Indian Feminism
SOCIETY | January 26, 2008 | Share
Have you heard the song “sajna ji vari vari” from Honeymoon Travels? Next time you hear it try and concentrate on the words. This song is all about how a woman must give her all to her husband. It shows that her husband is her whole world. If you are a feminist you would really be angered by the words.
Feminism comprises a number of social, cultural and political movements, theories and moral philosophies concerned with gender inequalities and equal rights for women. Feminists have divided feminism’s history into three ‘waves.’ The first-wave refers to the feminism movement of the nineteenth through early twentieth centuries, which dealt mainly with the Suffrage movement. The second-wave (1960s-1980s) dealt with the inequality of laws, as well as cultural inequalities. The third-wave of Feminism (1990s-present) is seen as both a continuation and a response to the perceived failures of the second-wave.
However this bias against women is very prevalent in India. Boys are preferred any day over girls, in all aspects. Even today in many rural areas in India, the families only want a boy child. In fact in some very backward areas female infanticide also takes place. People are so dissatisfied with a girl child that they actually kill them. There have been cases where these new born girl babies have been thrown in the well or drowned in milk. Does this justify the standards set for a civil society?
Pre-colonial social structures and women’s role in them reveal that feminism was theorized differently in India than in the west. Colonial essentialization of “Indian culture” and reconstruction of Indian womanhood as the epitome of that culture through social reform movements resulted in political theorization in the form of nationalism rather than as feminism alone. Historical circumstances and values in India make women’s issues different from the western feminist rhetoric. The idea of women as “powerful” is accommodated into patriarchal culture through religion. This has retained visibility in all sections of society; by providing women with traditional “cultural spaces”. Another consideration is that whereas in the West the notion of “self” rests in competitive individualism where people are described as “born free yet everywhere in chains”, by contrast in India the individual is usually considered to be just one part of the larger social collective, dependent for its survival upon cooperation and self-denial for the greater good.
If women are treated so badly in India then why are so many of our Hindu goddesses female? Is it not ironic that on one hand we treat these goddesses with reverence and on the other hand women are not even treated as human beings in society?
When a girl needs to get married, the boy needs to select the girl. And in most families once the girl is not even asked whether she likes the boy. If both have to live with each other then why is only one given a choice? I think if the girl also selects the boy then half the problems people face in marriage will be eliminated.
Many of the women are now working. They have reached every possible professional height at times, are even higher than men. They are more patient and are able to handle more responsibility. Even if a woman is not working she has a full time job as a housewife. She cooks food for the whole family, takes care of the house, handles the children and many more things. Don’t you marvel at those women who work and do all these things? The face is simple. A woman can struggle and work like men in corporate offices but men can never do the kind of house work a woman does. And yet we don’t value the women of our country.
Women in India have reached every possible dimension. They are in no way backward to men. In fact in some fields they can do much more than men can. A woman gives birth to life. Without them the world would not grow.
Anjuri Nayar
(3 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5)
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Hey, interesting article on the whole but a comment on the statements you made at the beginning about the song ‘Sajnaji vaari vaari’.
No doubt the lyrics intend all that you say- but I’d just like to point out that the song itself, is not meant to take itself seriously. I might sound like an music reviewer, but its a fun, upbeat dance song, and its a very lighthearted melody that completely takes away any relevance that the lyrics might try to have. In the context of the movie itself if you see, each of the major relationships shown in Honeymoon Travels have very decided, opinionated, strong and in NO WAY submissive women. Some of them are even dominating, and in that their husbands are -scared- of them. Women in that movie make empowering choices, whether to stay in a marriage of convenience or be with the man she truly loves.
So to make a blanket generalisation like “If you are a feminist you would really be angered by the words” is quite problematic. I consider myself a feminist, but I look at the song from the context of its movie and chuckle at the ingeniousness of the movie’s director – who is, incidentally, a woman. There are a thousand things a feminist can get angered about and need to change, the song ’sajna ji vaari vaari’ is really not one of them.
I agree with Harshita, although I do see the point you make. The song did come under some “feminist” scrutiny, for the very reasons you mentioned. But while on the one hand we’re denouncing people’s violent reactions and vociferous opinions to almost every trivial thing, this comes up, and because it comes under “feminism”, it hardly gets checked. I do consider myself a feminist, but I also maintain, that as long as it isnt very actively sending out a propangandist message about women, we can give it leverage. You need not love the song, by all means dislike it, but let’s be a little more open to having harmless fun every once in a while.
hi,
i completely agree to the situation described here of indian women. women are in no way less than men, however our society never recognizes the work done by them. at home, work done by women is given no importance. outside home, women ae considered to be less efficient than males. now the question arises why women are always at an disadvantageous position in comparasion with men. i feel what the need of the hour is changing the mindset of the people of our society ans this can no be done in a single stroke. moreover, education will be a powerful tool to achieve a kind of society whwere people will not be treated on the basis of their gender. till then , we have a long way to go, really long. is not it!