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Modernity, Indian-style: phones and widow
burning
By Sultan Shahin
NEW DELHI - India’s split personality was on full
display this week. While the reverberations of India
Fashion Week, with beautiful Indian girls in their
scanty dresses walking down the ramp, have still not died
down, one could see on television channels
throughout Thursday hundreds of young girls taking part in a
procession glorifying the age-old practice of sati (or suttee),
in which Hindu widows burn themselves on their
husband’s pyre. It was a breathtaking revival of a practice banned by the
British Governor-General Lord William Bentinck in 1829.
The girls were worshipping Sati Dadi in
Jhunjhunu town in the western state of Rajasthan, on the
400th anniversary of her self-immolation, with express
permission from the High Court.
The High Court
order - worship, but do not glorify - came against the
backdrop of a 65-year-old Hindu widow burning herself to
death on her husband’s funeral pyre on August 6, with a
1,000-strong crowd fighting a pitched battle with the
police to stop them from saving her. This occurred in
the village of Patna-Tamoli in the central Indian state
of Madhya Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region.
Sati can be suicide or murder, but the
people of Patna-Tamoli - including the woman’s two sons -
believe that a glorious act was performed in their village.
They take pride in the "tradition" of sati in their
village - two previous satis are said to have been
observed in there in the past 150 years.
They
remain dumbfounded as to why police have charged some of
them with murder. All they want to do now is
build a magnificent temple in the name of mother
Sati and rake up the fame, business and prosperity
this will bring the village. The advent
of thousands of worshippers would be particularly auspicious
for the two sons of the sati woman as they would become the
caretakers of the temple.
There have been 40
reported cases of sati since independence in 1947. Even
many upper-caste women prefer to commit suicide after
their husband’s death, since despite their status they
practically become untouchables after widowhood,
completely shunned by their families and societies. Many
widows are taken to religious fairs and abandoned by
their own sons. Over 10,000 widows were reportedly
abandoned in a major religious fair called Kumbh Mela,
held about two years ago in the north Indian town of
Allahabad at the confluence of three sacred rivers,
Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati.
Widow re-marriage
is still considered near-impossible in Hindu society. A
woman’s individuality is not recognized; she is
considered part and parcel of her husband, without whom
she is a nullity. After her husband’s death she acquires
the status of an unwanted burden, partly also as a
result of the taboos that prevent a widow from
participating in household work. Her touch, her voice,
her very appearance is considered unholy, impure,
something that is to be shunned and abhorred.
Thus life for a
woman becomes an intolerable burden without her husband, and
an extreme but logical outcome of this is a desire for
immolation. But many a time, sati is pure and
simple murder, particularly if the widow owns some land that would go
to her sons in the event of her death. The deification
of a sati also raises the social and financial
status of her sons. Indeed, the entire
village benefits from the commercialization of sati; hence,
the opposition to any efforts by any group, including the
police, to stop the practice.
At least 105 children, mostly girls, were "buried"
alive for "just one minute" in Perayur village, 46
kilometers from Madurai, on Wednesday last week to propitiate
two female deities - Muthukuzhi Mariamman and Kaliamman
- as C Durairaj, a minister from the south Indian
state of Tamil Nadu, looked on.
The children -
who were first rendered unconscious - were sunk into
makeshift graves, covered completely, kept there for 60
seconds and then pulled out. Perayur has been following
this tradition for years. The Kuzhi maatru
thiruvizha - or the festival of the pits - is
observed every five to seven years, and all villagers
participate, "burying" their children in the hope that
wishes will be granted. Only pre-pubescent girls are
chosen for the ritual, while no such condition is
imposed in the case of boys, who can be between four and
20 years old.
Crime against women
is, of course, not solely a rural phenomenon or merely
a result of religious belief. The worsening
position of women is revealed in other ways and other
settings as well. Five rapes rocked Delhi and Mumbai in
the past month, for instance. They included one of
a 13-year-old mentally challenged girl in a suburban train
in Mumbai, with five male passengers including a
reporter looking on, feeling helpless, though the rapist was
drunk and could have been easily overpowered. This was one
of the 127 rapes reported in Mumbai in the past year.
