How foreign practices came to become an 'integral' part of our civilization

[Guest guest]

This piece speaks about my views on the practice of women in Indian/

of Indian origins wearing veils or covering their heads in presence

of elders.

 

What most of us know and remember now of India or think about her is

that she has been a nation with widespread poverty and misery and

hurling towards a still more worse situation. Thinking is unoriginal,

growth is stymied, respect for life is scant. Animals are horribly

treated and elders are disregarded. All hopes seem to have been lost

for developement. The rich and the poor, the learned and the

illiterate have both contributed to the rape of our motherland. Misery

is widespread and there is a rather impatient wait for the arrival of

an emancipator. But, to an overwhelming majority of Indians, the

dream of a better India is lost forever. Few realize that

emancipation is not an externally imposed phenomenon but a process

that is intrinsic.

 

We call Adi Shankracharya the " (Eamnuel) Kant of the East", Kalidasa

as the "Shakespeare of the East", Tansen as "Beethoven of the East",

Acharya Chanakya as the "Machiavelli of the East", Sarojini Naidu as

the "Nightingale of the East" .... the list goes on. Never mind that

Kant was a German or Shakespeare was a Britisher or Beethoven a

German, Machiavelli a Greek or Nightingale a French. We find our own

breed of people so scant of intellectuals and achievers that we

feel a compelling need to compare the "few exceptions" to the giants

in the West in order to realize that we indeed had some remarkable

people.

 

Were we always such? No. There were those times which are still

remembered, as the golden olden days. They have been so much lost in

time that many people believe it be a myth rather than an actuality.

Phrases are coined to instruct to the effect that that lives must be

lived in the present and not in the past. In short, whatever possible

lessons that we may be able to learn from our past glory, its methods

and its dynamics must be ignored.

 

India has been invaded innumerable times over since the last 1200

years or so. The Greeks, the Huns, the Mongols, the Arabs, the

Portuguese, the French, the Britishers all came in, looted, plundered

and raped, tried to impose their systems and way of thinking and

customs and lifestyles on each of us. Each of them succeeded in

different degrees. Each of them made a dent into our civilization.

1200 years of physical slavery has lead to a mental slavery that is so

widespread that it seems to form a large part and parcel of our own

customs. Our education system has done a wonderful job in

perpetuating this mental slavery. Orignality is eschewed. The easy

path to success and grades is encouraged. We immediately recognize

the brightness and abilities of our children in their getting A

grades. We never mind that the system that eavualtes our children is

the one that rewards unorginality and slavish thinking. Curiosity

and original thinking is punished.

 

Comming to the point I raised in the 1st sentence, with the advent

(arrival) of Islam came the practice of women supression in India.

The Muslims were faithful followers of the book called Koran which

clearly mentions that the women and property of non-muslims are

prizes of victory for Muslims who fight and win against the non-

muslims. Our women were enslaved by the Turks and the Arabs, their

rights violated, their sexuality abused. Islamic codes of conduct

were introduced upon us by the believers in Koran. The dirt of (a

particular interpretation of) Koran was gradually smeared on our

faces.

 

The birth of practices such as Sati, wearing viels, speaking in low

voices which are as low as whisper, in front of elders, eating after

everyone else in the family has eaten, mandatory dowry, not laughing

in front of elders and dancing being considered bad was a direct

product of the Islamic influence. Over a period of time more and more

women, many of them voluntarily took to such practices with little

resistance from their menfolk since these practices protected them

against the outrage committed by the Islamic invaders. Physical

slavery of Indians continued for generations and along with it, these

new practices got more and more rooted in the Indian civilization.

Whole generations of great grandfather, grad fathers, fathers and

sons saw these customs so widespread that slowly but surely our very

own men started to forget the equality between men and women and the

respect for rights of an individual that were a part and parcel of

our civilization. As India got Islamicised, women started losing

their dignity and freedom.

 

As the time passed, generations became more and more frustrated with

the tyranny of the Muslim rulers. But, there was seemingly no outlet

for most men. Hence it got directed upon someone else. Women became

easy targets of such a frustrartion for 3 reasons -

 

1. As a direct outcome, women lost their position that they enjoyed

in the society. Muslim rulers encouraged it since such a social

behaviour was in line with Islamic custom of women supression.

 

2. Women being physically weak could not resist the onslaught of

their own men.

 

3. Given that many Muslims invaders were enjoy the prizes won in the

battles (read, rape and outrage our women) practices like Sati or

covering the face/head rather became to be recognized as virtues

since then there were less chances of the invaders outraging them.

 

1200 years of Physical slavery has had a deep and devastating effect

on our minds. Practices that were NEVER a part of our customs came to

be recognized as essence of the Hindu identity. Some of them were

abolished by the unique acts of revolutionary thinkers like Raja Ram

Mohan Roy. Some of them prevail. They include -

 

1. a lady who is undergoing mensturation as being considered as

impure.

 

2. covering of heads, not lauging, speaking very softly, not arguing,

in front of/with elders

 

3. deciding of dress codes for women (there are no dress codes for

men)

 

4. defining of traditional roles for women

 

5. deprivation of sexual liberty

 

We take pride in calling the above customs as "Hindu customs". Rani

Laxshmi Bai or Meera Devi or Menaka or Sita Devi were not a product

of the "Hindu" civilization that is Islamized. Why perpetuate Islam

in our customs?

 

Such a perpetuation is a part of the mental slavery that chains

Indians. This slavery so widespread and ingrained that we have come

to believe that it does not exist (just like a homotropic sound

cannot be detected by any physical device even though it is

omnipresent)

 

Amit Agarwal