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Published in Contemporary Vibes, July 2015

An Article

5960 words

Women’s Place in Human Society with Special Reference

to India

Let me begin by excerpts from a short story by Maxim Gorky titled

“Exposure” which tells the tale of woman in Russia at that time.

This was particularly worst but women’s place was not radically

different in other parts of the world. Large numbers of women in

India have been subjected to various types of neglect and

domestic torture over the time.

The Story

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“The procession moved slowly, like an enormous wave, and in front

of it walked a mangy horse with drooping head. . . .

“A young woman scarcely out of her teens, very small and

stark naked, was tied by the wrists to the dashboard of the cart.

She walked sidewise, her knees trembling and threatening to give

way under her; her head, covered with dishevelled dark hair, was

tipped upwards and her wide-open eyes gazed into space with a

blank inhuman stare. Her body was striped and dotted with black-

and-blue marks; her firm maiden like left breast had been

gashed . . . . It was as if a long narrow ribbon of skin had been

stripped off the woman’s body. And no doubt her belly had been

beaten with a club or trampled on by booted feet, so horribly

swollen and discoloured was it.

“A tall muzhik was standing in the cart. He was wearing a

white Russian blouse and a black Astrakhan hat . . . . In one

hand he held the reins, in the other a whip with which he

systematically struck out first at the horse, then at the little

woman . . . . The man’s eyes were bloodshot and flashed with

vindictive triumph . . . . His mouth was open, showing two rows

of sharp white teeth, and from time to time he would shout

hoarsely:

“Take that, you beach! Ha-ha! And that!

“Behind the woman and the cart came the crowd- shrieking,

laughing, hooting, whistling, goading, jeering. Urchins darted

here and there. Occasionally one of them would run ahead and

shout filthy words into the woman’s face. Then a burst of

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laughter from the crowd would drown out the thin whistle of the

whip through the air. The faces of the women in the crowd wore a

look of unusual animation and their eyes sparkled with pleasure.

The men kept shouting obscenities to the muzhik standing in the

cart. He would turn round to them and laugh loudly, opening his

mouth as wide as possible. Suddenly a whip lashed out at the

woman’s body. Long and thin, it circled round her shoulders and

struck her under the arm. At that the muzhik gave it a sudden

jerk, and with a shrill cry the woman fell on her back in the

dust. People from the crowd sprang forward and hid her body from

view as they bent over her.

“The horse came to a halt, but a moment later it was

plodding ahead again and the shamed woman was walking behind

it. . . .”

At the end of the story the writer explains:

“What I have written is not a picture of . . . my

imagination . . . . It is called “Exposure,” and is a means by

which husbands punish unfaithful wives. It is a picture taken

from life . . . I was witness to it on the 15th of July, 1891, in

the village of Kandybovka , Kherson Gubernia, Nikolayevsky

District.

“I had heard that in the Volga region where I come from,

women who deceived their husbands were tarred and feathered. I

know that there had been cases of innovative husbands and father-

in-laws smearing unfaithful wives with treacle in the summer time

and tying them to trees to be stung and bitten by insects. I had

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also heard that occasionally such women were bound and thrown on

to ant-hills.

“Now the witness of my own eyes has proved to me that such

things are really possible among ignorant, heartless people whose

dog-eat-dog way of life has turned them into wild beasts consumed

by greed and envy.” (Gorky /212-216)

Maxim Gorkey was a young communist writer who had the dream

of emancipating oppressed humanity from the clutches of all

capitalist torturers and of giving them freedom under the sky. He

did not live to see when a different type of oppression began to

be operative against the victims of the communist dictators,

specially how the women were treated in the Siberian labour camps

or in China under the supervision of Mao Tse Tung, along with the

other unfortunate victims. To know them he was to live to read

another writer of his own country; Alexander Solzhenitsyn and of

China, Jung Chang.

Casting our glance at women of other countries including

India we find that the situations are gruesome sometimes up to

the present decade though crimes are not done so openly and in

that scale as in Gorky against the huge cry for human rights and

woman rights.

Neglect and abuse of women in countries around the world

The first European country which granted women right to vote was

Finland in 1906. Most other countries in Europe and America

granted it between 1915 and 1920. Ladies who wanted voting right

in Canada were tortured brutally- it was not until 1920 that

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women were granted the right to go to the polls and vote in

Canada. They weren’t treated as persons earlier.

