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Why is the status of women in India so low?

India not only has an ancient civilization, but it is also one of the fastest developing countries in the world today, but the ancient civilization and economic development have not guaranteed the status and rights of women. In today’s world, there is no other country where the social status of women is as low as that in India. Gang rape, abandonment of baby girls, child marriage, polygamy… These barbaric practices have been a cloud over Indian women for thousands of years, and they have never disappeared because of the progress of the times.

In the modern society where the status of women in other countries is increasing day by day, the tragic fate of Indian women is thought-provoking.

Indian Daughter Under Religious Oppression

India has always been known as the “religious museum”, and its religious history can even be traced back to the 16th century before the park.

Religion is closely related to the life of Indians. Corresponding religious ceremonies must be held at different stages of life, such as “birth ceremony”, “birth ceremony”, “naming ceremony”, etc. There are more than 100 festivals related to religion, such as ” The Festival of Lights” and “Holi Festival” have become major festivals celebrated throughout the country.

As the religion with the largest number of believers in India (accounting for 82% of the total number), Hinduism is a comprehensive product of Brahmanism, Buddhism and many other religious teachings, as well as absorbing folk beliefs, customs and philosophical thoughts.

Therefore, if we want to discuss the oppression of women in India by religion, we have to start from the source of Hinduism: Brahmanism.

The Aryan invasion can be seen as a watershed in the status of women in India. Before the Aryans invaded India (2500 BC – 1500 BC), most of India was a tribal civilization dominated by matriarchal society, and the social status of women was still very high.

At that time, Indian women had made achievements in religion, society, economy, politics, etc. They had the right to choose a partner and develop their talents.

However, around 1500 BC, a group of Aryans living in the Caucasus Mountains of Central Asia crossed the Hindu Kush Mountains, entered the South Asian subcontinent, and settled in the Punjab region of the Indus Valley. The Aryans, who belonged to the steppe nation, used their military advantages to snatch their settlements and conquer the indigenous people. In addition to being killed and driven out of India, some of the conquered indigenous people became slaves.

When the Aryans integrated the indigenous people into the Indian society controlled by the Aryans, in order to maintain the uniqueness of their own culture, the earliest group consisting of the conqueror Aryans and the conquered non-Aryans (Dasa) appeared. Class division, which is also the embryonic form of the caste system.

The caste system developed from two grades at the beginning to the final four, mainly because the original Aryans were differentiated from one grade into three grades: Brahmins (engaged in sacrificial professions), Kshatriyas (mainly tribal military leaders warriors) , Vaishya (commoners engaged in various production activities), and the original Dasa became Sudra (mainly slaves).

Another major influence of the Aryan invasion on India was the emergence of Brahmanism. After a long period of conflict and fusion of the two civilizations represented by the conqueror and the conquered, Brahmanism was born.

This religion, centered on the Vedas, has gone through two periods from birth to maturity: the Early Vedic Age and the Late Vedic Age.

In the early Vedic era, the relics of the matriarchal society had not completely dissipated, and the Rig Veda appeared at this time, depicting many sacred and sublime images of goddesses: such as Aditi, the mother of the gods, and Politibi, the goddess of the earth. , the grain goddess Sita, etc. The images of the goddesses in this period were very bright, just and virtuous.

At the same time, the Rig Veda also recorded some social activities of women at that time, such as participating in wars, presiding over rituals, and participating in tribal meetings. In addition, Indian women at this time had the right to receive education, but the teacher was usually the woman’s father or husband.

However, the Aryans, who take patriarchy as their ruling ideology, continue to integrate with India, completely erasing the traces of India’s matriarchal society , posing a certain degree of threat to women’s social status.

In the later period of the Vedic period, Brahmanism matured, and the oppression of women became more serious. Brahmanism has established a pope with superior men and inferior women, and believes that women are inherently sinful, which will lead to the degeneration of men, women are not allowed to participate in religious activities, and their social status also plummets.

The caste system is another shackle imposed on women . In order to maintain the purity of blood within the caste, the society allows child marriage, encourages or enforces the burial of widows.

In addition to allowing intermarriage between people of the same caste, the caste system also allows “shun marriage” (that is, allowing men of higher castes to marry women of lower castes), so many low-caste families with daughters can only hope to change their social status in order to change their social status. Caste men marry.

This has led to high-caste men becoming “sought-after goods” and eager to change their social status. Low-caste families compete with each other. There has been an ethos of “buying” grooms at high prices, while greedy high-caste men are taking advantage of the situation to demand high dowry and property. , which is also the root of the dowry habit of high dowry in modern India.

