Women in India

 

Women are the real architects of society.”

                                 Harriet Beecher Stowe

 

Although women are always underestimated by men in respect of gender equality, it is an undeniable fact that women do have as much contribution to human life and in making a society or a nation as men have. The revolutionary Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam rightly put forward this universally unacceptable truth in his poem “Naari” (Women):

“Of all the great creations in this world, both everlasting and beneficial,
Half are made by women, half by men.
Of all the sinful furies, pains and tears that have disassembled to earth,
Half were brought by men, half by women.”

 

A society or a nation can be deemed to be well-developed provided all human beings are given equal opportunities to develop their situatin in life as well as to take part in the betterment of that particular nation or society. Women’s equality with men testifies the sublime mental status quo of a nation or a society.  According to Manu, the great teacher,  “Where women are honoured, there the Gods rejoice, but where they are not honoured, all rites are fruitless.”

 

Unlike the Western world or any other parts of the world, in the past Indian society was very just and proportionate in relation to gender equality and notably gave equal status to men and women. History vindicates this fact. In ancient and early medieval India, women enjoyed equal status with men in all aspects of life. Works by ancient grammarians such as ‘Patanjali’, ‘Katyayana’ suggest that women in Vedic period were educated. They were allowed to undergo initiation and study the ‘Vedas’. In late ancient period, institutions were built for co-education. The book ‘Amarkosh’ , written in the Gupta era, mentions the names of teachers and professors who belonged to the female sex. The ‘Rig Ved’ and the ‘Upanishadas’ mention many a female sages and seers, notably Gargi and Mayatri. Besides, the Rig Ved verses also testify that women would marry at mature age in the past and were free to choose their husbands in the practice called “Swayamvar” and in the live-in relationship called “Gandharva marriage”. In the ‘Dharmasutra of Harita’ it is mentioned that in Swayamvar, the father of the woman would invite all the men at the court and the woman would select one from them as her husband and marry him in the presence of court. Polygamy was also matched with Polyandry in the past. As to the Gods and Goddesses, primodial Indian society revered them with equal importance to both gender. In the ‘Puranas’, every God is shown in the consort of his wife such as Brahma with Saraswati, Shiva with Parvati, Vishnu with Laxmi etc. During this time, separate temples were created for the goddesses and in each temple they were as much cared and worshiped as the Gods were. This ritual has endured to the present time, though. In the ancient and early medieval era, Indian women also freely participate in the administrative activities. There are several examples of queens, regents, and female administratives  such as Queen Mragavati of Vatsya Mahajanapada; Queen Kumara Devi, wife of Chandragupta I; administrator Pravati Gupta, daughter of Chandragupta II, Queen Naynika of Decan empire etc. These historical facts show how women rights were taken seriously and how women enjoyed equal status with men in ancient India. 

The Muslim conquest of India, however, changed the social system of India to a great extent. From this time, the position of Indian women started to deteriorate. The Muslim invaders brought in the Persian and Arabian cultures that stood against women’s equality with men. Later many of these practices were emulated by the native Hindus too. Women were made to stay inside the household and wear covered clothes. They were kept afar from the administrative activities. Although indoor education was allowed to upper class women, the lower class women were devoid of education. Thus the education rate of women also decreased in this era. However, instead of all these, there were cases of women becoming prominent in the field of politics, education, literature, but they were quite a few. Among them the most noteworthy are Razia Sultana, Zehangir’s wife Nur Zahan, The Gond Queen Durgavati, Shivaji’s mother Jija Bai, Mughal princesses Jehanara and Zebunnisa etc.

During the British period, India began to liberate from the social bondages with the acquaintance of western ideas and cultures. In this period, many reformers such as Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, Swami Dayanand Sarwawati etc. fought for the betterment of women’s situation in India.  Many women reformers such as Pandita Ramabai also contributed to the development of Indian women. Ram Mohan Rai’s endeavours led to the abolition of 'Sati' ritual under the Governor general Bentinck in 1829. Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar’s crusade for the improvement in the situation of widows led to the “Widow Remarriage Act” in 1857. Side by side the social reformation for women, a great many women also took part in India’s freedom of struggle such as the Queen of Jhansi Laxmi Bai, the Queen of princely state Kittur in Karnataka Kittur Chennama, the Beghums of Bhopal, Sarajani Naidu, Annie Besant, Kamala Kaul Nehru etc. The contribution of Indian women to the liberation of India from the servitude of the British Raj was no less accountable than that of Indian men.

