POPULAR RELIGIOUS LITERATURE IN INDIA: PROVIDING
IDEOLOGY FOR THE ENSLAVEMENT OF INDIAN WOMEN
India
The Largest Democracy
We
proudly claim that India is the world's largest democracy. Going by the
numbers, the assertion is correct and there are also theoretical reasons for
advancing this claim. The Preamble and chapters on Fundamental Rights,
Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles of State Policy make it clear that
the Constitution of the Indian Republic guarantees justice, liberty equality to
all its citizens irrespective of gender, caste, race, religion, class and place
of birth. In terms of gender equality, the Preamble, Articles 14, 15, 16, 21,
23 (Part III dealing with the Fundamental Rights), 39, 42, 44 (Part IV dealing
with the Directive Principles of State Policy) and 51-A (e) (Part IVA dealing
with the Fundamental Duties) not only give women all the rights accorded to
men, but also provides them with special rights.
India The Most Dangerous Country For Women
Sadly enough, there is an immense mismatch
between these pious declarations and the status of women at the ground level in
India. According to global surveys reports which were released in 2020 our
country is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for women. India ranked 133rd out of 167 countries on Women peace and
security index. The Indian Republic has the largest number of
malnourished women; the highest number of maternal deaths (maternal
mortality) as well as the record for 'missing girls' [births aborted],
who number in the millions. Violence against women–which includes 'honour
killings' [for choosing life partner], domestic violence and sexual harassment,
is rampant despite the occasional stringent doses of laws to control violence
against women.
In
2005-2006 a survey named as National Family Health Survey-III was conducted in
which 1.25 lakh women were interviewed in 28 Indian States. According to this
survey 40% of women reported being beaten by their husbands. Over 51% of the
75,000 men interviewed did not find anything wrong with bashing up their wives.
The most shocking finding of this
survey was that around 54% of the women surveyed believed that such violence
inflicted on them was justified on one ground or the other. The reality has
further deteriorated.[i]
Number of Rapes Increases and Conviction Rate
Decreases
According to an in-depth study by a woman
activist, Varalika Mishra based on the government data, 32,500 cases of rape
were registered with the police in 2017–almost 90 per day. The National Crime
Records Bureau (NRCB) on October 21, 2019, released its report for the year
2017, which stated that 359,849 cases of crime against women were reported in
the country. In addition, 237,660 cognizable cases were registered in 2018.
Mishra’s research made the shocking revelation that
according to the NCRB data of 2018 a rape was reported almost every 15 minutes
in India. Sadly, the NCRB data which was usually released after two years,
annually, under the Narendra Modi government the data was inordinately delayed.
“Despite various federal government campaigns such as Beti
Bachao Beti Padhao–Educate the daughter, Save the daughter–the
crime rate per 100,000 women increased to 58.8% in 2018 in comparison with
57.9% in 2017.”[ii]
The extent of women's insecurity in India can
be known by the number of incidents of rape and the conviction rate as provided
by the NCRB. 2006: Rapes 19348, conviction rate 27.2%. 2007: Rapes 20737,
conviction rate 26.4%. 2008: Rapes 21467, conviction rate 26.6%. in 2018
1,56,327 rape cases were on trial, out
of these trial was completed only in 17,313 cases resulting in conviction in
meagerly 4,708 cases. Even after stringent anti-rape laws after Nirbhay
gang-rape case (On December 16, 2012) the conviction
rate in 2018 was abysmally low at 27.2%.[iii]
Data on
Violence Against Women is Grossly Underestimated
These
statistics show that the number of rape cases steadfastly increased while the
conviction rate fell continuously. However, even this data may not reflect the
critical ground reality as RK Raghavan, a much decorated policeman and ex-chief
of the national crime investigation agency, Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) disclosed that this data,
"is
a gross underestimation. A majority of rapes occurring in villages are
suppressed by local bigwigs who run their parallel criminal justice system…Our
Caste system and the role of money in the rural setting are principal
contributors to this state of affairs."[iv]
Rulers
Blame Rape Victims for the Crime
It is
not only through rape that male rapists claim to have control over bodies of
the victims. The rulers who get the right to govern after taking oath of
safeguarding the democratic-secular Constitution of India miss no opportunity
to blame victims of rapes for the crime. The latest to join this gang of rulers
is the RSS-BJP chief minister of Goa who held the rape victim girls and their
families for the crime after a shocking incident of gang rape on a beach in the
State.[v]
A Chief
Minister’s Tirade on Woman Wearing Jeans: Young Girl Killed for Wearing Jeans
Women wearing
jeans are ridiculed and denigrated as violating religious laws. It was not long
ago that the RSS-BJP chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, Tirath Singh Rawat
after finding a woman wearing jeans declared “If
such women go out in the society to meet people and solve their problems, what
kind of message are we giving out to society, to our kids? It all starts at
home. What we do, our kids follow. A child who is taught the right culture at
home, no matter how modern he becomes, will never fail in life.”[vi]
It is
under the spell of all pervading such hatred against women attired in the jeans
that a family in eastern Uttar Pradesh killed a 17-year-old
Neha Paswan for wearing jeans. Her mother, Shakuntala Devi Paswan, told BBC
Hindi that
“the teenager had been severely
beaten with sticks by her grandfather and uncles after an argument over her
clothes at their home in Savreji Kharg village in Deoria district, one of the
least developed regions in the state.”[vii]
Any
student or researcher of women studies will be hard pressed to find an
explanation for this mismatch. Despite comprehensive laws and the huge
machinery of enforcement in place, the Indian Republic has become a risky
terrain for the women in India. There is no denying the fact that Indian democracy
is becoming less and less compatible with the rights of women.