It can be said that Brahmanism and the caste system have directly led to the inequality of the status of men and women in India, and women have been in an inferior position since then.

Even though Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, etc. that emerged later improved some rights and interests of women in a small range, the social cognition that women are inferior to men has never changed.

Deep-rooted patriarchal ideology

Religion is the “culprit” that makes India a patriarchal nation . In human history, in order to consolidate social status, men have formulated various rules to imprison women. They deny women the right to education and instill the idea that women are subordinate to men.

This method has been effective and “fruitful” for a long time: ancient China had “three obedience and four virtues”, “foot binding” and other bad habits; in the 19th century, Europe produced an “hourglass-shaped” body standard that conforms to male aesthetics , In order to pursue the waist and breasts, women wear corsets and bulky panniers that are extremely harmful to the internal organs.

The root of these deformed social behaviors is the result of women’s inability to confront men in the ruling class.

Of course, with the awakening of women’s consciousness, various movements for “equal rights between men and women” broke out in the world. Events like this are already making a positive difference to the condition of women and, indeed, humanity.

However, in an environment where the status of women in the world has been greatly improved, the situation in India still seems to be a backwater.

“Menstrual Revolution” and “Partners in India” show the survival status of Indian women from another angle: only 18% of Indian women use sanitary pads during menstruation. Most Indian women still use extremely unhygienic “raw” materials such as strips of cloth, leaves, and even dirt.

Due to inconvenient menstrual periods, many girls drop out of school, and many women contract diseases and even lose their fertility due to hygiene problems.

The root of all this is because in India, a patriarchal society, menstruation is the biggest taboo . In many backward parts of India, women who are menstruating are considered “unclean” and they are not allowed to enter temples. Many people’s perception of menstruation is extremely ignorant and absurd.

India is a big country with a total population of 1.3 billion. Any small problem projected onto such a huge population base is extremely astonishing.

According to the survey results of the female labor force participation rate in various countries in 2018, India ranked at the bottom with a value of 26.97%. This means that about 2/3 of Indian women depend on men (mostly husbands or fathers) to survive.

The inequality of educational resources makes women uncompetitive in employment, and the lack of economic independence makes it difficult for women to have a voice. Therefore, domestic violence, sexual violence, judicial injustice and other issues are also difficult to improve.

Budding hope

The cloud will always dissipate one day. Now, women’s consciousness in India is gradually awakening, some public figures have begun to speak for women, and the government has also taken corresponding measures.

On January 1, 2019, a protest involving millions of women was staged in India. Protesters formed a 620-kilometer-long “Women’s Wall” to protest against the denial of women of “menstrual age” in the temple, calling for gender equality .

Aamir Khan, a national treasure actor known as “India’s Conscience”, has devoted himself to improving various bad habits in India for many years: questioning and exposing India’s religious forms, education issues, women and children issues and other social problems.

The prototype of “Partners in India”: Arunacharam Muruganantham, who invented the manufacturing machine of cheap sanitary napkins, is committed to improving the unhygienic treatment of women during menstruation in agricultural areas of India, and has been used in 23 states. promotion in. He was named to Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2014.

The popularity of the film also had a positive impact on national policies. Six months after the film was released, India announced the cancellation of tariffs on sanitary napkins and a reduction in the price of sanitary napkins.

However, despite the attention and promotion of the government and the masses, Indian women still experience all kinds of discrimination and oppression.

In the famous black bus incident in 2012, a nursing school girl died in hospital after being gang-raped and beaten on a bus near New Delhi.

According to the 2018 survey data, India topped the list of the “10 most unsafe countries for women”.

On January 2, 2019, a violent protest broke out in the southern Indian state of Kerala after two women of “menstrual age” entered a temple in violation of a religious ban, killing one and injuring hundreds.

Now, due to the rapid development of the economy, Indian women have become more and more educated, and their self-consciousness has gradually awakened and grown. They no longer endure ignorance, but use hard work and persistence to gradually win back the respect of society and their due status. rights and interests.

The Indian government is also committed to improving women’s problems caused by religion, history and other factors. Since its independence, India has formulated a series of laws and regulations, dedicated to improving the social status of women in the system.

The Constitution grants women the right to vote; prohibits religiously derived dowry laws; implements the Hindu inheritance law, which grants women the right to inherit; in addition, there are child labor laws, prohibition of the illegal sale of women, girls laws, and aggravated criminal penalties for sexual crimes, all of which are to a certain extent. improved the social status of women.

But for India, this is not enough. Judging from the history of changes in women’s social status, men and women have never been opposed to each other, only preconceived gender biases .