Introduction
It is generally said that the state of development of a society can be judged from the status a woman occupies in it, A woman performs a number of roles in the family, community and the wider social system. Her status in the society is determined by her composite status depending upon her various positions and roles, To an extent, it also depends upon her consciousness of her own status. In the final analysis, the status is “the conjunction of positions a woman occupies as a worker, student, wife, mother.. The power and prestige attached to these positions and the rights and duties she is expected to exercise.” The status of a woman can best be measured by the extent of control that she has over her own life, derived from access to knowledge, economic resources and political power, and the degree of autonomy enjoyed by her in the process of decision making and choice at crucial points in the life cycle. Accordingly, a woman’s status in society is to be analyzed in terms of her participation in decision making and her access to opportunities in education, training, employment and income as well as her ability to control the number and spacing of her children. The role that a society assigns to woman in real life determines the extent and level of her participation in the social, economic, cultural and political processes which in tum shapes the demographic portrait of a country.
Women in the Indian society occupy a low status. They have been discriminated against in all walks of life, accentuating social, economic and cultural inequalities. The sex-based discrimination deprives them of the exercise and enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms in all spheres of life. A host of factors are responsible for this sorry state of affairs, including the religious. in India, the religious factor has been of utmost importance in determining the status of women since it exerts powerful influence on the thought, culture and behavior of the people. It permeates their personal and family lives as nothing else does and it also regulates inter-personal and intergroup relations. In short, there is hardly any aspect of social conduct which is not affected by the sanctions of religion.
Women have rarely been regarded as a rich resource of building up society. Women account for 48,3% of the population in India and their fuller development and welfare are of vital importance for the national economy. However, the main factor that has been responsible for underutilization of full women power potential in India, is the impact of the Hindu religious precepts and tradition that shape the thought, attitudes and behave of more than four-fifths of the population.
Place of Women in the Hindu society
It is a sad comment that women ave been denied the freedom and opportunity to develop as full ledged individuals. They have been debarred from making their roper contribution to social and economic advancement as their development has been held in heck due to various cultural, social and historical factors. The religious factor has contributed in significant way in creating bias against them and in keeping them in a state of backwardness. In most Indian religious systems women have been considered an impediment in the religious path leading a salvation or given only a secondary place in the conduct religious life and institutions. They have not even been considered worthy of attaining the highest religious goal salvation. The Digambara sect of Jainism maintains that women cannot obtain moksha, They cannot become siddhas. The very fact that God has created them as women deprived them of entering into heaven or attaining any salvation. They must be reborn as men to get release from the cycle of birth and death. In this way even God is made to practice discrimination against women. The position of women in Hinduism is no better. Their fate has been hanging in between that of Durga and Devdasi, closer to Devdasi than to Durga. For along time, because of high valuation placed on the ideal of sanyasa in Hinduism, women were despised as the source of worldliness, They were regarded as the “torch lighting the way to hell.” They were held in low esteem. They were regarded a living picture of lust and greed. They were considered to be a bad influence on men, a positive hindrance in their spiritual journey. Sant Kabir asked men to shun the company of women as Kabira tin ki kya gat jonitnari kai sang.” She was looked down upon as a potential temptress. Sant Tulsidas, the revered Hindu poet and author of Ram Charit Manas, placed woman at par with a Sudra and animal when he said, ‘Dhol gavar Sudar pasu nari, teeno tarran key adhikart. The Yogis stressed the need of renouncing worldly life and renouncing women for the attainment of salvation. Yogi Gorakh Nath called women baghani, a she-wolf who robbed man of his youthful vigour. Yogis take vow to remain celibates forever. The founder of Buddhism, Lord Buddha too forsake family life for his nirvana. Buddhist monks are required by their religious discipline to remain sanyasis. Similarly Ramanuj, the chief exponent of Vaisnavism, held women and Sudras to be sin born and refused to admit them as i Vaishnava. Sankra Deva, another Vaisnava saint of the 14th century, commented, “of all the terrible aspirations of the world, women’s is the ugliest. A slight side glance