Can
Sita be the Role Model for Contemporary Women?
by
Ram Puniyani
 |
| Ram Puniyani |
Women’s
struggle to break the shackles of patriarchy and come of their own is a part of
democratization/secularization process of society. In India while this equality
has been granted right with the implementation of Constitution in free India,
the social realities are far from those of equality. With the rise of cultural,
religious and social norms, which accompany politics in the name of religion,
the matters are worse off as far as struggle for gender justice is concerned.
While women’s movement has been asserting the longing for equality, this
process has got several obstacles and these obstacles, when couched in the
language of religion become much more difficult to overcome.
The
observation of Bombay High Court (March 2012) that married women should be like
Goddess Sita and should give up their all to accompany their husband like Sita
did, is what is desirable. The learned judges were opining on a case of divorce
in which woman is not willing to join her husband, who has got a job in Port
Blair and she is living in Mumbai. The judge’s observation and taking a cue
from the mythological figures itself has lot of problems. On the top of that
the analogy of Sita may be most painful as far as women are concerned. Despite
various versions of Lord Ram story prevailing around the most common and well
known in this part of the country is the one of Valmiki. This Valmiki version
has been made more popular byMahrshi Ramanand Sagar through his serial Ramayan.
Here the character of Sita is most servile and subservient to the Lord. For
example when Ram faces the dilemma of banishing her to forest on the alleged
rumors of Sita’s chastity, Sita in Ramanand Sagar’s version herself prods her
husband to send her to forest, quite a retrograde fall over the version of Valmiki
himself.
As
such in most versions of Lord Ram Story what is common is that Sita is an
abandoned child found by Raja (King) Janak while doing the ritual and ploughed
the field. She is married off to Ram, who is exiled by his father Dashrath to
keep the promise to one of his queens, Kaikeyi. From here the misery of Sita
starts. Ravan, who wants to take revenge of insult of his sister Surpnakha at
the hands of Ram- Laxman duo, abducts Sita and takes her to Lanka, where she is
made to live in Ashok Vatika. Ravan, himself shows a desire for him but she
refuses. Her rescue is also full of
insult for her. Lord Ram tells her that he has rescued her to save his own
honor! Sita is made to give ‘Trail by Fire’, agnipariksha to prove her
chastity. She passes the test and is brought back to Ayodhya to be coroneted
along with her husband.
The
misery intensifies. There is a rumor questioning the chastity of the queen. The
King, Lord Ram, is witness to the agniparikshka. At this point instead of
protecting his wife, who is pregnant, he asks his loyal brother Laxman to dump
her in a forest. Exiling a pregnant wife can not by any standard be part of the
justice at any time in the history. Years later when Ram meets Sita by
coincidence, Ram hesitates to take her back and at this point Sita commits
suicide. Probably amongst all the mythological figures, Sita’s is the most
tragic tale.
While
all this is part of the popular folklore, how come the learned judges give the
advice to any married woman to emulate Sita? No woman can have a life worse
than this. The other point is in the present society trying to march towards
democratic values; can we think of giving the examples from mythology to be
emulated today? The period of society depicted in mythologies is the one which
was having values of kingdoms. Kingdoms had the values of ‘birth based
hierarchy’ of caste and gender. While the claims are that in ancient India,
women had a glorious and respectable life, the truth comes out from the values
given in the Manusmirti, a book where the women has the status totally
subservient and secondary to man. It was precisely because of the caste and
gender hierarchy of this ‘holy’ book, that Dr. Ambedkar burnt it.
With
women’s movement coming up and gender subservience being questioned, surely our
laws and courts have to be sensitive to the aspirations of women. The very
concept of woman losing her basic identity after marriage has to be consigned
to the dustbin of history. The adjustment between couples has be more
innovative, few examples of which one sees in the contemporary times more so in
western countries and in good measure around here as well. Here in India also
there are couples who chart their own course for togetherness, without losing
their basic identities and choices. We need to bring our thinking in tune with
the times, the democratic set up, away from the birth based hierarchies towards
the concept of equality. The intrusion of feudal and other primordial values
has been wearing the garb of fundamentalism, in various religions. Christian
Fundamentalism, Islamic Fundamentalism and Hindutva are examples where the
subordination of women is legitimized in the language of religion.
In
India with the rise of religion based politics with Ram Temple movement, there
has also been a religio-cultural accompaniment in the form of Godmen, modern Gurus, who are talking of
status quo of social relationships in a refined language. Manu Smriti’s values
are being dished out in the clever disguise by the five star Gurus, with
massive following. Many a television serials are also playing a very retrograde
role as far as the norms of gender equality are concerned. The TV-Baba
combination is very lethal for values desirable in a democratic set up, in a
set up where we create social situations to dump patriarchal norms for good.
The
analogy of Sita in particular is very painful but as such any analogy from
mythological and periods of history before the democratic culture starts coming
in has to be shunned. One hope courts and legal structures think of the fate of
Sita before ordaining such a life for women in current times.
Ram Puniyani was a professor in biomedical engineering at
the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, and took voluntary retirement in
December 2004 to work full time for communal harmony in India. He is involved
with human rights activities from last two decades. He is associated with
various secular and democratic initiatives like All India Secular Forum, Center
for Study of Society and Secularism and ANHAD.
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