I was procrastinating and I happened to see this article online: “Hindu Miss Great Britain says ’sexism’ spurred her success”. There’s a lot that can be discussed about the article, but a couple things stood out to me. I think it’s cool that an Indian/Hindu woman has been so successful in a pageant which, historically speaking, has generally been Anglo-Saxon dominated. I also think it’s interesting that the article identifies her first as being Hindu and implies that the sexism and problems her mother encountered were a result of this background. My initial reaction was to disregard this as bad journalism, because I’ve grown up being taught that Hinduism is a religion that values equality among all people. My parents always emphasized the importance of Shakti, the female creative power, and the multitude of powerful female gods. However, I know that they made an effort to do this because they were aware that if I was exposed to sexism, I could have been turned off completely from Hinduism.
I know there are examples of sexism in Hindu stories (like Sita’s treatment in the Ramayana) that have always irked me, but I mostly ignored them because I didn’t think about it. Reading this article led me to think about a few things- first, what are the implications for women in Hindu texts? It seems like there are conflicting representations of women as figures of power and subordinates depending on the context. I don’t have a deep knowledge of this, and what I know is fairly one sided because of what my parents (selectively) told me.
Also, I couldn’t help but notice how poorly written the article was. It blurs the line between religious and cultural practices — I don’t think arranged marriages are uniquely Hindu as much as they are South Asian — and it made me think about how little most people know about Hinduism, which makes it possible for articles like this to seem completely logical to them.
So I guess this boils down to a few things — what have you learned about gender and the role it plays in Hinduism? Does that have any relevance in today’s world? And also, given the public ignorance or misinformation with regards to Hinduism that most of us probably deal with, what do you think is an appropriate way to respond?
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The majority of women have been subordinate for an extensive period of time in all societies, though it probably was not meant to be this way. The female being physically weaker than the male is a reason for restricting women to being care-takers and immuring them from the world. Most females gladly accepted the duty of being care-takers and did not seek for more. Unfortunately, the thoughts of the women who desired to be equal to men were once suppressed by society.
Religion was certainly also a contributing factor to all inferiority, not only to women, but religion can lead to either ritualism or spirituality and philosophy. Inequality may have arisen from societies becoming ignorant of the true intent of religion and excessively ritualistic and focused on attaining material wealth and power. Many did not realize that it is the one who understands religion as a way of life who is open-minded and thus successful.
I think the modern world has awakened from the nightmares of disparity, through the need for unity in its advancements and efforts of self and ethical realization.
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