In the post independence era, with the emancipation of India development of Indian women also increased at a noticeable rate. There are instances of women who made their way to the administrative service, such as India’s first female Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, India’s first female president Pratibha Patil. Besides there have always been several female MPs in Indian Parliament and many a women leaders who are involved in state level as well as national level politics. Women have also been involved in education, sports, and various kinds of jobs. The Constitution of India also determines equal rights to both genders and strictly upholds all the ideas of women empowerment. Nowadays, with the advent of modern ideas and with all-pervading expansion of education, women are more free from the bondages of age-old social system than before. They do have equal rights with men in every aspects of life. According to the law, women can make their own living, marry ones of their own choice, has all the rights to participate in every fields of life and above all they can live their life in line with their own choices.

Notwithstanding all these positive points, it can never emphatically be claimed that Indian women enjoy even half of the freedom bestowed upon them by the Constitution. It is an undeniable fact that Indian society along with the Oriental society is still far backward in comparison with the Occidental society as far as gender equality women’s freedom is concerned. Old customs, religious dogmatism, regressive thinking, illiteracy and excessive pride in manhood provoke misogynistic thoughts in our minds. Women empowerment is undoubtedly noticeable in every walk of Indian society at some extent in comparison with the past. Urban society is now more open about women; much of the urban and suburban women make their living on their own; they are free to take decision in their life; they are much confident about their womanhood. On the other hand, all these are less evident in the rural and subaltern society. However, it is very much apparent in both societies that in most cases women’s lives are controlled by men in certain ways. Unlike men, from the childhood to the senility women are not entitled to live their life according to their own choices, their decision always being dominated by their father, brothers and after marriage by husband. Women’s rights are always considered to be a triviality in respect with men’s right. Although it is illegal according to the Constitution, a woman can still not choose her own life partner; even if she selects someone of her own choice and marry him with the discontent of her male-dominated family, she loses all kinds of social assistance and acceptance. Our society is still unable to accept an above-30-years aged unmarried woman. Even after marriage women faces various difficulties. They are not even given the right to decide whether or not they really wish to have their own child; this decision is always taken either by their husbands or by the other members of their family. In marriage, a man’s decision is always deemed to be superior and even in some case women are devoid of the right to take any decision of the family. Some women still have to face domestic coercion in marriage. Apart from this, what women suffer the most in recent society is sexual violence. Despite living in 21^st century, most men are still so morally backward and uneducated that women to them are nothing but a sexual object. In our society, women are now most scared of the imposter called ‘men’; they feel anxious to set their feet out of their house alone at night. Women have to face the nefarious violence like rape and it has now become a fact of everyday life in our society. Even in marriage, marital rape still remains a terrifying fact of some women’s life. Most of Indian women are still not given the chance to be highly educated; there are still certain sections of Indian society where women are even deprived of formal education. 

 

Social and religious customs have formed a barrier to the empowerment of women in Indian society. It is our blind faith in the outdated and illogical ideas of society and religion that lessen the effectiveness of the Constitutional rights of women in our society. This dogmatism about social and religious ideas is also accountable for the emergence of patriarchy and misogynistic norms in the mind of a large section of men as well as women. Social and religious customs were made by men. Therefore it is quite apparent that they fashioned these customs and ideas giving much preference to their own gender and women have always been relying upon these irrational ideas from the past considering them to be their social and religious responsibility. If any woman rightfully dares to break these misogynistic norms, she is automatically blamed and even threatened by this male dominated society. Hence, it can never be said that current Indian society gives equal status to both men and women, even though some falsely boast of the existence of gender equality in our society in order to represent its superiority before others. Saadat Hasan Manto, the prolific Urdu short-story writer, has rightly commented on this fact in one of his stories:

“A man remains a man no matter how poor his conduct. A woman, even if she were to deviate for one instance from the role given to her by men, is branded a whore.....If both are equal, why are our barbs reserved for the woman?”

Thus, it can be concluded that empowerment of India Women still remains more a myth than a reality. Women's situation in India is by far not near that in Western Society, nor is it there where it used to be in the bygone era. Empowerment of women in a society is measured by the volume of freedom women rejoice in that particular society. Intellectual, social and economic freedom is the foundation upon which the empowerment of women stands. To create a better society and emancipate the women from the servitude of the backdated misogynistic ideas, we must stop blindly believing in these irrational ideas and relinquish the illogical anti-women norms from our belief system. With the help of these misogynistic customs our society has become a male-centric one so much so that it is really very difficult for a single woman to fight it all for her own fundamental rights. Therefore, men must help women to become free and give them equal chances in every walk of life, for it is men who are responsible for the deterioration of women’s situation in our society. On the other hand, women must regain their belief in themselves and consider themselves to be equal with men, no matter what the society thinks of them. They must eradicate all men-centric thoughts from their mind and take a strong stand against misogyny and patriarchy. In this way, ture empowerment of Indian women can take place. "Women are the largest untapped reservoir of talent in the world" (Hillary Clinton) and in India too, the calibre of women is most unused. What India needs most in order to upgrade itself from a develpoing country to a developed one is to make sure that this untapped repository of feminine power is used properly.

~Imran