Delhi is, however, considered the most dangerous city,
with 266 rapes in 2002 so far, several of which
were reportedly committed by gangs of five or six men in
cars cruising the streets for hours, shielded by illegally
tinted glass.
According to the National Crime
Reports Bureau, the number of rape cases in India
increased from 15,468 in 1999 to 16,496 in 2000, a jump
of 6.6 percent. The National Commission for Women (NCW)
says it receives complaints of sexual crimes against
women every day. Between April 2001 and March 2002, it
received 741 complaints from Delhi and 1,748 from the
north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Rape isn't the only
serious sexual crime against women, who are commonly
subjected to sexual harassment at the workplace, marital
rape and outrage of modesty by touching, pinching or
pulling at clothes.
And the police response is
outrageous. The head of the police force in the capital,
Delhi Police Commissioner R S Gupta, said, "Crime
against women will drop by 50 percent if they are
careful in the way they dress, if they know their limits
and if they do not exercise unsafe behavior." As many as
52 percent of respondents in a recent survey squarely
blamed the victims for inviting rape/molestation by
their "improper" dressing, conduct and mobility.
Similarly, 54 percent attributed rape to the influence
of alcohol rather than deviant male behavior. These
attitudes reflects the urban male psyche.
Sociologists and psychologists attribute this to
the fact that India has for centuries been a
patriarchal, male-dominated society. This week’s cover
story on rape in India Today, India’s largest-circulated
multilingual magazine, quoted sociologists as saying,
"Lust in males who live in crowded homes and have little
opportunity to interact with women, combined with the
innate urge for an expression of power and domination,
is a deadly cocktail being brewed in millions of houses
across the country. In India, that finds an outlet in
the ultimate act of male domination-sexual assault. The
rise in the number of rape cases is a reminder that any
change in India's urban milieu is largely superficial.
People may wear fancy clothes, drive sleek cars, live in
snazzy homes and have well-paid jobs but the same
intellectually limiting cultural fixtures remain wired
into their behavior."
Many women are, however,
dead before they are even born. It is one of the
contradictions of modernity that advances in medical
technology have led to a spurt in the age-old practice
of female feticide. The 2001 census revealed a sharp
decline in the sex ratio of children in the 0-6 years
age group, with the number of females per 1,000 males
declining from 945 in 1991 to 927. After the previous
decade had witnessed an overall improvement in the
skewed ratio of females to males, the sudden drop was
proof of the increased incidence of sex-selective
abortions or female feticide.
Female infanticide
is often explained as a result of poverty and the poor
parents’ need for more male hands to work in fields and
factories and thus contribute to the family economy. But
the census revealed a dramatic drop in the female
population in this age group in the most prosperous
states - Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and
Maharashtra. All these states had advanced ultrasound
and genetic facilities, which indicates that medical
technology may have been misused.
In 1991,
Haryana state had the lowest sex ratio of 875/1,000,
with Punjab close behind at 882. A study by the State
Resource Center of Literacy Mission, Haryana, showed
that the transfer of reproductive technology to India
had had an adverse effect and resulted in the abuse of
pre-natal diagnostic techniques. According to
sociologists the fact that female feticide is more
prevalent in the intermediate classes and castes with
substantial resources in land and money indicates that
the trend is influenced by the practice of dowry and
inheritance laws relating to property.
Neither have dowry killings,
called bride burning, disappeared from Indian society. An IT professional
with a laptop in his briefcase and a cell phone in his
hand may well come home to find his mother and
sisters having made all preparations for burning his
beautiful young wife and are waiting for him to light the
match - usually bride burning is presented to the police as
caused by a faulty gas cylinder or electrical
short-circuit while the victim was working in the kitchen, drenched
in kerosene for some reason. The husband may have no complaints
against his wife except perhaps that her father may not
be able to give him the car he wants or pay for further
studies in the US or fulfill some other demand.
The murderer knows he will have
the support of the neighbors, police and the judiciary,
all of whom recognize his right to do with his wife
what he likes. Indeed, his parents-in-law too recognize
this right - with their daughter reporting the
continuing demands for dowry, sometimes even 10 years
after marriage, they usually know she is going to be burnt one
of these days. They do not allow her to return to the
parental home, as it would be shameful to have a married
daughter living with parents.
