, the authors also express their concern about the overall status
of women in our society. They seem to have arrived at the following
conclusion in the Prologue of the Report itself, "in India, in ancient
times, women had enjoyed an able position in the household and in
society. As the ’queen’ of the household, her position was envied by her
counterparts elsewhere. Unfortunately, constant invasions by foreign
elements from about 8th century changed the scenario to the detriment of
women. Her vulnerability to abuse by the invading hordes bestowed upon
man a responsibility to protect her and from thence developed the
inherent dominant role of the male within the family fold and her
inevitable dependence on the male. Long years of invasion and infliction
of crime on her resulted in many protective measures. The direct effect
of this state of affairs was perforce, keeping women within the four
corners of the home and consequential enforced illiteracy which has
been, by and large, her lot since then."

Unfortunately, this kind of thesis is not only over-simplification of a
very serious issue of perpetual injustice being done to women not only
in India but throughout the world but also means running away from
finding a way out to stop atrocities against women. Is it not true that
society like Chinese or Japanese, which were never subjugated, don’t
have a better record to show historically, so far as, the gender
equality is concerned? In our case, long before the arrival of the
’invaders’ in 8th century, women like Darupadis were not only put on bet
but also disrobed publicly by the kinfolk. We had kings like Ravan who
enjoyed kidnapping helpless and pious women like Sita, and innumerable
other good kings in our mythological epics maintaining ’harems’ with
innumerable wives. Shri Shiv Mahapuran not only equated women with
death, degeneration, snake, poison and destructive fire but also
concluded, "there is no bigger sinner than women. Women are the roots of
sin, you must know." (Umasanhita, chapter 24)

The story of historical injustices to women in India or elsewhere is yet
to have a pause, and is, too complicated to be wished away to some
invaders’ misdeeds only. It is true that Arabs and later Mughals who
came to our lands from the western route in no respect believed in
gender equality. It really was a matter of great irony and shame that
these followers of Islam which normatively promised basic human rights
to women more than 14 hundred years back were practitioners of a rigid
patriarchal Islam. However, it is also true that the denigration of
women has been a universal and perpetual
phenomenon. The plight of women transcended the geographical, religious,
cultural, ideological and civilizational barriers. It is true that
before the advent of agriculture women enjoyed a better status but with
the rise of feudal society they were gradually turned into serfs or
objects of pleasure. The four Vedas are a great testimony of this
changing scenario.

It is high time that organizations like NCW instead of wasting time on
futile and questionable theses take a serious note of highly
objectionable popular religious literature debasing women being
circulated these days by organizations like Geeta Press, Gorakhpur and
others. This kind of literature is easily available in every nook and
corner of the country including the government allotted stalls at all
major railway stations both in Hindi and English. Geeta Press publishes
mass religious literature espousing the ’Hindu way of life’ for women
with titles like, ’How to Lead a Household Life,’ ’Nari Shiksha,’ and
’Striyon Ke Liye Kratawya Shiksha’. They have a bulky edition even
preaching Sati. In the following are some of the samples from this
literature.

"What should the wife do if her husband beats her and troubles her?" the
answer is, "the wife should think that she is paying her debt of her
previous life and thus her sins are being destroyed and she is becoming
pure." "Is Sati pratha (viz. The tradition of wife being cremated with
the dead body of the husband on the funeral pyre) proper or improper?"
The answer to this query provided in one of these books reads, "a wife’s
cremation with the dead body of her husband on the funeral pyre is not a
tradition. She in whose mind truth and enthusiasm come, burns even
without fire and she does not suffer any pain while she burns. This is
not a tradition that she should do so, but this is her truth,
righteousness and faith in scriptural decorum." A Hindu woman must
commit suicide because, "a Sati woman snatches her husband from the
hands of Yamdoot and takes him to Swarglok (paradise)." This stream of
literature openly decries equal rights between men and women, working
women, co-education and upholds purdah.

Interestingly, Muslim clergy does not lag behind inpouring out this kind
of anti-women literature for Muslim women in India. The ’Islamic’
literature which is in circulation makes horrible reading and is
available in many regional languages. Some of these books are titled as
’Musalman Biwi’ and ’Mian Biwi Ke Haqooq’. One of these books even has a
chapter, ’Right to Batter Wife’ which reads, "husband may use the stick
to beat the wife but he should avoid hitting her on the face or cause
deep scar." The authors of such literature quote scriptures after
scriptures to convey the message that a woman must treat her husband as
master and herself as slave.

Those of you who think that "Dahi Bahlay and Kababs from Delhi are
better than the ones from Karachi", please pay attention to what is
happening here and assess whether the status of women in India is