This
repression flourishes unabated due to a structural belief that the women are
inferior, backward, object of denigration and for sexual pleasure. The
philosophical mooring regarding the inferior status of the women of India has
been spread and strengthened by the popular religious literature available in
every corner of India. In this paper an attempt has been made to study and
investigate the multi-lingual popular religious literature being circulated
throughout India. While this study is confined to Hindu and Muslim popular
religious literature, it does represent an accurate reflection of the general reality.
According
to the 2011 national census data Hindus and Muslim together constituted 93.9%
of the total Indian population. This vastly available literature openly
denigrates women and preaches violence against them. This paper provides facts
and analysis to show how despite a democracy in India the women becoming more
and more vulnerable and democracy is becoming out of bound for them.
It is
interesting to note that flag bearers of the purity of these two religions;
Hinduism and Islam, despite serious theological/normative differences with each
other, hold absolutely identical views on the status of women. This similarity is most glaring in the
low-priced religious propaganda literature published and circulated by them in
every nook and corner of India (Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal being no
exceptions) which openly demean and denigrate
women.
Way To Swarg (Paradise) For Hindu Women
Geeta
Press based in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, leads this tribe. It is the largest
publication house in India which publishes literature espousing the 'Hindu' way
of life for Hindu women on a very large scale. The
low-priced publications are available throughout the country, especially in the
Hindi belt, and are even sold through government allotted stalls at railway stations
and government roadways stands.
Geeta
Press has published more than a dozen titles on the subject, the most prominent
of which are: Nari Shiksha (Education
of Women) by Hanuman Prasad Poddar, Grahsth
Mein Kaise Rahen [How to Lead a Household Life] by Swami Ramsukhdas, Striyon ke Liye Kartawya
Shiksha (Education of Duties for Women) and Nari Dharm (Religion of Woman) by Jai Dayal Goindka and a special
issue of magazine Kalyan on women.
Many of these are available in English and other Indian languages. The English
titles are popular with the non-resident Indians.
The
authors extensively quote from ancient texts like Shiva Purana and Manusmriti. They
borrow heavily from these and other 'holy‘ texts, upholding a subservient woman/wife
as the ideal Hindu woman. For instance in the book titled How to Lead a Household Life which is in question-answer format,
when a question is posed,
'What
should the wife do if her husband beats her and troubles her?” Swami
Ramsukhdas offers the following sagely advice to the battered wife and her
parents:
"The
wife should think that she is paying her debt of her previous life and thus her
sins are being destroyed and she is becoming pure. When her parents come to
know this, they can take her to their own house because they have not given
their daughter to face this sort of bad behaviour."
And if
her parents do not take her back to their house, learned Swamiji‘s pious advice
is:
"Under
such circumstances…she should reap the fruit of her past actions. She should
patiently bear the beatings of her husband with patience. By bearing them she
will be free from her sins and it is possible that her husband may start loving
her."
Swamiji
who has no qualms about thrashing of wives by the husbands is, otherwise, quite
compassionate towards animals. While responding to the question:
"What
dealings should a person have with rats, lizards, mosquitoes and bugs etc.,
which live in the house?”
His
sagely advice is to be merciful towards these creatures and Swamiji wants no
harm done to them. He decrees:
"A
man should regard these creatures as the members of the family because they
live in it by making their home. So they are entitled to live in it. It means
that they should be nourished as far as possible…It is not proper on the part
of the people to kill them as some people do."
And
there is another piece of heavenly advice for a rape victim and her husband.