In June 2009 a Pakistani mother of five, Asia Bibi, was out

picking fruit in the fields. At midday she went to the nearest

well, picked up a cup, and took a drink of cool water, and then

offered it to another woman. Suddenly, one of her fellow workers

cried out that the water belonged to Muslim women and that Bibi—

who is Christian—had contaminated it. “Blasphemy!” . . . . Bibi

was then thrown into prison after inhuman torture and sentenced

to be hanged.1

Though she was not hanged in November 2010 as decreed, her

clemency petition was not coming up for hearing. It seems still

pending at the highest court of that country. A younger girl of

11 has also been charged under the same Act. The case of Mallala

Yousafzai receiving bullets on her head for doing her studies is

well known throughout the world. The perpetrators of the crime

have been sentenced to life imprisoned now. 2

“The Supreme Court verdict acquitting five of the six men

accused of raping Mukhtaran Mai in an act of honour revenge is

'deeply disappointing', said a leading Pakistani daily . . . .

Mukhtaran Mai became a symbol of the country's oppressed women

after her gang-rape on the orders of a village council in 2002.”

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A 25-year old Norwegian woman has been awarded a 16-

month jail sentence in Dubai after she told the local cops that

she had been raped . . . .

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“According to the Sharia-based laws of the UAE, a rapist can

only be convicted if he himself confesses to the crime or if

there are four adult, male Muslim witnesses who can provide

evidence that the sex was non-consensual.” 4 More such incidents

occurred there.

Susmita Banerjee of Kolkata was married to a Pathan doing

his lending business in Kolkata, and settled with him as his wife

in Afghanistan for years as a devout wife. She found the children

and ladies of the land quite lovable who heavily depended on her

when she worked as health worker amongst such helpless ladies and

children, neglected by their men folk, and supplied them

medicines establishing her own pharmacy, running it profitably.

She fought bravely to help and find how democracy might work

there. Susmita settled in such alien land, fighting with

Kalashnikov rifle in hand loaded with 60 bullets against a mass

of such solid tribal base under threatening circumstances. She

was finally put to death after torture at the dead of the night

on 5 September 2013, betrayed perhaps by her husband. 5

Afghanistan has recently passed a law permitting Shia men to

deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their

husband’s sexual demands, despite their international outrage.

The new final draft of the legislation also grants guardianship

of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers

requiring women to get permission from their husbands to work.

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“It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by

paying ‘blood money’ to a girl who was injured when he raped

her,” The US charity Human Rights Watch said. 6

The rage of the day is the abduction of about 300 girl

students in Nigeria on April 14, 2014 from a school where

examinations were being conducted, by the Islamist militants Boko

Haram.

The girls have been abused variously and most of them are not

traceable till now. 7

An American feminist writer Naomi Wolf has recently said in

an interview that, “Two million women are clitorally excised

every year-I say ‘Women’ but the average age of this trauma is

seven-100,000 die of it annually.” 8

Indian Women

Talking about Indian women of the past, an Indian becomes

nostalgic remembering Vedic women like Ghosha, Maitreyi, Gargeyi

and lopamudra and the great mythical figure, Radha. Then comes to

mind the women of the epics like Savitri, Sita, Kunti, Draupadi

and Gandhari; saints of the South like Karaikkal Ammaiyar and

Andal. Krishna’s ardent devotee Mira Bai comes to our mind.

There were the galaxy of woman saints at different ages. One

remembers such great fighters in their own domain like the queen

of Jhansi, Laxmi Bai, Kittur Rani Chennamma, Begum Hazrat Mahal

of Oudh and the fierce freedom fighters of the recent time like

Madam Bhikaji Rustom Cama, Kanaklata Barua, Kalpana Dutta,

Sarojini Naidu, Matangini Hazra, Aruna Asaf Ali and down memory

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lane many others in different provinces of India. Apart from the

Indian women of the past there have been other great names of

women in science, sports, management and social work of the

present. We remember the women of Rajasthan who self-immolated

themselves before being captured by the enemy forces under the

vows of Jauhar. Many such women ended their lives by jumping into

the wells during the partition years. Their lives became

miserable mainly due to partition of the Indian subcontinent.

Women of great wisdom and genius, of tremendous devotion,

memory, courage, perseverance and endurance are often remembered.

