The Plight of Indian Widows
A woman's dignity is not her own possession. Her life is at the mercy of men around her. She is a commodity to be owned and sold first by her father then her husband. Her entire existence is tied to her servitude to those around her. After giving so much to the world, there is little life left inside of her. Yet, the world still demands her forfeit of this little life after the death of her husband. In India, a woman was expected to burn herself alive in the holy pyre of her husband's body as a show of loyalty in a practice called Sati that was outlawed in 1929(yet it is still rampant today in many rural parts of India).
With her husband no more, she must have no reason to live.Widowhood is the harbringer of acute discrimination for women in South Asia. Widows are ostracized by society and shunned by their family to live a destitute life in "Vidhwa Ashrams". Even the shadow of a widow was believed to inflict depredation and brought. They are called witches and man-eaters. They are forbidden from wearing anything but white clothes and are expected to practice strict abstinence. Widows in Afghanistan are called besarparast, meaning "household without a head". It is customary for a woman to shave off her head to appear undesirable. Her sexuality is confined, her needs and wants must die alongside her husband. Widow remarriage-although legal- is deeply stigmatized as a grave sin.
Widows are not considered to be a part of society. They can neither celebrate festivals nor travel without a religious purpose. In some extreme cases, they are made to drink the bathwater of their husbands’ dead bodies and have unprotected sex to "cleanse themselves of the sin of causing their husbands" death. Young widows also fall prey to the leering eyes of men. Child brides especially are prone to fall victim to manipulation by people around them. Men consider that since marriage has taken away her "innocence", she can now be sexually exploited.
Barring a few states, married women cannot inherit their husband's property. This lack of financial stability is the root cause of their exploitation. Most husbands leave their wives penniless. What little savings he might have had are spent on funeral rites. Relatives do not want to support her financially, considering her children and herself as excess baggage. Her parents also close the doors on her face for it is often said - "only a woman's dead body should come out of her husband's house."
This new found vulnerability makes her an easy prey for prostitution. A primary form of survival for widows is to sell their body through pimps. However, in most ashrams, they are forced to perform sexual favours by the heads of the ashram to gain money. The heads use their political power to silence the widows from raising their voice against this rape. With nowhere else to go, this cycle continues. The widows who get pregnant from this rape are "mauled by quacks for a painfully searing abortion and If that’s not done, then they would have an extra mouth to feed and an extra pair of hands to beg."
As of today, India is the abode of 42 million widows-a social class that is woefully exploited. Widows are often forced to dedicate the remaining parts of their lives to their religion. They must have no desires or wants except singing the God's praise. Widowhood for most women marks the death of their happines and social life. Although with changing times the attitude towards widows is turning positive, it is the bitter truth that the condition of widows from orthodox regions live a terrible life.
Laws protecting women are scarce- let alone widows. In India, widows are considered to be the class 1 heirs of ancestral properties. However, most of them are uneducated and unaware of the laws surrounding them. They are easily manipulated by relatives to give up their rights to the property. As for self acquired property, most men do not mention the name of their wives in their wills. After 2005, women alive on december, 2005 have a right over their father's ancestral property alongside their brothers. One must not forget that women inheriting property is still not socially acceptable in India and women who recieve property are few and far between.
To uplift widows, one must make them aware of the rights around them. Government and local NGOs should work together to organize awareness campaigns on the rights of widows. Women without capital left behind by their husbands should get a monthly stipend. "Vidhwa Ashrams" should be heavily regulated. More so, the social stigma shrouding widows must be removed. Treatment of women belonging to marginalized communities are a reflection of how dire the situation of women's rights are in India. Opening women owned women only shelters is the prime solution for the upliftment of women.
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After finishing the QC show, I still don’t get the “Great Experiment.” Why did it come about?? What was the impetus for such a risky plan? It wasn’t to end racism and treat subjects equally. Augusta only gave characters of colour titles to spy on her son. She would only tackle the inheritance question for information.
The only flimsy justification (?) I can think of is that no one would stay married to George if they knew his condition. So Augusta finds a black princess from a small country who’ll stay quiet to protect her people and who’ll endure it as the “first of [her] kind”? idk, even writing it makes little sense.
Augusta (I think) says the British empire is the greatest empire on earth. If the show is “inspired by reality” here, Britain colonised and pillaged most of the world. Few could defy it. George could have married any small province white princess who would have had to stay quiet. So why a black princess?? A white princess’ marriage wouldn’t be as scrutinised, there would be no perilous “experiment,” no disgruntled ton.
I wouldn’t be as bothered if so much of the narrative didn’t rest on the “Great Experiment” and its effects. Most of the plot is about ending racism which started with Charlotte’s marriage. So why did this arranged marriage even happen??
Kinda wish racism wasn’t introduced this season. Maybe a similar storyline, Charlotte coming from a small country and being trapped, minus the racism? The stakes would still be high without racism during the British empire being resolved with a dance.
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so i just rewatched rrr on netflix (the hindi version but whatever) after watching it three times in theaters and all i can say is:
THANK YOU RAJAMOULI SIR <33
this film really intensified my already seething hatred for white people (especially those british bastards) which i honestly didn’t think was possible but here we are
also the (hindu) symbolism, the cinematography, RAMBHEEM ?!? just absolute perfection
i’m pretty sure rajamouli is god, like that man is the epitome of brilliance
and i gotta say, i was a little apprehensive of alia being in this film but i absolutely loved her as sita and she looked absolutely spectacular in this film
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The function of the Master is to undo what the society has done to you. It is an anti-university, an anti-school, an anti-college, because it is not here to impart knowledge to you but to impart something totally different, something of a different dimension. It is here to create a triggering process in you so that you can get out of your so-called scriptures, words, theories, and you can become just ordinary. You can just become whatsoever you are without any pretensions.
I exalt the ordinariness of consciousness. I am not teaching you the superman here. Friedrich Nietzsche went mad simply because of the idea of the superman. And in India also, Sri Aurobindo, his whole life, was feeding the Indian ego with the idea of the superman, of the supermind, of the supernatural.
All this esoteric nonsense has become such a heavy burden on man that it has to be totally burnt—less than that won’t do. A fire is needed so that all that can be burnt can be burnt, and only that which remains will be your true self.
I am not esoteric, I am not occult, I am not teaching you the other world, I am not teaching you the supernatural, the superman. I am simply exalting the very ordinariness of every human being, the very ordinariness, not only of human beings, but of animals, of trees, of rivers, and rocks—this very ordinariness of godliness. To me, godliness and ordinariness are equivalent, synonymous.
If I have to choose I will drop the word ‘God,’ because it has become really goddamned. Just pure ordinariness… and to live it moment-to-moment, joyously, dancingly, celebratingly. Then wisdom blooms. Then the spring comes and the grass grows by itself.
Osho (The Goose is Out)
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