WOMEN
To clear a confusion
Women!!!Never been an easy topic to talk about. From the very beginning of the world, women are always been a topic to discuss in one form or another. Whichever religion we look into we can find very easily that there were women somewhere associated with the evolution of that religion let it be Manu-Shraddha for Hindus, Adam – Havaa for Muslims or Adam- Eve for Christians. This gives a clear picture that women are associated with some type of construction always in some form. Unfortunately women did not get that much importance in Muslim culture and they remained an object to create generation (No offence please) most of the time as history says. In Hinduism or Christianity they got far better response but time to time there are examples, when they were tried to put behind back doors.
Now, what is real concern of mine in writing this article is to talk about different shades of women character in different arena, whether women were in better situation before or they are in today as we never before heard this much of voices talking about women-empowerment. Now If we look back to different arena of Hindu culture; being Satyuga, Treta, Dwapar or Kaluga (present time), we will find that there has always been a different take on women. If in Satyuga Savitri represents the women of that arena, kind of power it shows that they had that time in their character. Then it was the Treta Yug, the time of Great Rama and the Ramayana, where we see different shades of women character in the frame, at the same time. We see kaikayee there, a very complex and strong character that shows a complete transformation OF character from a vamp like wife to a helpless trying to be good mother. There was Sita of course, a very strong lead character displaying pure feminine part of women, starting from love to the sacrifice at the end. There was Shurpanakha, another very important vamp character, which shows a very much unknown hidden dark side of female character at that time. As well as some very famous lady saints who changed their portrayal in the society, considering some famous one for example as Ahilya, Lopamudra(wife of saint Agastya) etc. Now when we get into the Dwapar Yug, we get to see even more variation as well as transformation in their portrayal. We see kunti, draupadi, radha meera, devaki, etc. which shows a gradual change in their presence in society. They seem to be far more influential as well as a present kind of independent thinking or to say openness towards their relationship. No doubt they were coming out of the limitation implemented over them in previous times but another side says that there was cultural degradation started in the society in some way or other. And then we see the Kaliyuga, present world or the world whose written history is available to us. Interestingly it starts with arts of Khajuraho and Alora caves that display a total hidden part of human kind publically for the first time in the history. I guess this was some kind of notification for the coming era where people were going to be way freer towards their physical relationships. We also get to see Marium (mother of jejus Christ), and again it was something non-acceptable to the society of that time. And on another note there were some women who were getting into power, politics and media of that time.
This whole discussion was just meant to get an overview of gradual change in women characters by time to time and of course in view of the society towards them. Today when we see a women becoming our president, we feel nothing but proud. We say that now is the time that they are coming along with men and are equal share holder in progress of any country. Here there Is a slight confusion that most of us can get into is that I am just trying to talk same old things about women and there is nothing new in this article but actually the reason why I talked this much on history of situation of women is that it will give us a better comparative look to feel the basic difference between real and fake women empowerment that we talk a lot now a days. If we try to look closely towards the real situation of women in our society at present, it can easily be found that there is a lot of confusion over the issue; interestingly even women are confused in themselves only. There are various aspects of this, first one that we talk about equal participation of women in every process and then we talk about giving reservation to them for every small to big thing. I don’t understand if they got the merit as well as talent then what is the need of this reservation. Isn’t it a fake portrayal of themselves as equal and by saying again and again about reservation? Are not we telling them they are nowhere equal to us in reality and if they want they can come on behalf of our mercy towards them in the form of reservation? I remember a very famous person said that “a repetitive negative response towards anything shows an attachment to that object somewhere in the background” and in the case of women reservation I think it is absolutely true that by telling them again and again that you are coming with us equally just because of reservation and in reality you are nowhere. And for a greater surprise I never saw any women leader getting into this psychology. We say that through reservation we give them a chance to come out and play their part in more effective way, c’mon isn’t that sounds like a crude joke, which says that you are someone who can do something only if we want you to else you are no one. We give a lot of examples today saying that these women are in power today only because of that reservation policy that has given them more freedom, I wonder if this could be the only reason that can bring women in picture as in history there are numerous examples indicating that women have came in power at different times without anything like this system called reservation; for example if we look at the history of modern India itself, we will find various princesses of rajputana dinesty, who were famous for their bravery and skills to run a system. Even those times were way more difficult and sophisticated for them; they found their way to come out because of their real will and talent not the reservation.
Now, the real concern is not only this trap of reservation but also the confusing mind of women at present times. I know many of you can get furious over this statement of mine but trust me this is absolutely true. Today everyone says that they are getting their due respect and status in society but it is totally different what newspapers say on daily basis. Most of the column used to be related to women and unfortunately for their rapes, home violence, murder, eve teasing and this list continues. I really wonder if this way we say women are equal participant of society today, of course they are for these news no doubt!!! And what is most confusing is that if we leave the exceptions aside, we will find even women do not seem very much concerned with the situation. They seem very much happy to be the eye candy and enjoy the status of being at the other end of rope, Even a TV commercial can’t be a hit without showing attractive women, a calendar used to contain pictures of god & goddess and that’s been replaced by girls(almost naked!!!) today and perfect example of this are most of the today’s movies (it’s said that movies are true reflection of any society at that time) that shows women as nothing but an object to entertain everyone; let it be ‘sheela’ or ‘munni’, and unfortunately everyone seems too happy with these including women. And when I see them cheering for these songs in the theater, I feel disappointing and I just walk out with a question in my mind that is this place where we used to say “yatra nariyastu pujyante, ramante tatra devata”???
To be continue…
BY-
PRAVEEN PARASAR
DATE:-29/12/2010