India has
stringent laws against dowry killings and sometimes
murderous mothers-in-law or husbands do have to pay for
their crimes as well, but the chances of having to pay
for the crime are minimal. Feminists groups funded by
Western countries may raise an occasional hue and cry,
but the level of acceptability for these crimes is
incredibly high. So much so that sometimes the father of
the murdered bride offers another of his younger
daughters to the same son-in-law who has murdered his
elder daughter.
Crimes against women have always
been a part of Indian scene. But what explains the
recent spurt in such crimes, particularly in the last
decade, precisely during the same period when
globalization and liberalization of economy led to
greater interaction with liberal attitudes of the West?
One reason may of course be greater and unchecked
consumerism, which has turned women, not just beautiful
models and young brides but also small children and dead
widows, into mere commodities. But then how would one
explain the growing number of rapes and other sexual
crimes against women, even as the laws are tightened and
powers and resources of the police increase?
Indeed, there has been a revival of the
traditional attitude of contempt for the woman in Indian
society. This had gradually started diminishing in the
first three decades of freedom. Sociologists are
wondering if this is a direct by-product of the revival
of popular Hinduism, or a function of the Hindu
fundamentalist movement that has steadily been gaining
in the Indian polity.
Philosophical Hinduism - derived from
Vedas, Upanishads and Gita - puts the woman on a
pedestal, treating her as a goddess and ascribing her a
divinity not found in other religions. Popular Hinduism,
on the other hand - derived largely from epics like
Ramayana and Mahabharata (minus Gita) - treats women
very differently. As the West comes to study and
appreciate the values inherent in Hindu philosophical
texts and their deeper meanings, the Hindu
fundamentalist goes further and further away from
Western interpretations of philosophical Hinduism.
Indeed, in his interactions with Hindu fundamentalists,
this writer has noticed a growing contempt for the
Western admirers of Hinduism - even anger and some
fear.
The revival of reverence for the
tradition of sati in the present decade, for instance,
owes a great deal to an incident at Deorala, Rajasthan,
on September 4, 1987. Eighteen-year-old Roop Kanwar
burned to death on the pyre of her husband, causing a
furor in the liberal press and leading to the Sati
(Prevention) Act, which made attempted immolation and
abetting of sati punishable by law.
And yet,
as columnist Vir Sanghvi pointed out in Hindustan
Times (August 27), no political party or body responsible
for law and order made any attempt to seriously stop the
the deification of Kanwar. In fact, Arya Samaj leader
Swami Agnivesh, a vociferous campaigner against sati,
was arrested by the very government whose enactment he
was supporting. He was stopped for "disturbing the peace"
at Deorala - while crowds "two kilometers long" made
their pilgrimage to the site and collected funds of
about US$200 for the construction of a "memorial" sati
temple.
It came as no surprise to Sanghvi
and other liberal observers who have written in similar
vein in recent days, that after the Sati (Prevention)
Act 1987 was passed, the Hindu fundamentalists raised
a battle-cry defending "tradition". The Shankaracharya
of Puri, the Hindu equivalent of the pope, to some extent,
said, "Hindu faith and civilization are being
destroyed". He went on: "You will notice that ever since
this anti-sati law was enacted, nature has been
revolting. Today, when we should be feeling the heat of
summer, it is cold. The monsoons bring no rain ... All
because sati [goddess] has been insulted."
In
case there was a need for support from a more modern
voice, the late Vijayaraje Scindia, then vice president
of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), pitched in by
leading a protest march against "anti-sati" legislation
and asserting that "it is the fundamental right of Hindu
women to commit sati, as it is in preservation of our
past glory and culture".
A furious Sanghvi
comments: "Why can’t anyone convince such people - never
mind the villagers of Patna-Tamoli - that a barbaric act
like sati is no glorious act? A large part of the blame
must be directed at the very people opposing the ritual
and its glorification who, in their valiant effort to
drive home the point that there is no connection
whatsoever between Hinduism and social evils like sati,
refuse to see unpalatable truths."
India’s
foremost historian, Romila Thapar, observes in the
context of the Hindu tradition of ahimsa
(non-violence): "The insistence on the tradition of
religious tolerance and non-violence as characteristics
of Hinduism ... is not borne out by historical evidence.
