Dear Ram,
I congratulate you for your open
views. There are 33 million widows in India. Majority
of them live below animal level. My cousin Mamoni (Dr.Mamoni Goswami) told me
about the observations she made in Brindaban. What about the property rights of
a widow in her marital home &/or in her natal home?
People who criticise Deepa
Mehta's movie, but do not come forward to help stop the suffering, cannot call
themselves Hindus. These are degenerated people.
In violation of the ancient Indian
scriptures, the evil of the gender oppression, hereditary caste system, dowry
system, and many other evil practices appear to have well-trenched in India due
to degenerations. After independence, the Constitution has been amended and laws
have been strengthened to control these social evils. However, law alone cannot
eradicate a deep-rooted malaise. The tragedy is enhanced by the fact that even
educated people in India fail to join the movement to
stop these evils.
When I started the movement to stop
dowry & bride-burning in India, some Indian intellectuals
strangely connected it to neo-colonialism of western powers. Any effort to
help widows or to stop dowry/bride-burning/female-feticide are ignored as an
outcry of feminists. Confusion prevails. An amendment of the Hindu Succession
Act by the Parliament in December 2004 to guaranty equal inheritance of a
daughter [which would have helped the
hapless widows] remains ineffective due to the lack of enforcement. In spite
of strict laws against it, selective female feticide (for the fear of future
dowry) by using ultrasonic embryo test is proliferating leaps and bounds in the
dowry infested areas of India. There is not a single
political party in India with a clear agenda to
eradicate suffering of the widows, or to stop dowry, bride-burning, female
feticide or hereditary caste system.
Nonetheless, there are exceptions.
We see the rays of light through these exceptions. In an October 9, 2003
Judgment against a case of female feticide, Justice M.B. Shah and Justice Ashok
Bhan of the Supreme Court of India observed that It is also known that number of persons
condemn discrimination against women in all its forms, and agree to pursue, by
appropriate means, a policy of eliminating discrimination against women, still
however, we are not in a position to change mental
set-up
It is wonderful that these points
are being discussed in the assam-net. The next step is to come forward to
help the work.
With love to
everybody,
Himendra
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 8:16
PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Deepa Mehta's love
for Hinduism--or otherwise
I just read the write-up on "Water" and Deepa Mehta in the NYT.
I think Umesh you are being way too sensitive. Film produces/directors
and authors usually have the leeway in portraying as they see the world. They
often make us see things that a community or a country does not or just
ignores. In that aspect, I think Mehta has actually done a great service to
the cause of Hinduism.
This aspect of widows being shunned by society and even by family members
is very real and is shameful to say the least. The NYT article mentions
villages etc where these practices still exist. I for one am not willing to
blame the villagers, as they may be too steeped in traditions and customs -
but do find fault with the supposedly educated class of Indian society which
seems to ignore such faultlines.
Progressive Hindus ought to be able to take their messages across India
and educate people on the evils of casteism, ill-treatment of widows, or other
evils that haven't necessarily been mandated by Hinduism.
So, IMHO, Hindu fundamentalists ought to be thankful to a Deepa Mehta for
opening their eyes to such problems instead of creating havoc.
One last thing I would like to state is that generally, you will find
mainstream Hindus peg themselves to varying viewpoints on this and other
issues regarding criticisms of their own religion, and thats a great thing. At
least one won't see a Salman Rushdie like dikat on Deepa Mehta from a majority
of Hindus.
-- Ram
On 5/3/06, Rajen
Barua <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>I haven't seen any effforts by Deepa Mehta to highlight any
good points about Hindusim at all.
Why you have to depend on Deepa
Mehta to high light the goods of Hinduism. Are there no other Hindus who can
do that?
Or Deepa mehta have some
special; power?
RB
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 3:14
PM
Subject: [Assam] Deepa Mehta's love for
Hinduism--or otherwise
Just like I haven't seen any love emanating from C-da's writings about
Hinduism similarly I haven't seen any love emanating from Deepa Mehta's
movies or otherwise about Hindu faith.
Anybody who is not a Hindu should expect negative response to negative
comments about Hinduism.
I take my own case - while I was in India I did not know many realities
existing in US etc . But after coming to US I started commenting about them
- and then a member of my mailing list got angry that if you did not like
USA why did you come here. My constructive comments were miscontrued. Now I
take care to highlight good points of USA from time to time.
I haven't seen any effforts by Deepa Mehta to highlight any good points
about Hindusim at all.
have you?
Umesh
Umesh Sharma
5121 Lackawanna ST
College Park,
MD 20740
1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]
Ed.M. - International
Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard
University,
Class of 2005
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