During the Vedic ages women were respected and given equal status

on many occasions. There was fall in their status during the

medieval ages. During the prevalence of Kaulinya pratha of the

distorted Brahmanic Order, large number of brahmin women were

married to one man at whose death they became widows hardly

knowing what was a married life. Sati rite was prevalent during

this time. Child marriage too is a curse on woman’s life.

It may be said that from the end of the nineteenth and

beginning of twentieth century women of India are gradually

getting modern education. But still now large numbers of women

are illiterate compared to their male counterparts.

Present situation in India

The vulnerable condition of women around the world is repeated in

India but in more miserable ways. The position of women in the

developed world is certainly better. More and more attention is

drawn towards raping the innocent victims in India. So many are

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the records of such crimes published that one cannot repeat them

as they simply pour in. More are the happenings unrecorded for

unless something creates uproar in the society interfered by

political voice they go unnoticed. This act is perpetrated in

different guises; sometimes these are individual actions and

sometimes they take the form under the guidance of such illegal

bodies as Khap Panchayet or Kangaroo courts. Many times politics

intervene making the cases worst. The fatal gang-rape of a 23-

year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi in December 2012

sparked nationwide outrage. It is still happening in Delhi buses.

Near Moga in Punjab a girl in a bus was attacked with intention

of molestation and either she jumped or the staff of the bus

pushed her out with her mother. The girl died instantly and the

mother has been struggling to live in a hospital. The bus belongs

to a ruling leader’s family. People’s agitation observing bundh

has happened. Buses of the company have been off the route and

the staff are sent for orientation course. 9 But the case of

murder should be dealt with accordingly. The Indian parliament

has since passed tougher laws to punish rapists but there remains

a great lacuna when a minor person according to law, though

perpetrates the most ghastly part in it, is not seriously

punished. Instead, he gets interviewed and filmed for world

audience by the Western World. Certainly such law has to be

suitably amended. Though not often, the same crime still happens

in the West too. In early April this year (2015) a strong minded

20 year old Oxford University student was severely abused and

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raped. The criminal has been arrested. 10 The governments of

countries must act very strictly dealing severely with rape and

murder. There cannot be any laxity under any plea if it is

desired to stop such violence which is recurring; challenging the

sane fabric of the society.

Crimes scattered

The owner and manager of a children's boarding school in

Maharashtra was arrested after five minors had reportedly been

raped, forced to watch pornographic films and act them out with

one another, police and charity workers said. It tells of more

stories. The report adds that in May 2012 serious sexual abuse

was uncovered at a well-established residential care home for

orphans called Apna Ghar (Our Home) in Rohtak on the outskirts of

Delhi. 11

An Indian teenager was gang-raped in two separate attacks

and then died after being set on fire, sparking protests in the

eastern city of Kolkata.

Activists say rape victims in India often face severe

threats and intimidation from their attackers after the assault,

while police often discourage them from lodging complaints. 12

Two minor girls who were cousins, aged 14 and 15 years, went

missing from their house last night and their bodies were found

hanging from a mango tree in the Katra village in Ushait area of

U.P. near Budaun on Wednesday, 28.5.2014 in the morning. 13

Khap Panchayet Raj

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In Mehrana village of U.P. a young man of 20 years belonging to

Jadav caste fled to nearby State of Rajasthan with his 15 years

old girl friend of Jath caste, helped by a friend of his caste.

The local Panchayet (Khap Panchayet) took it very seriously as

the low caste man could not flee with a high caste Jath girl for

any fake reason like love. Panchayet passed an order to hang them

to death. And immediately they were hanged, all the three. In all

such cases family or village prestige is considered of higher

value than human love and human life. This was in 1992, as

reported in the editorial of Ananda Bazar Patrika, Kolkata. 14

Tribal Justice

In Tamil Nadu’s hamlets it is quite common for caste leaders and

elders to hold court in the village square and pass their

verdicts in cases of inter-case marriages and elopements. The

parents of the girl or boy who fall in love or marry out of caste

against the wishes of their parents are compelled by the village

elders to murder their ‘errant’ son or daughter or force them to

commit suicide. Karishma and Sudhakar were beaten to death for

eloping in Nagapattinam district. 15

The gang-rape of the 20-year-old woman was allegedly ordered

by a kangaroo court (Shalishi Sabha) in Lovepur, Birbhum district

of West Bengal as punishment for falling in love with a man

outside the community. The victim and her paramour were caught,

tied to a tree and the gang-rape took place. Punitive actions

have been taken against the criminals. 16

Honour Killing

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Haryana is one of the marked parts of the country where not only

brides are bought but honour killings are much in vogue due to

prevalence of tight caste system as in UP, Punjab and adjacent

Pakistan. Whether caste or class, such differences are very much

prevalent in the other parts of the globe like Jordan, Pakistan

and sometimes in the modern Western countries. Such killings by

or engineered by the family members of the girl are frequent.

