The Case for Reason: Volume Two: A Scientific Enquiry into Belief by Dabholkar Narendra

Author:Dabholkar, Narendra [Dabholkar, Narendra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Context
Published: 2019-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

5

Women and the Eradication of Superstition

Mental slavery is the biggest horror that emanates from superstition. The mind of a superstitious person is compromised, and for such a person, perversely, the tool of exploitation appears to be the gate to emancipation. Women are much more prone to becoming victims of such manipulation. Despite being the target of multifarious exploitations caused by superstition, women don’t utter a word in protest, leave alone act against them. These practices don’t seem like superstition, but like genuine beliefs that lend meaning to life. Women feel proud and blessed to follow such customs.

A woman becomes superstitious because she has to live in such an adverse, male-dominated atmosphere that she has no other way but to surrender. There is nobody to guide her to escape from this web, which adds to her helplessness. Her life is filled with grief, defeat and frustration.

The main reason for a woman’s despair is the subordinate status that her family, society and religion reduce her to. Even in the twenty-first century, a girl child is unwanted—so much that we have to launch movements to educate people about the dangers of the reducing female-to-male ratio.

Our country had, at one point in time, a matriarchal social system. But today, because of the patriarchal structure, women are forced to depend on men. Marriage and the birth of a son form the entire essence and substance of a woman’s life, while these are common events for a man. A woman is not only her own self but also a virgin, adult, fiancée, wife, divorcee, abandoned spouse, or widow. Each of these labels is related to a man, who is considered her ‘owner’ and also her god in the form of a spouse. It is impressed on her mind that the core of her life lies in fulfilling her duty as a daughter, wife or mother—not independently but under the charge of a male. All her vows and observances are aimed at getting a great spouse and son. In case her husband dies, for whatever reason, she is held responsible for bringing that misfortune on the family and never invited to any ceremony. Because she’s now ‘inauspicious’, she is disallowed from commencing any good work. She is also debarred from being present at her child’s wedding! Even today, the Maratha community, proud of its noble ancestry and achievements in many walks of life, is totally against the remarriage of young widows.

Our Constitution provides for gender equality, which still remains confined to the page alone. What we see around us is the lack of employment opportunities for women, less pay than men for the same kind of work, and refusal to grant women the right to property, among other forms of discrimination. Also, women still do not have a reservation of 33 per cent in state assemblies, leave alone 50 per cent reservation in the Lok Sabha. Such treatment creates a strange contradiction in society. The merit lists of school and college examinations feature the names of numerous women, and yet it is women not men who are deserted (the men just merrily get remarried).

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