"As
far as possible, it is better for woman (rape victim) to keep mum. If her
husband also comes to know of it, he too should keep mum. It is profitable for
both of them to keep quiet."
Can a
woman remarry? The answer is very straight forward,
"When
once a girl is given away in marriage as charity by her parents, she does not
remain virgin any more. So how can she be offered as charity to anyone else? It
is beastliness to remarry her."
But can a man remarry? No problem,
"A
man can have a second wife for an issue in order to be free from the debt which
he owes to manes (pitr-rin) according
to the ordinances of the scriptures, if there is no issue from the first
wife."
But this
is not the only reason for which a man is allowed re- marriage. A man,
"whose
desire for pleasure has not been wiped out, can get remarried because if he
does not get remarried, he will indulge in adultery and go to prostitutes and
will incur a badly sin. Therefore, in order to escape the sin and maintain the
decorum he should get remarried according to the ordinance of scriptures."
Of
course, no widow is allowed to remarry. However, she may be allowed to choose
to be some male's concubine.
"If
she cannot maintain her character, instead of indulging in adultery here and
there, she should accept her affinity for a person and live under his protection."
Is it
proper for woman to demand equal rights? The sagely answer is quite
unambiguous:
"No,
it is not proper. In fact, a woman has not the right of equality with man…in
fact it is ignorance or folly which impels a woman to have desire for the right
of equality with man. A wise person is he/she who is satisfied with less rights
and more duties."
This
literature about Hindu women openly preaches and glorifies the ghastly practice
of Sati. To the question:
"Is 'Sati
Pratha‘ (viz., the tradition of the wife being cremated with the dead body
of the husband on the funeral pyre) proper or improper?”
The sagely answer is:
"A
wife's cremation with the dead body of her husband on the funeral pyre is not a
tradition. She, in whose mind truth and enthusiasm come, burns even without
fire and she does not suffer any pain while she burns. This is not a tradition
that she should do so, but this is her truth, righteousness and faith in
scriptural decorum…It means that it is not a tradition. It is her own religious
enthusiasm. On this topic Prabhudatta Brahmachariji has written a book whose
title is Cremation of a Wife with her
Husband’s Dead Body is the Backbone of Hindu Religion, it should be studied.
Swamis
in this series of literature while demanding the restoration of practice of
Sati go on to tell us that
"There
is absolutely no doubt that a woman who happily follows her dead husband to the cremation ground receives on every step
benefits of Ashawmedh Yagya [Ashvamedha means horse in Sanskrit and Ashawmedh Yagya was a sacrifice of a
horse in the Vedic tradition used by the ancient Indian kings to prove their
imperial sovereignty]…It is a Sati woman who snatches her husband from the
hands of yamdoots (angels of death)
and takes him to swarglok (Paradise).
After seeing this pativrata lady the yamdoots themselves run away."
It is not only Nari Shiksha which starts with a chapter captioned Sati Mahatmmey or 'greatness of Sati‘
but Gita Press also published a special issue of its Hindi journal Kalyan glorifying Sati.
Apart from glorifying Sati, the Gita Press
publication like Nari Dharm produces
dozens of shlokas from Hindu scriptures
to establish that women are not capable of enjoying independence. This book
begins with the chapter swatantarta ke
liye striyon ki ayogeta (incapability of women for independence). Another
notable facet of this literature is that long a list of rituals is laid down to
be practiced by pregnant women so that 'bright, talented, brave and religious
inclined son' is born.
Way To Jannat (Paradise) For Muslim Women
There is
no dearth of such literature for Muslim women too in the Republic of India. Bookshops selling Islamic literature are packed with books and pamphlets
brazenly denigrating women. Titles like Bahishtee
Zewar, (Heavenly Ornaments, originally in in Urdu but available in all
Indian languages and Arabic) by Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, Mian Biwi ke Haqooq (Rights of husbands and wives) by Mufti Abdul
Ghani and Musalman Biwi (Muslim Wife) by Molvi Idris
Ansari, and Biwi ke Haqooq aur Uski
Hesiyat (Wife‘s rights and her status) by Mufti Mohammed Taqui describes
"women as property of men which can be used as they wish.” Their advice to
Muslim women is
"to
treat yourself as a slave and accept
your husband as your master. Even if you are battered, tolerate it patiently
and graciously.”
Bahishtee Zewar, the
most popular of these has the following prescriptions for Muslim women,
"If
husband orders that remove all stones from one mountain to second one and
stones of the second mountain to third one, wife must do it."
It is
ordained that when husband demands presence of wife she should immediately come
even if she is cooking on fire.
