Worshipping Women, Or Defiling Them?

Indian society repeatedly gets into a sense of shame and guilt on the issue of treatment of women. It is an opportunity for ravenous people to jump in and take potshots against Indian culture and Hinduism. The gentle folk are confused as to how society has come to such a stage of gruesome physical violence on women.

Morality was always a matter of self-regulation in our culture. It is not the fear of law which should guide us, but our understanding of the cosmic law of human nature. The word shama, disciplining the mind, is brought about by study of religious literature. This literature was available in diverse media – ranging from high literature to folk media – for all ranges of people in society. A common villager was aware of the ethical issues debated in the Ramayana or the Mahabharata and lived such values. Knowledge is revered as a goddess, and virtue is revered as goddess (Hrih). Compassion (dayaa, karuna) are all words in feminine gender and they are different characters in our books. The Vedic mantras relating to marriage praise a woman as the Lakshmi of the house. She is an equal partner with her husband; they are the two bulls yoked to the cart called marriage, and they have equal status.

The much-maligned Manu deserves a second look because he is also a person who is blamed for the ill treatment of women. There are at least a dozen verses in which Manu says that women have to be worshipped (pujyarhah). Women are Lakshmi in a house, they are the brilliant lamps in the house, and they have to be worshipped (9-26). A wife is the partner in all dharmic activities of the husband, and she is the means for a person to attain heaven (9-28). ‘Gods are delighted where women are worshipped, and where they are not respected, the family will not flourish’, is an oft quoted line from Manu (3-56). Women should be worshipped by all men in the house – brothers, uncles, cousins and all other males, who have to give them good gifts and ornaments (3-33). Such practices continue in families unpolluted by modern thought.

But we heard some charlatans say that Rama was a misogynist and avoided reading the text. We condemned Krishna in similar lines and forgot the great treasures of the texts. We condemned Manu as a woman-oppressor without reading him. We allowed ourselves to be guided by fools who have contempt for our culture.

We are paying the price for our ignorance by allowing normlessness leading to gory crimes. The land of Durga is giving shameful stories of humans behaving worse than Ravana or Mahishasura. When humans abduct women, keep them as per their wish and throw them as chewed bubble gum, the nation feels a sense of shame. People give sanctimonious lectures; great dicta are pronounced from the honourable benches. Politicians, powerless to restrain vote banks, indulge in blame games. The law-abiding man feels guilty about his own culture.

Such incidents could never even be thought of about two generations ago when society was still strong with what is sometimes called middle-class morality. But sustained efforts made by interested groups blamed Hinduism as oppressive to women. Any primary textbook on history in the USA shows this as an important aspect of Indian society. Our children, with no means to know the reality, develop self-loathing. Western narratives make sustained efforts to bring about normlessness in society so that the vultures can play their games.

Moral revival by all of us is what we can do. Morality can be inculcated by revival of great literature and in this age of internet no force on earth can stop us from educating ourselves and educating our kids. The thousand-shouldered cosmic being waits in that form to help us if only we seek his help. All external forces fail if people are morally strong.

(The writer is a former DGP, Andhra Pradesh)