by B. R. GOWANI
Female Indian photojournalists are supported by male colleagues during a protest rally in Mumbai against the gang rape PHOTO/Daily Mail
On August 23, a 22 year old photojournalist and her male colleague had gone to Shakti Mill compound at Mahalaxmi in Mumbai. It was a deserted place and they were there on a photoshoot assignment. The man was beaten and tied up and the woman was gangraped by five men. After the great furor and protests over the brutal gangrape and death of a paramedical student, name not released but came to be known as “Damini” or “Amanat”, in Delhi last December, there was hope that sexual violence against women will somewhat decrease. But nothing has changed.
About the Damini incident, one of the spiritual gurus/pirs, yes, South Asia is littered with them, Asaram Bapu, a criminal, had come up with an advise:
“The girl [“Amanat” or “Damini”] should have taken God’s name and could have held the hand of one of the men and said, ‘I consider you my brother‘ and to the other two, she should have said, ‘Brothers, I am helpless. You are my brothers, my religious brothers’. Then the misconduct wouldn’t have happened.”
Such a simple solution.
Asaram was criticized by ruling and opposition political parties. He later explained”
“I only meant that had even one of the six accused taken ‘diksha’ (initiation into his religious teachings), the crime would not have occurred.”
But then on August 24, Asaram Bapu himself got arrested for sexually molesting a minor on the pretext of curing her of evil spirits. There is no doubt that the victim must have begged Asaram in the name of God without getting any help from the Lord.
However, Asaram has many well wishers, including Praveen Togadia, who jumped to his rescue. Togadia a Hindu communalist and a leader of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (which like BJP and others is a part of the Sangh Parivar didn’t miss an opportunity to give charges against Asaram a communalist color. He said that the tradition of accusing Hindu religious leaders with such charges has become more common whereas you’ll never see Muslim or Christian clerics being accused of such crime.
Coming back to the case of photojournalist, there were protests by various groups and many people expressed their opinions. One of the comments came from Hema Malini, an Indian actress and politician (a member of the right wing BJP or Bhartiya Janata Party). She advised women:
“Terrible things are happening. Places like the Shakti Mill compound should not be so accessible that they can be used by anyone to create mischief. This is a lesson, but it should not have come at the cost of a girl’s honour. Women also need to be more careful. They should not take it so easy and go anywhere as you can get caught.“
So far so good. Of course, women should have the freedom to move around freely and safely without any fear of being attacked in any manner. But it is not so. In that case, the next best option for women (and even for men) is to be cautious and careful.
But as it happens with people whose views on many things are colored by religion, their remarks usually are about how good the things were during the “Golden Age” of their own religion. Hema Malini couldn’t resist this nonsense:
“In the Mahabharata, Draupadi was always helped by Lord Krishna. But we as a society are not as spiritually evolved, so women should not expect anyone to come to their rescue.”
In the epic Mahabharata, Draupadi is the common wife of the five Pandava brothers. One of her husbands, Yudhisthira, loses her in a game of dice. When Draupadi was about to lose her honor a timely intervention by Lord Krishna, whom she had invoked for help, saves her from humiliation.
These kind of miraculous things do happen: but only in dreams, myths, and movies, not in real life. (In South Asian films and TV serials, it is possible for female characters to save their honor by asking God for help. A 1975 low budget mythological film Jai Santoshi Maa, turned out as one of the top blockbuster films of that year, had such a scene too.
Few questions for Hema Malini:
If the society during Krishna’s time was spiritually well evolved then
1. Why was Draupadi the target of Duhshasana (one of the Kaurava brothers) who tried to disrobe her?
2. Why did Yudhisthira who had waged everything, including his brothers and himself, then put Draupadi at stake?
3. Why were the cousins Kauravas and Pandavas fighting over material things?
4. Why did Krishna forced Arjun (a Pandava) to wage a war against the Kauravas when Arjun was not willing to shed blood of his friends and relatives?
There can be hundreds of other questions raised.
It seems like spiritually Arjun was more evolved than Krishna.
It is always better to avoid the golden ages of religions. In all the religious scriptures, including, Islamic, Christian, Jewish, and Hindu, there are good things and there are nasty things.
One can cite several nasty examples from the Hindu scriptures but the two will suffice:
In Rig Veda, one of the Vedic scriptures – now part of Hinduism, there is open racism:
“He [Lord Indra], much invoked, hath slain Dasyus and Simyus, after his wont, and laid them low with arrows. The mighty Thunderer with his fair-complexioned friends won the land, the sunlight, and the waters.”
Then there is the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad which condones rape:
“… She is the best of women whose garments are pure. Therefore let him approach a woman whose garments are pure, and whose fame is pure, and address her.
“If she do not give in, let him, as he likes, bribe her (with presents). And if she then do not give in, let him, as he likes, beat her with a stick or with his hand, and overcome her, saying: ‘With manly strength and glory I take away thy glory,’–and thus she becomes unglorious.”
(Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 6.4.6-7)
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com