A political outfit in India recently pressed for the passage of a bill that aims to reserve 33% of the seats in parliament for women. And it has been passed in both houses of the Indian parliament with thumping unanimity.

The criminal antecedents, shrewdness, and do-anything-for-political-gain philosophy of our male members of parliament (MPs) have been unbelievable. Robbery, financial frauds, murder, hate-mongering, sedition-encouraging, and rapes, etc are the charges that many MPs have carried with pride. However, statistics have shown that women MPs are less likely to have grave criminal cases against them compared with their male counterparts.

So, such legislation might help improve the overall “quality” of the parliament which has been famous for everything ranging from stupid sloganeering to hand-to-hand combat within its hallowed grounds. Not to say that women parliamentarians are any less cussing, violence, unparliamentary behaviour, and passive aggression. Here women parliamentarians are almost at par or even champions of the game.

There is a strong conviction that the future of our nation depends on the implementation of the tenets that the bill professes. Not just because it can improve the diversity of the law-making body. More women are needed on such platforms to transform the discourse on governance and policy-making and bring India closer to becoming a truly inclusive and representative democracy.

The jury is still out on Nehru’s overall statesmanship, but the man did have his moments of clear insights. One of them was when he commented – “You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women”. This astute observation is quite true if one scans the countries across the world.

So, another effect of this bill will be that it will ensure that women have the opportunity to join the mainstream faster and partner in this nation’s development on equal terms. This effect will then trickle down the social strata and help improve the conditions of women everywhere.

Although India has developed by leaps and bounds over the past few decades, apart from the metropolitan area, the status of women has but marginally improved. In fact, it can be said that a majority of Indian women still live by late 19th-century standards.  

India, as a nation, has a history of marginalisation and exploitation of women framed by haphazard social structures and mindsets that have developed or heaped on top of rather pristine original ideas. A long walk-through the history shows that the Hindu society was originally not so. It morphed into what Indian society is now.

The sages of Vedic times observed the raw forces of nature, their destructive form and how humans overcame such hurdles in pursuing the domestic way of life. These insights gave birth to the concept of the primordial female deity and how it transformed from a violent goddess into a loving mother. This led to the idea of prakriti and purusha – which meant nature and civilization respectively. And by demarcating the boundaries between the wild and the domesticated way of life, the ancient Rishis of the Indian subcontinent established the foundations of Vedic civilization and the Sanatan Dharma.

Traditional Hindu thought fulfilled all its karmic duties it cannot attain liberation. Departed ancestors wait for re-birth in order to complete their karmic duties. Hence producing offspring was an important goal of Hindus, as it provided an ancestor the opportunity to return and fulfil their abandoned obligations. The woman was the means for a man to have a child, hence her importance in the Hindu scheme of things.

Ancient women wielded significant influence, often equal to or even surpassing men. Evidence from various ancient texts, including epics and Vedic scriptures, supports this claim. Women possessed a mastery over their sexuality, allowing them to approach men without easy rejection. In fact, it was deemed unmanly to refuse such advances. For instance, the Mahabharata recounts the tale of Arjun, a renowned warrior, who, when rejecting Urvashi's advances, faced a swift curse, rendering him a eunuch.

Ancient Hindu society was remarkably open and free for women, but over time, medieval Hindu society linked Prakriti and Purusha with gender, leading to restrictions on women's sexual freedom. This resulted in a more rigid culture that frowned upon deviations from norms.

On the other side of the planet, Abrahamic religions were expanding with a rigid and often biased view of females. As cultural influences intermingled over time, explicit rules for gender and sexual behaviour emerged in India. The decline in women's societal status began when their sexuality became controlled, reducing them to mere objects for men's use. This led to the belief that women were inferior, should always be subordinate, and were seen as a family liability.

Islamic invasion further exacerbated the situation with practices like the hijab, harem, and female circumcision, reinforcing the concept of women as "trophies" or “sex objects”. The brutality of Islamic conquests prompted Indian society to impose even stricter restrictions on women, confining them to purdah and limiting their societal participation. The British, influenced by their monotheistic Christianity's perspective on women, found traditional Hindu views unacceptable and manipulated ancient texts or imposed legislation to align with their own notions of womanhood. This they did by shrewdly manipulating the meanings of ancient texts or bulldozing through legislations.

For example, Verse 9.3 of the Manu Smriti – “By a young girl, by a young woman, or even by an aged one, nothing must be done independently, even in her own house. In childhood a female must be subject to her father, in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons; a woman must never be independent” – was purposefully taken out of context by William Jones and used to depict India as a society oppressing women. In reality, the verse applies to women in need of care. Hindu culture introduced concepts like "Streedhana" and "Saudayika Streedhana," which clashed with British colonial ideals, leading to the "Hindu Women's Rights to Property Bill" in 1936.

British rule transformed Indian women from being free and independent to second-class citizens, perpetuating outdated Victorian views of that time. And, despite these Victorian views and prudery being abandoned in their places of origin, they persisted and evolved over time in India.