of her scaplivate seven the hearts of celebrated sages. Her sight destroys prayer, penance and meditation, knowing this, the wise keep away from the company of women.” Women were thus dishonored and viewed lowly by the Hindu society. It was the religious beliefs that finally culminated in the formation of social attitudes despising women, Nathism, Vaisnavism and some other sects of Hinduism spurned the householder’s life, They were for monasticism and celibacy. Chandogya and Mundaka Upanishad’s recommended sanyasa and Brahm acharya for the realization of God . Women were to be shunned for they were regarded as a source of sin, vice or dishonor to man. The condition of woman was no better than that of the downtrodden Sudra. She was considered an unhealthy influence on man, and, therefore, relegated to the cultural backwaters. In India, woman was reduced to the status of slave ever since the establishment of Brahman dominance and enforcement of Manu’s code. It is true that during the Vedic period, women commanded respect, and ho religious or social work was considered to be complete without the active support of one’s wife. Women had the right to education and knowledge. Boys and girls used to get their education together. Even among the authors of the Vedas, there were said to be 22 women, Women like Gargi and Maitreyi were revered as seers. But Manusmriti, the Veda of the Brahmanical revival, laid down the fundamental and outrageous doctrine of woman’s perpetual subjection, Says Manu, “In childhood, a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband; when her lord is dead, to her son: a woman must never be independent?” The position of women is Hindu society was governed by rules and regulations laid down by Manu. And it seems that there was a deliberate attempt in the dharam shastra of Manu to lower the rank of women. A woman was considered inferior to man in all respects. The natural affectionate relationship between husband and wife was marred by the degraded and inferior position in which woman was placed. A woman was required to worship her husband as God whatever his failings. According to Manu, “though destitute of virtue or seeking pleasure (elsewhere), or devoid of good qualities (yet) a husband must be constantly worshiped as a God by a faithful wife.” She was not to grumble or show any disrespect in any manner. On the other hand, the husband was fully empowered to take action against the erring wife. “She who shows disrespect to (a husband) who is addicted to (some evil) passion is a drunkard, or diseased, shall be deserted for three months (and be) deprived of her ornaments and the furniture. She who drinks spirituous liquor, is of bad conduct, rebellious, diseased, mischievous or wasteful, may at any time be superseded.” The husband was authorized to supersede his wife even on much less serious grounds, “A barren wife may be superseded in the eighth year, she whose children (all) die in the 10th, she who bears only daughters in the 11th, but she who is quarrelsome without delay.” The poor wife was made to bear all the insults and humiliations and degradation with stoic calmness. If she made any protest, she was beaten with a rope or a split bamboo and humiliated, She had no rights. She was no match to her husband. Commenting on the sad plight of women, R.C. Majumdar says, “The poor wife was expected to follow her husband even in death by burning herself alive, but the husband. “having given sacred fires to wife who dies before him, may Marry again, and again kindle the fires.” Stranges to fall, women who once even composed Vedic hymns, were not allowed to study the Vedas and perform sacrificial rites.” Women were thus condemned to a life of permanent degradation and misery. They were required to observe strict purdah and confined to the four walls of the house. Their mobility was constrained; They were denied access to education and got caught in the whirlpool of ignorance. A woman had no identity of her own, Marriage became her only career and goal in life. Child-marriages came to be practiced, they became the rule rather than the exception’ because it was considered obligatory for parents to marry off their daughters before they attained the age of puberty. In the case of husband’s death a woman could not marry as widow remamiage was strictly prohibited by Manu. So child-widows became a familiar phenomenon who had to go through a hell of life and bear various atrocities, In the case of married women barrenness was considered sinful. The birth of a son was the most desired thing. It led to frequent pregnancies and poor health of women, The birth of a female child was a sign of misfortune. So female infanticide came to be practiced. A female basic human right to live in the world . Similarly, a woman had no right to live after the death of her husband. So sati-widow cremation was practiced. It was only the birth of a male child that improved the Position of a woman in her family and society. The iniquitous barrier which the Hindu society had raised between man and woman drained: the strength and liveliness of social and domestic life The stifling environment obstructed development of a woman’s mental &intellectual faculties, shortened her life, and in tum sapped strength and vitality of domestic and national life.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 17, 1992
