Religion in India: the Indian Woman’s Centuries old Shackles By Sabrina Li (B Period) As Indian novelist, Kamila Shamise, states, “A rise in power of the religious right invariably sees a decline in women’s rights”1 This declaration cannot be more true than for the Indian woman. Religion is the shackles that bind these women to both their homes and the sides of their men. It has been reinforced time and time again that the Indian woman shall never be independent of her male counterpart, for as dictated in the Laws of Manu, one of Hinduism’s most holy scriptures, “In childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead her son” 2 Also, Hindu traditions of the caste system and ideologies of dharma and moksha continue to restrain the Indian woman. What has allowed religion to have such power over the treatment and perception of women is due to the fact that, as said by Urvashi Butalia, a feminist writer and publisher, “... women do not have the right to question religion--this is something men hold on to tightly” 3 To this day, women are too afraid to break out of those shackles of religion, and the ones who have, face lives full of rape, violence, and abuse from men and society alike. In Hinduism, ideas such as dharma, moksha, and the caste system further restrain women. And according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of United Nations, 83% of all Indians are Hindus. 4 The main goal of Hinduism is to achieve moksha, or the union with Brahman; however, in order to reach Brahman, a Hindu must follow one’s dharma, or one’s religious and moral duties. The catch is that these “duties” vary according to the Hindu’s class, occupation, gender, and age. The Indian woman loses out in all ways with religion, for not only does she have a different set of duties, because she is not a man, but also, her class is a direct parallel to her occupation or lack of one. According to Hinduism, women are beneath the lowest class, the “untouchables.” These untouchables live outside the caste system and endanger the ritual purity of others--and the Indian woman is even lower than this. The caste that you are born into determines your occupation, the people who you associate with, the family you can marry into, and the people with whom you can eat. A Hindu woman, in order to achieve the goal of her religion, must abide by the predetermined rules that her dharma has set out for her. Even before she is born, she is already at a disadvantage and must act and be treated differently than the men in her life. Not only does Hinduism’s dharma detain the woman, but also one of its most holy scriptures, the Laws of Manu. The Laws of Manu have made shackles of words for the Indian woman, and more specifically the Indian widow. It has written down in plain ink that a woman’s sole purpose in life is to heed to the word of her husband and to always be dependent on the men in her life. Its scriptures state that a woman, “must never be independent.”5 That she, “in childhood...must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons.”6 Her sole purpose in life is to, “obey as long as he lives, and when he is dead, her [husband.]”7 Achieving moksha or not achieving it is determined by her obedience to her husband and, “will for that (reason alone) be exalted in heaven.” 8 All of the good that she has done in the world will be shot to shame if an Indian woman dares to disgrace her husband, and will be subjected to death in, “the womb of a jackel, and...tormented by diseases (the punishment of) her sin.” 9 All of what a woman has worked up to and all that she has done is now meaningless once she becomes a 1 Nilanjana S. Roy, “In Realm of Religion, Women Lose Out,” New York Times, January 11, 2011, accessed May 12, 2013.http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/world/asia/12iht-letter12.html?_r=0. 2 G. Buhler, “The Laws of Manu (c 1500 BCE),” Hinduism.about.com, accessed May 11, 2013. http://hinduism.about.com/library/weekly/extra/bl-lawsofmanu5.htm. 3 Roy, In Real of Religion. 4 William Hunter and Miranda Hunter, “Chapter 3: Indian Women in Religion,” Women in the World of India, p 35-45, accessed May 12, 2014, 2004, http://ezproxy.lawrenceville.org:2053/pov/pdf? vid=3&sid=4445f644-9320-427e-8220-efe284091f45%40sessionmgr14&hid=24. 5 Buhler, Laws of Manu. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid. 9 Ibid.
widow, she is now just another bald, white clothed stick of a woman selling her body and soul out on the streets of India. As said by Dr. Mohini Giri, the head of the Guild of Service, an organization that helps destitute women and children, "An educated woman may have money and independence, but even that is snatched away when she becomes a widow. We live in a patriarchal society. Men say that culturally as a widow you cannot do anything: You cannot grow your hair, you should not look beautiful." 10 The Laws of Manu make it so that the Indian woman, even when her husband has left her life, continues to remain in his shadow. These widows are worthless now, and because their only sense of purpose comes from their husband, they have lost an identity as well. As one son yells at his 70-year-old widowed mother, “You have grown old. Now who is going to feed you? Go away.” and she responds with, “What do I do? My pain had no limit.”11 Not only society, family, and friends now see a widow, an Indian woman, as nothing but an extra mouth to feed, an extra body to feed, so does the woman herself--and that truly is a dangerous thing. Those who dare to speak out against the restraints of religion have suffered both physical and mental deaths that are both equally brutal and terminable. This is mainly due to the rigid constraints of India’s Blasphemy Laws, which state that it is blasphemy to criticize the religion or religious beliefs of any Indian. In the case of Asia Bibi, we can see just how strict that ruling is. Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five and a laborer, became a synonymous name for the Blasphemy Laws back in June of 2008. During this time Bibi had an argument with other female workers while she was getting water. These Muslim women refused to drink the water because she was Christian, and this lead to a heated debate over Christianity versus Islam. This one little incident has made Asia Bibi the first woman to be sentenced to death under the Blasphemy Laws, and while she has not been killed yet, to this day she remains in prison. However, the one time she was let out early last year, newspapers stated that, “she had been paraded in the streets and gang-raped in Nakana Shahib.” 12 As one Pakistani novelist, Kamila Shamise, comments on the event, “While the threat of death or excommunication hangs over all those who dare to question religion...for women there is also the additional threat of sexual violence, and, while they remain alive, sexual stigma and targeting. If Aasia was let off, she would have to live all her life with the tag of ‘bad’ or ‘blasphemous’ woman. The threat of rape--the traditional weapon of humiliation--is very real indeed.”13 In today’s fast changing world, things have come and gone. New technologies have risen and long held traditions have been done away with. Yet religion continues to hold back the Indian woman from moving forward with the rest of the world. Through the Hindu Laws of Manu, the Blasphemy Laws, and the ideology of dharma and moksha, religion continues to make the Indian woman forever dependent on the men in her life. Religion has created a preconceived notion in men and women’s heads that the Indian woman will always be inferior to her male counterpart, that she must spend all of her life striving to please her man and remain loyal. Society, and most dangerously, she herself, therefore, see her as being worthless. The Indian religion has not changed along with time: the same demeaning scriptures and customs are being practiced today as centuries before. The problem is that the Indian woman has not changed her perception of herself, and how she fits into society has not changed. This is why women like Asia Bibi are still in jail, and this is why rape and violence continue to be such a predominant part of the Indian society. Religion has muddled the minds and morals of all Indians, but it is up to the Indian woman to fight back.
10 Roy, In Realm of Religion. 11 Arwa Damon, “Shunned from society, widows flock to city to die.” CNN, July 5, 2007,, accessed May 12, 2013. http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/05/damon.india.widows/. 12 Roy,In Realm of Religion. 13 Ibid.