The theory is so deeply ingrained in most Indians that
there is a failure to see the reverse of it even when it
stares them in the face." She goes on to mention the
intolerance implicit in the notion of untouchability.
For sati, there is a similar desire to portray it as an
anomaly of Hindu tradition - rather than acknowledging
its inclusion in scriptural texts.
Whether or not
sati is sanctioned by Hindu scriptures is not relevant,
however. Sati is a barbaric practice and it should not
be encouraged. What is worrying liberal observers is the
glorification of sati by Hindu fundamentalists. A sister
concern of the ruling BJP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or
World Hindu Council), for instance, held its annual
meeting at the Rani Sati temple near Ranchi in Jharkhand
last month.
Another cause for worry is the
attitude of the courts. The High Court permitting
worship at the sati temple in Jhunjhunu is one example
of a weak-kneed response. Another is the acquittal of
all 32 accused in the 1987 Deorala incident. Feminist
Madhu Kishwar, the editor of women’s magazine Manushi
blames the "stupidity" of the law. "The Sati
(Prevention) Act of 1987 was added to the statute book
under pressure from women's organizations and other
progressive activists, following Roop Kanwar's sati in
Deorala village. Even at that time, Manushi had
protested against this ill-conceived and draconian piece
of legislation. Unfortunately our voice went unheeded by
obsessed reformers who campaigned for a stringent law to
deal with sati. Recently, when the debate was revived
following Charan Shah's immolation, we were surprised to
find that not many people who vigorously demand its
implementation are aware of its actual provisions -
which are not only Draconian but also just plain
stupid."
To the consternation of many of her
colleagues in the feminist movement, Kishwar also seems
to distinguish between good sati and bad sati.
Participating in a debate following Charan Shah's
self-immolation on November 11, 1999, in Satpura village
in Uttar Pradesh, Kishwar said she felt overwhelmed by
awe at Charan Shah’s self-immolation as it revealed her
true devotion for the dead husband. Presenting what
could be termed the Hindu fundamentalist viewpoint on
the issue, she blamed British imperialism for the entire
controversy over sati in a widely-quoted paper titled
"Deadly Laws and Zealous Reformers: The Conflicting
Interpretations and Politics of Sati". An excerpt:
"Our erstwhile colonial rulers ... had a vested
interest in identifying select criminal acts and
projecting them as Indian traditions in need of reform.
They began this cultural invasion by deliberately
targeting a few cases of young widows in Bengal who were
forcibly burnt on their husband's pyres, calling those
murders sati and banning it by law, so they could appear
as agents of a superior civilization rescuing victims
from a savage culture ...
"There is absolutely
no evidence that any of our vast array of religious
texts sanctified such murders as sati. In this context,
it is noteworthy that none of the mythological heroines
revered as mahasatis - Sati [Shiva's wife],
Draupadi, Mandodari, Tara, Ahalya and Sita - burned on
their husband's pyre. Though some references to women
committing voluntary self-immolation along with their
dead husbands can be found in the Mahabharata and
Puranas, the practice never received much sanctity or
popularity. It is only in 19th century British discourse
that forced immolation of women on the husband's pyre
came to be regarded as 'sati'."
So it must be a
colonial conspiracy after all. However, as time goes on,
one hopes Hindu fundamentalists, too, will feel the need
for looking within and trying to reformulate their
outdated concepts. Ramayana may talk about the need for
women to be beaten up, along with the dalits and
animals. But in today’s world, a world in which the
Hindu fundamentalist is quite at home otherwise, what
with his nuclear-tipped missiles and cell phone
handsets, the attitude toward not only women, but also
dalits and animals and, of course, children will have to
be rethought. Modernity needs to be more than skin-deep.
Many a modern idea can be gained from philosophical
Hinduism itself. The fundamentalist would be
well-advised to go to Swami Vivekanand, Mahatma Gandhi,
Lord Mahavir, Mahatma Buddha and Shri Krishna. There is
much in philosophical Hinduism to be admired and learnt
from. The world is admiring and learning. Let the
Hindus, too, take a cue.
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