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Indian Culture


2010
06.19

Posted in My Political Stand, The Way I Am, The Way I Say It, The Way I See It, Through a Woman's Eyes | 1 Comment »

How does one define “Indian Culture”? And more importantly, why is “Indian Culture” always defined in terms of what women should and should not do?

It is against “Indian Culture” for women to drink, smoke, to enter a pub, to be “caught” talking to a men, to wear anything that doesn’t cover one from head to toe (barring the six inches of midriff that a sari exposes), to talk back to one’s in-laws or one’s men-folk, to have a mind of her own, to protest against being bargained for, sold, raped, assaulted, verbally abused, harassed for dowry, be married off against her will, be groped by men on the bus who treat her like she’s public property, to be treated like a prostitute if she wears lipstick and well fitting jeans, to be a prostitute because her family sold her into it… It’s against “Indian Culture” for a woman to expect the husband to chip in with the chores even though she slogs in the office all day to earn as much or (God forbid!) more than her husband. It’s against “Indian Culture” for a woman to bear anything but a boy child. Against “Indian Culture” for a woman to even wonder, for a moment, what life would be like without the rules that constrain her. Against “Indian Culture” for a woman to even challenge why she is treated as an inferior human being just because of her gender. Against “Indian Culture” for an educated woman to question why she must “listen” to her in-laws and be led by what they say. And “Indian Culture” to believe that the purpose of her life is to serve others.

What about the men? Why is it ok for men to wear jeans and “western” clothes? For men to smoke and drink and go to pubs? If it’s against Indian Culture for a woman to ever have sex except with her husband (and to promptly get pregnant with a boy-child), who do the men get to have sex with? Each other? Oops! That’s against “Indian Culture” too. It’s acceptable for men to hit their wives, to demand dowry, to stay home unemployed, to have baby girls killed (either in the womb or otherwise) to sell their wives and daughters into prostitution, to harass in-laws, and generally act superior because they possess an extra appendage. It’s “Indian Culture” for a man to decide that he “owns” his wife and to make decisions without consulting her. It’s “Indian Culture” for a man to set his feet up and watch TV while his wife slaves in the kitchen. “Indian Culture” to assault a woman and then say, “She asked for it”.

Who defines “Indian Culture”, anyway? Where does “Indian Culture” come from? With Mohenjo Daro and Harappa? With the Aryans? With the Dravidians? With the Vedas that are now lost except for selective memory? With Kautilya who defined women and cattle as prized possessions? With men who are not man enough to accept that women are people too? Why are we defined by rules distorted over millennia? Why do we let Baba Ramdev tell us homosexuality is a disease that can be cured with yoga? Why do we let principals of schools decide that women “provoke” men and “ask” to be sexually assaulted? Why do we refuse to believe that child abuse exists? That Human Trafficking in India is close to the worst in the world? Why do we (Indian women) wrap ourselves in nine yards of silk just because we wonder what people will think if we refuse to do so?

I’m sick of people going on and on and on about “Indian Culture”. And I’m sicker still of the moderates who refuse to get a voice and do something about it. I’m sick of people who decide that they’re the keepers of the Great Indian Culture. Sometimes, I feel the Egyptians did well to abandon all of their ancient civilization except for the pyramids.

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Who Cares?


2010
06.11

Posted in My Political Stand, The Way I Say It, The Way I See It | 2 Comments »

If there’s a pothole in the road, who cares? Just navigate around it.

If the traffic police is corrupt, who cares? Just bribe him and get it over with.

If the moral police decide they can make the world a better place by beating people up, who cares? We’ll just live with it.

If the tigers are poached to extinction, who cares? Who cares for a dumb animal, anyway?

If the lakes are encroached, if no one conserves water and the ground water is contaminated by illegally dumped garbage, who cares? We’ll just buy water by the tanker.

If marine life in the Gulf of Mexico is wiped out by a spill, who cares? We still want cheap oil and billions of barrels of it. Preferably subsidized. Let’s go exploring in Gujrat.

If the price of a life in Bhopal is little over a million rupees paid a quarter of a century too late, who cares? We’ll take up Ratan Tata’s offer of cleaning up the accident site and let Dow go free.

If politicians are corrupt and sell out the country to lobbyists, who cares? We’ll let karma sort it out for us later.

If there is a caste based census, who cares? We’ll live by corrupt rules of three thousand years ago because they’re our culture.

If the courts are clogged with cases and yet go on summer vacation, who cares? The rich can settle matters in other ways.

If the soaps reinforce negative stereotypes and endorse domestic violence, who cares? We’ll watch them anyway.

If the police refuse to register a domestic violence FIR, who cares? Just ask the woman to accept her fate for her childrens’ sake.

If the educational system is screwed up, who cares? We’ll all continue to try and be engineers and doctors and push our children too.

Even if there is something we could do, who cares? We will continue to find ways to live in our own comfort zone and use blogs and Twitter to express our frustration.

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The Right Thing to Do


2010
04.09

Posted in My Political Stand, The Way I See It | 1 Comment »

It amuses me when people talk about “destroying the Earth”. Mankind lacks the technology to do this. What we are capable of doing is merely destroying our own resources and creating an environment where human life cannot be sustained. We can trigger climate change, run out of space to put our trash, destroy enough forests to feel severe repercussions, run out of fresh water and space to grow food and possible destroy each other with nuclear weapons. None of these things will destroy the planet. They will merely make it harder for humans to survive. I’m sure cockroaches would be around long after humans are gone. So will bacteria, viruses (why is it viruses and not virii?) insects, parts of marine life and all other life forms that have been around longer than us.

For a long time, my list of people who annoyed me was topped by those who don’t care about doing the ecologically correct thing. You know, people who drive when they can walk, who toss things into the trash even though there’s a recycling bin right there, who prefer paper towels to cloth, use harsh cleaners when soap and water are good enough. People who cannot use energy efficient bulbs or turn off the light or use less water or live without air conditioning. People who are just not bothered or, in some cases, just too stupid to realize, that their actions hurt their race more than anyone else.

What baffles me more than anything else is why people don’t realize that by doing the environmentally correct thing to do they aren’t being nice to the planet, they’re being nice to themselves. Most of our generation is going to live long enough to see the repercussions of climate change, overpopulation and our dependence on fossil fuels. We’re going to see the world fight over water and in our lifetime, the Indian tiger will be extinct and Himalayan glaciers will disappear.

So “the right thing to do” is not just the right thing, it’s the only thing left to do if we’re looking to survive. Thoughts?

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