"If
husband wants to have sex with his wife and if wife refuses and husband passes
night in such a situation then angels curse this lady throughout the night.”.
"Follow
all directives (Uske aankh ke ishare per chala karo) of husband. If he orders
that you must stand with hands folded throughout the night you must do it so
that get rewards in the next life.
"If
your husband declares that day is night, you must say the same."
Mufti Abdul Ghani confides that in the Hell, a
majority will comprise of women who disobeyed their
husbands. According to his revelation:
"If a
husband is angry with wife, her
prayers are not
honoured by God
and she is not admitted into
Paradise.”
Molvi
Idris exhorts Muslim women that "if your husband describe the day as night
you must accept it.” All the authors give authority to husband to beat their
wives. For instance Mufti Abdul Ghani in his book even has a chapter titled
"Right to batter women” where he writes that
"husband
has the authority to beat his wife. He may even use miswak (a kind of small stick which is
used for teeth cleaning) to beat her. However, he should avoid hitting on face
or causing deep scar.”
Face
seems to be decreed out of bound from husband's thrashing due to the reason
that wife then would look ugly!
The similarities
between Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists on the issue are so stark that it
appears as if they subscribe to the same school of thought or have studied
under the same teacher. Both groups may be involved in ferocious tussle in the
Indian subcontinent, but when it comes to the status of women, they seem to be
operating in total harmony. Against women, it is unity in totality.
It is
really shocking that in the largest democracy of the world, India, where rulers
never tire of preaching about peaceful coexistence and equality, such blatantly
anti-women and obnoxiously sexist literature is in circulation in a big way.
India is a signatory to the UN Charter of Human Rights and Declaration on Women
but the Government has done little to curb the publication of such writings.
The
Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code which are frequently invoked
to ban rationalist or progressive writings have been reduced to mere spectators
to the onslaught by such literature on women. The Indian judiciary too, which
is very fond of intervening into issues of public interests, finds nothing
objectionable in this dehumanizing propaganda under the garb of religious
propaganda.
Indian
State as Facilitator of Anti-women Literature
Ironical
as it may seem, the above discussed publications of the Geeta Press can be
bought from government allotted rent-free stalls at bus stands, railway
stations and
book vendors or mobile vans that often
sell their ware even in the premises of the Supreme Court and Central
Secretariat in New Delhi from where the Democratic India is governed.[viii]
Shamsul
Islam
Link for
some of S. Islam's writings in English, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Malayalam,
Kannada, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati and video interviews/debates:
http://du-in.academia.edu/ShamsulIslam
Facebook:
https://facebook.com/shamsul.islam.332
Twitter:
@shamsforjustice
http://shamsforpeace.blogspot.com/
Email: notoinjustice@gmail.com
[i] The Times of India, New Delhi, January
7, 2011, p. 14.
[iii]
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/conviction-rate-for-rape-only-27-2-even-as-country-celebrates-justice-in-nirbhaya-case/articleshow/73169787.cms
[iv] R. K.
Raghavan, 'Rose Garden Predators', Outlook,
Delhi, August 3, 2009, p. 42.
[v]
https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/goa-cm-under-fire-asking-why-rape-victims-were-on-beach-late-at-night-722924
[vi] https://www.academia.edu/45610213/A_LADY_DRESSED_IN_RIPPED_JEANS_RIPS_APART_ETERNAL_BHARTIYA_CULTURE
[viii] Gita
Press book stalls provided by the Indian Railways network at the following
major stations as per the Gita Press publications:
Ahmedabad,
Asansol, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bharuch, Bhubaneswar, Bikaner, Chapra, Cuttak,
Delhi (Hazrat Nizamuddin), Delhi (New), Delhi (Old), Dhanbad, Gorakhpur,
Guwahati, Haridwar, Howrah, Hubli, Indore, Jamnagar, Kanpur, Kharagpur,
Kolkata, Kota, Lucknow, Mughalsarai, Muzaffarpur, Patna, Rajkot, Raipur,
Rajgangapur, Ranchi, Rourkela, Samastipur, Sealdah, Seccundrabad, Sri SatyaSain
Prashant Nilyam, Siwan, Vadodra, Varanasi, Vijawada, Yashwantpur etc.
Major
bus stands like ISBT (Kashmiri Gate Bus Terminus, Delhi).
Minister
of State Manoj Sinha replying to a question in Rajya Sabha on 08-08-2014
informed that Gita Press was allotted 45 stalls out of 165 allotted to
social/religious organizations for putting on sale their publications at
railway stations. Surprisingly, as per the details provided by minister the
allotment seemed to be restricted to Hindu and the Gandhian organizations.