Sometimes they are reported but mostly go unnoticed as suicide or

other reasons for death like missing. Honour killing is prevalent

in modern world carried out from the dark ages.

Irom Chanu Sharmila of Manipur has been fasting from the

beginning of twenty-first century demanding the repeal of Armed

Forces Special Power Act which is, it is said, against woman’s

rights and basic human rights. She does not eat or drink

anything, it is being force-fed by pipe. This continues in spite

of innumerable appeals by social activists and other dignitaries

throughout the world to repeal the Act and restore normalcy in

the life of Sharmila, thereby reestablishing human rights.

Trafficking

According to the International Labour Organisation, two million

people are taken or sold from their homes into a life of forced

labour and sexual abuse every year. The overwhelming majority are

women and children. More than half of all people enslaved are

turned into sex workers who endure lives of incalculable misery

before disease and deaths; most often dying early. In India the

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problem is acute. Trafficking is perhaps the most nefarious human

activity against humanity.

Buying Brides through Trafficking and using them as a Commodity

for family use

Bought like a commodity costing less than a cattle and treated

like chattel, the majority among thousands of procured brides in

Haryana have a quick transition into the degenerated existence of

a ‘Paro’ or the bought one. Abject poverty compels the guardians

to sell their daughters as they could not be married otherwise.

They originate from Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand and even

Bangladesh. Their numbers may be 50,000 or more there.

With fake marriage such girls serve all purposes in a

family; all works of a maid servant and more. They are wife to

the husband and concubine to his brothers and others. The bought

brides face acute social isolation and deprivation. Their

children are not given proper rights to the family property.

Agents who help procure them engineer their escapes sometimes so

that they can sell them again with profit. 17

Destroying Female Fetuses and eliminating new-born Girl Children

The British medical journal Lancet conducted a national survey of

1.1 million Indian households in 1998 and estimated that 10

million female fetuses had been aborted in 20 years. Out of

71,000 children born every day in India, just 31,000 are girls

giving a sex ratio of 882 girls to 1000 boys. But the global sex

ratio is 954 girls to 1000 boys. In 14 districts across Haryana

and Punjab, there are even fewer than 800 girls per 1000 boys.

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Noted economist Amartya Sen calculated that in India alone

there were 37 million ‘missing’ women already in 1986 when he did

the first estimation. “Using the same Sub-Saharan standard, China

had 44 million missing women, and it was evident that for the

world as a whole, the magnitude of shortfall easily exceeded 100

million.” Economists Kalsen and Wink have noted that this number

of missing people was larger than all the people who died during

the combined famines in the 20th century, and the death toll of

World War 1 and 2 combined. According to the World Bank, in

demographic terms a100 million missing women represented 70 per

cent of the current female population in the US. 18

Selling a Child

In the prevailing situation it is no wonder that the “Slumdog

Millionaire” fame 9 years old child actress Rubina Ali was

proposed to be sold by her poor father at a price of two lakh

dollars.

This would be another illegal trafficking. 19

Women are simply the Victims of Greed and Lust

Women have always suffered as victims of men’s greed and lust in

various ways. There were times when Nawabs ordered to pick up

women of their choice anywhere within their jurisdiction and made

them captives in their harems. How Japanese military treated

women during the Second World War Years is known. Recently a

pathetic case has come to notice.

A 19 years old very poor blind girl of Malda district, West

Bengal, whose father has been ailing for long and they have

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almost no means to survive, lived with a man with a thin hope of

survival and betterment of life by marriage, as allured by him.

After she gave birth to a child the man left. Utterly dejected,

she tried to sell her baby as she would not be able to rear it

but failed. The district Child Welfare Committee volunteered to

accept the child for rearing through any scheme of the

Government. 20

Woman’s Position has Improved with Digital Development Keeping

its Primitive Stand

“Talaq” uttered thrice by a Muslim man on a mobile phone will be

considered valid even if his wife is unable to hear it all the

three times due to network and other problems . . . .

