Lessons from History - Atrocities against Women
Mahabharata has an interesting lesson. Queen Draupadi was dragged by her hair in front of an assembly when she was apparently lost by her husband in a game of dice. That was not enough. Kauravas also tried to undress her in front of all assembled guests, in an extreme perverse display. What was more intriguing was the fact that elders who were supposed to protect her and rebuke their errant sons for the moral transgressions, remained silent and passive. The kings who were there in that assembly remained quiet from the fear of retribution. The rest, we know is history. In the great battle that took place, not only were the Kauravas destroyed, but the other kings of India as well. But the battle and the consequences were the result of one woman's humiliation.
A similar story, on a grander scale of humiliation, occurs in Ramayana where the chaste and virtuous Sita is carried away forcefully by Ravana of Lanka, for no fault of her. She was treated harshly and cruelly when she refused to marry Ravana. What happened is depicted vividly in the epic, Ravana was destroyed along with his extended family.
If we disregard the scriptures thinking them to be mere tales of morality and ethics, we pause for a moment and look into our history. The Sultanate of Delhi was weakened considerably and eventually collapsed when many Rajput women, led by the beautiful queen Padmini, the sought after beauty for whom the battle was fought between the Khilji's and the Rajputs of Chittor, entered into fire. Khiljis eclipsed not long after this and Sultanate was reduced to almost a puppet till their complete annihilation with the advent of Mughals under Babur.
We saw a similar story unfolding under the East India company. The company's rule ended right after its battle with Lakshmibai of Jhansi and her death.
The independence movement was not gaining sufficient strength till one woman entered into the fray. She was Sister Nivedita. After her several other women joined the political movement but it was Gandhi, C.R Das and other forward looking leaders who saw the vast potential of women to contribute to freedom movement. And coincidentally after the 1920s, when more and more women joined the freedom movement, either as part of the Satyagrahis or in taking up arms, the British Government found themselves in increasingly uncomfortable positions. When Subhas Chandra Bose formed the Indian National Army, he was well aware of the potential of women to dedicate an all women brigade. Significantly the atrocities on women by the British police also increased during this period. Public humiliation and arrest of Basanti Devi, wife of C.R Das, during non cooperation movement was one famous incident of the growing desperation of the establishment. Another infamous case was the arrest of a pregnant lady named Sindhubala under trumped up charges, who was forced to walk for miles despite her condition, with a rope tied around her waist, by the British Police. Such an audacious and disgraceful behavior earned even the ire of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, who, in spite of her tranquil demeanor, had declared that the days of the British Empire were numbered.
It is possible that there is a universal force which decries such humiliations. The force belongs to nature and the great mother nature itself is regarded as feminine. So it is possible that the mother nature, which also influences history since time itself is a component of universal nature, has a threshold beyond which she ensures that the perpetrators of atrocities against hapless victims do not go unpunished. However powerful they are, they crumble, as the British empire, as the prophecy of Sri Sarada Devi stated, went into pieces within thirty years of beginning their atrocities against women freedom fighters, a very small time frame indeed, when considered against the backdrop of history.
Swami Vivekananda often quoted from Manu - Yatra naryastu pujyante ramante tatra Devata, yatraitaastu na pujyante sarvaastatrafalaah kriyaah. It means that wherever women are given respect, even Gods rejoice there, where they are not respected, everything goes wrong. So when we see it today in our larger context, we may be facing a graver social crisis. It is not merely the atrocities that count any more, but a larger, more menacing and disturbing trend in the society which may tear the social fabric.
It is more disturbing because a large section of the political and elite leadership has actively promoted or committed such crimes. There is little effort from the elitist media and political leadership to understand the root cause of the social trend and to address it. But this is how probably these two forces, which are claiming to have shaped India's destiny after independence, may have dug their graves. Probably that is where history is taking us through a circuitous and torturous route.
The independence movement was not gaining sufficient strength till one woman entered into the fray. She was Sister Nivedita. After her several other women joined the political movement but it was Gandhi, C.R Das and other forward looking leaders who saw the vast potential of women to contribute to freedom movement. And coincidentally after the 1920s, when more and more women joined the freedom movement, either as part of the Satyagrahis or in taking up arms, the British Government found themselves in increasingly uncomfortable positions. When Subhas Chandra Bose formed the Indian National Army, he was well aware of the potential of women to dedicate an all women brigade. Significantly the atrocities on women by the British police also increased during this period. Public humiliation and arrest of Basanti Devi, wife of C.R Das, during non cooperation movement was one famous incident of the growing desperation of the establishment. Another infamous case was the arrest of a pregnant lady named Sindhubala under trumped up charges, who was forced to walk for miles despite her condition, with a rope tied around her waist, by the British Police. Such an audacious and disgraceful behavior earned even the ire of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, who, in spite of her tranquil demeanor, had declared that the days of the British Empire were numbered.
It is possible that there is a universal force which decries such humiliations. The force belongs to nature and the great mother nature itself is regarded as feminine. So it is possible that the mother nature, which also influences history since time itself is a component of universal nature, has a threshold beyond which she ensures that the perpetrators of atrocities against hapless victims do not go unpunished. However powerful they are, they crumble, as the British empire, as the prophecy of Sri Sarada Devi stated, went into pieces within thirty years of beginning their atrocities against women freedom fighters, a very small time frame indeed, when considered against the backdrop of history.
Swami Vivekananda often quoted from Manu - Yatra naryastu pujyante ramante tatra Devata, yatraitaastu na pujyante sarvaastatrafalaah kriyaah. It means that wherever women are given respect, even Gods rejoice there, where they are not respected, everything goes wrong. So when we see it today in our larger context, we may be facing a graver social crisis. It is not merely the atrocities that count any more, but a larger, more menacing and disturbing trend in the society which may tear the social fabric.
It is more disturbing because a large section of the political and elite leadership has actively promoted or committed such crimes. There is little effort from the elitist media and political leadership to understand the root cause of the social trend and to address it. But this is how probably these two forces, which are claiming to have shaped India's destiny after independence, may have dug their graves. Probably that is where history is taking us through a circuitous and torturous route.
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