This ruling was given by the Darul Ifta, the fatwa

department of leading Sunni Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband,

in reply to a question posed by a man. 21

Women’s position is vulnerable in India and elsewhere under

the famous Shariat Personal Act. While havocs are happening in

the lives of women, particularly in the third world countries,

there are some solaces somewhere to note:

Towards Establishing Woman’s Legal Rights

The 2005 amendment under Hindu Succession (Amendment) Act 2005

grants to all daughters, including married daughters, the same

rights in co-parcenary property as those enjoyed by sons, also

making them subject to similar liabilities. In case of

inheritance of joint family property, where there is no will, a

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daughter will now receive the same share in HUF property as the

son. 22

Living Together

A three judge bench of the Indian Supreme Court in a case in

early 2010 observed that “Living together is a (part of) right to

life. When two adults want to live together, it is not an

offence. It cannot be illegal.” The judges also cited Article 21

of the constitution which guaranteed the right to life with

dignity, liberty and respect, and stressed that the perceived

immorality by a few protagonists of morality cannot brand it as

offence.

Two judges of the Allahabad High Court in a judgment in 2001

said, “In our opinion, a man and a woman, even without getting

married, can live together if they wish to. This may be regarded

as immoral by society, but is not illegal. There is a difference

between law and morality.” 23

Right of Expression

As men women have been using slang words in literature, even in

poetry. Wild Girls Wicked Words is a bilingual collection of poetry by

four feminist Tamil poetesses. They used slang words and

expressions in their poetry as Kamala Das used in a more

meaningful way. This signifies the women’s right to express in

erotic and slang ways too. There are large numbers of such

examples to be found even among Booker winning novelists.

Transgenders have been recently given the right to vote by the

Supreme Court of India.

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Kangaroo Courts: The authority of Khap panchayets have been

nullified by the Supreme Court of India.

Women’s Charter in Singapore is synonymous to their right. It has

recently proposed amendment to give right to a man towards

maintenance charges from a divorced wife if he is incapacitated.

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Lesbianism and Gay marriage

The Supreme Court of India has not allowed such things to be

legal in India. However much uproar may be made by the lesbians

and the Gay people, such tendency, called abnormal sex, are

deviations from Nature and its norms even when they aren’t termed

perversions.

The Supreme Court of the most liberal country, United

States, has split on same sex marriage recently even when 36 of

its States have allowed it and 14 have not. 25

Through such practices future progeny will be abolished

unless Nature takes another turn. If such tendency increases

among men and women it must have to be taken as definite steps of

Nature towards evolutionary change. Man or woman themselves

cannot engineer it. However, as it is now, adults have every

right to live together. There is no bar in such adults living

together legally. So where is the hurdle in living that way? What

is the need for legal sanction for that, particularly when there

won’t be any offspring out of the relationship?

High sounding support for women are often partial and verbose.

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Kalpana Sharma’s latest feature in The Hindu, titled “What should

we expect?” - written in support the women of the country is a

bizarre article, a political vendetta. It begins like this, “The

shouting is over. The voters have voted . . . . . And for the

majority, who did not cast their votes in favour of the party now

in power, this is a time for reflection.” The majority did not

vote for but the party in power received the majority vote as

declared by the Election Commission. The inside pages of The

Hindu do not conform to this idea as it has to conform to facts.

The claim for reservation of seats for women in the Parliament

which had been dragging on for years without any positive result

has to be seen how it comes up during the days to come. The

result depends on the choice of the legislatures. When deserving

candidates are not available reserving positions in favour of the

weak and undesirable only weakens the nation.

How many times the so called progressive people would

condemn the ritual of 300 years old Sati? How long would they

make a name by making films on it or acting Sati? Is it not known

that thousands of women are suffering more than Sati in the hands

of politicians, womanisers and other goons? 26

Women should not utilise the sentiment in their favour as weapon

to victimise her opponent.

While assaults on women and other sorts of discrimination against

them are often reported, sometimes men are unduly accused of

assaulting women thus making them victims of law for some

purpose; political or otherwise.

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We may consider the case of Justice A. K. Ganguly who was

retired judge of the Apex judicial body. The Supreme Court of

India after his retirement appointed him as the Chairman of West

Bengal State Human Rights Commission. Such a person is usually

held in high esteem for their integrity in service towards the

nation, for their lifelong service in delivering justice. When in

service nothing was heard against him about his untoward

activities. It is strange that after retirement an untoward

charge is made against him on the basis of verbal statement or

blog. He was charged under various sections of Indian Penal Code

for “Unwelcome behavior” and “Conduct of Sexual Nature”. Though

charged by various authorities, the Chief Justice of the Supreme

Court said that since he was not in service when the incident

occurred it was not necessary to follow up the case. By constant

pressure from various powerful corners he had to resign as the

Chairman of the Human Rights Commission even before the charge

sheet was filed against him. Finally the case was dropped as

there was no complaint made by the victim. The one who accused

him should be answerable now. 27

Christian Doctrine defining Womanhood

“In a major document released yesterday, Pope John Paul defended

the dignity of women but said firmly they could not become

priests because Jesus Christ chose only men as his apostles,

reports Reuter.

“In the 2800 word Mulieris Dignitatem (dignity of woman) document

the Pope said women were men’s ‘sisters in humanity’ but the

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relationship between them regarding the priesthood was ‘willed by

God’. . . .

“In calling only men as his apostles, Christ acted in a

completely free and sovereign manner,” he said.

“…in the name of liberation from male domination women must not

appropriate to themselves male characteristics contrary to their

own feminine originality,” he said. 28

Development of Women through Man-Woman relationship

The position of woman in society is dependent on their

relationship with man which is the core issue. The Mother of Sri

Aurobindo Ashram wrote thoughtfully for a real solution of

woman’s problems from her rational and spiritual points of view.

She wrote, “The indisputable fact remains: man feels superior and

wants to dominate, woman feels oppressed and revolts, openly and

secretly; and the eternal quarrel between the sexes is

perpetuated from age to age, identical in essence, innumerable in

its forms and hues. . . .

“In their mutual relationships, man and woman are at once

rather despotic masters and somewhat pitiable slaves to each

other. . . .

“The woman is enslaved to man because of the attraction she

feels for the male and his strength, because of the desire for a

home and the security it brings, and lastly because of the

attachment to motherhood. Man too on his side is enslaved to

women, because of his possessiveness, his thirst for power and

domination, because of his desire for sexual relations and

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because of his attachment to the little comforts and conveniences

of married life.

“That is why no law can liberate women unless they liberate

themselves; likewise, men too, in spite of all their habits of

domination, will cease to be slaves only when they have freed

themselves from all inner enslavement.” (Mother /103-104)

Womanhood in Human Society

Women are physically exploited, sold and bought in spite of

abolition of slave trade. The nefarious primitive trade of

prostitution continues in spite of all rational arguments against

it. It is doubtless that men have roughly behaved against women

throughout the ages under whatever plea like domination due to

physical superiority, whimsical act or show of virility. Usually

women are not ruffians, dacoits, murderers nor they play

mercenary roles, they never take any supari contract by

themselves (as the men of underground world do) for they require

brute physical force which women do not usually have. Women are

sometimes politicians as good or as bad as men. They have

capacity to do many or all the things that men in the mental and

vital world do. Sure it is that on an average women are

physically weaker than men and they cannot and do not usually

gang up to do all crimes against men. Womanhood and Manhood are

exactly not the same. In spite of many resemblances there are

some subtle differences; many are due to tradition and practices,

some are inherent. The rape and such things are usually criminal

activities which may be dealt with accordingly, may be abolished

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or minimized systematically by the state or woman welfare bodies

and the society in general.

But for all such ills shouting against or quarreling with

the word Patriarchal will not serve any real purpose. Even the

traces of Matriarchal society in Kerala is tending towards

Patriarchal, it is said. Matriarchal societies are tending

towards changing to Patriarchal as a forceful body; may be with

some rare exceptions in some minor societies. It is a natural

tendency as are evolving in different societies at different

times. Men and women both participate in it. Women also sometimes

play their part in downgrading their position like utilising

their body vis-à-vis men or by decrying their womanhood. It may

be said with some justification that for the progress of the

state of womanhood man and woman both have to act and work

towards that position as women are equally responsible for

women’s position. Let us recall the relevant portion of the story

by Gorky we began with:

“Behind the woman and the cart came the crowd- shrieking,

laughing, hooting, whistling, goading, jeering. Urchins darted

here and there. Occasionally one of them would run ahead and

shout filthy words into the woman’s face. Then a burst of

laughter from the crowd would drown out the thin whistle of the

whip through the air. The faces of the women in the crowd wore a

look of unusual animation and their eyes sparkled with

pleasure. . . .

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“Such things are really possible among ignorant, heartless

people whose dog-eat-dog way of life has turned them into wild

beasts consumed by greed and envy.”

Let us see another example from the modern world, incredible

though it seems.

Tamilians Justify Wife Beating

A study by International Institute of Population Sciences reveals

that 51 per cent of young men and 56 per cent of young women in

Tamil Nadu justify wife beating. . . .

Youngsters from both the sexes justify wife beating under

four circumstances- If the husband suspects the wife’s fidelity;

if the wife disagrees with the husband’s opinion; if wife goes

out without telling the husband; if the wife refuses to have

sexual relations with the husband. . . .

About 31 per cent men believe they will be right in

assaulting their wives if they go out without informing them or

disagree with their opinion.

And beating the men in the opinion stakes, 38 per cent women

believe they deserve to be beaten if they do not agree with their

husbands. 29

I may say that women like men or more relished the pitiable

condition of the tortured woman and such dog-eat-dog condition of

man was and still is a reality, improved to whatever extent by

the evolution of human consciousness which is not uniform

everywhere. There are still humans of the same mentality as they

were 125 years ago and there are humans of divine nature.

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To improve the women’s position in society no publicity or

political propaganda is required. But all out efforts are needed

by all concerned to improve the position through art and culture

and proper utilization of science and technology. Consciousness

is the cardinal point for human development. Civilisation means

the cultivation of consciousness to ever higher regions.

Notes and Refernces

1. Blasphemy: A Memoir: Sentenced to Death Over a Cup of Water

Paperback by Asia Bibi (Author), Anne-Isabelle Tollet (Author);

25

http://www.amazon.com/Blasphemy-Memoir-Sentenced-Death-Water/dp/1

613748892 and The Hindu, dated 1.1.2011

2. The Times of India, dated, 1.5.2015

3. Indo Asian News Service | IANS – Sat, Apr 23, 2011 11:26 AM IST

4 https://in.news.yahoo.com/norwegian-woman-jailed-for-16-months-

in-dubai-for-reporting-being-raped-075006052.html

5 Kabuliwalar Bangali Bau or Bengali wife of a Kabuliwala and other

books by her

6. The Guardian as reproduced in The Sunday Herald on 14. 8.2009

7.http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/05/31/

for_parents_of_abducted_nigerian_schoolgirls_seven_weeks_of_waiti

ng_and_worrying.html

8. The Hindu Magazine, dated 5.1.2014

9. The Times of India, dated 1.5.2015 and The Hindu, dated

3.5.2015

10. The Times of India, dated 1.5.2015

11. Reuters- By By Nita Bhalla | Reuters – Fri 30 May, 2014

12. http://www.thenational.ae/world/south-asia/outrage-as-indian-

girl-16-gang-raped-twice-and-burned-alive#ixzz33Dck3bf5

13. http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/two-dalit-sisters-

gangraped-bodies-found-hanging-from-tr2e-up-village/1/364162.html

14. Ananda Bazar Patrika-Editorial. 23 Chaitra, 1397-Bengali Era

15. The Times of India; The Crest Edition. 21.7.2012

16. http://zeenews.india.com/news/west-bengal/sc-seeks-chief-

secretary-report-on-birbhum-gang-rape-case_908146.html and

26

http://www.firstpost.com/india/birbhum-gangrape-sc-asks-wb-govt-

to-pay-rs-5-lakh-to-victim1454889.html?utm_source=ref_article

17. Sunday Herald dated, 5.8.2007

18. The New Indian Express—7.8.2007

19 Times of India, dated 20.4.2009

20. The Statesman, dated 7.12.2013

21. The Hindu, dated 16.11.2010

22. The New Indian Express dated 17. 10.2005

23. quoted from Deccan Herald, 28.10.2014

24. The Straits Times, dated 14 July, 2014

25. The Times of India, dated, 1.5.2015

26. The Hindu, dated, 25.5.2014

27. The Statesman, dated, 7.12.13

28. The Statesman, dated 2.10.1988

29. The New Indian Express, dated 23.9.2009

Work Cited

1. Gorky M. Selected Short Stories. Moscow: Foreign Language Publishing

House. Year not mentioned.

2. The Mother. On Education. Collected Works of the Mother. Centenary

Edition. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram. 1978. V. 12. Hard

Bound.

© Aju Mukhopadhyay, 2014

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