During and after British rule in India, there was a profound shift from the previous freedom, liberty, and independence of women to their reduced status as second-class citizens, often seen as objects to be exploited. They became even more entrenched with each passing era. The pervasive influence of this notion of female subjugation has led to unimaginable atrocities against women, and every aspect of their lives remains subject to its watchful gaze, along with numerous societal additions created over centuries.

From the fiery warriors, princesses, sages, and queens of ancient times, the primary function for an Indian woman till very recent times was to abandon her wishes, quell her desires, take care of the family, be ‘utilized’ by her husband, and to bear children. Right from an early age, a girl gets unconsciously conditioned to believe and accept it. And, I have seen the most educated, broad-minded women succumbing to it.

Legislative representation is fundamental to political empowerment and societal uplift, as it enables participation in the law-making process. The Indian constitution which is supposed to be one of the grandest (and most voluminous) documents in the world goes into excruciating details to provide equal rights to both men and women.

However, Indian society has failed to accept the high ideals that its constitution, its rich traditions, and deeply insightful ancient books embody. To add insult to injury, we the people continue to turn a blind eye to inhuman acts committed against our womenfolk.

We turn the page when we read that a woman was gang-raped in broad daylight. We rant that our society is straight-jacketed into customs and traditions which no longer have bearing in today’s life. Yet when a 21-year-old is stabbed and bludgeoned to death when she refuses the advances of the man, there is no candlelight vigil.

We complain that our daughters, wives, and sisters are not safe travelling in the night alone. And yet, there is no peaceful protest when a young, educated woman is blinded because she resisted and fought back her rapist. There are no fasts-onto-death, when paedophiles molest more than a hundred young orphan girls right under our collective noses.

We idolize men who are domineering assuming that such a stance signifies their machismo and manliness. And we call men who claim to be in touch with their feminine side effeminate softies. And then we gossip in hushed tones as to how the neighbour is a wife-beater and we view “that woman” who is tormented by her passive-aggressive, insecure and sexually repressed husband with strange pity trying to figure out “what is wrong with her” that a man should do such a thing to her.

When a young woman is raped, butchered, or burnt we discuss which ruling party is in charge of the state and what their ideology is. We very slyly move the conversation into politics and let that woman be damned for eternity, forever denying her the justice and dignity that she is entitled to.

When monsters who have done heinous unimaginable crimes on girls are shot dead, we talk about police brutality, witch-hunting, or caste/religion-based targeting. But, when women are slandered, and shamed in public forums, when they speak their mind and are consequently rewarded with body-shaming or death threats, then we skip that conversation.

We have been conditioned to hoot, clap, and laugh as popular movies depict male characters pursuing females’ characters without their wish reinforcing the idea that women don’t know what they want and it’s the male’s duty to tell her what she likes. We treat a Silk Smitha as an object and then feel sorry for her pitiable end – we never truly see her pain, her objectification, and her betrayal by the hands of many. Perhaps we also feel it is justified.  

When toilets are built so that women can get an iota of their dignity, we talk about who built the damned toilet and not about for whom it was built? And we never even bother to debate about why it took so long for this basic thing to be done and who is to blame that a woman has to expose herself in the open to do what is a biological process?

When a woman gets her legal right from her husband after a tedious court battle, we overturn that order through an act of parliament and no one even whispers about it. And a broken-hearted Shah Bano dies a quiet ignominious death, then there are no green or saffron or blue or yellow or white or rainbow flags waved for her anguish.  

We sit in air-conditioned cafeterias /coffee houses and dream grandiose thoughts about how we will change society. And yet we have passively sat and watched the progress of legislation for more than 27 years.

Even glaciers move faster than that.

We hoot and hurray when ‘our preferred’ political party debates it out because it is our right to oppose or approve depending on which side of the political fence we are. But the ‘person’ for whom it’s been done is not a part of our mental mathematics.   

Aadmi hi aadmi ko chhal raha hai,

kab se bas yahi kram chal raha hai,

Roz hota hai chaurahe par sita haran,

jab ki sadiyon se ravan yahan jal raha hai.

I know a brilliant, vivacious, and talented lady. Over the years, I have seen her overcome great odds, live up to expectations, and help out in a time of need. Apart from being highly educated, she is an exceptional human being. And yet, she has existed on the fringes of society. Why? Because she is a widow. And no matter how modern we consider ourselves; how accented our English is; and how lavish our residences are; subconsciously we still carry that stigma, bias, and prejudice. This is my ode such women and many of her kind who suffer subjugation, sidelining, and crimes we cannot even imagine.

One of the best insights the ancient Vedic texts have left for humanity is the dictum – यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते तत्र रमन्ते देवताः (Where the women are respected, there the Gods reside). Of the high ideals that we claim we have for women – the benevolent goddess, the primordial female deity, Meenakshi, Annapoorna, Kamakshi, Lakshmi, Durga – it’s not only unfortunate that we don’t follow what we preach but also that such ideals and insight has been consigned to the garbage dump of history. This truly depicts our moral bankruptcy and societal decay.

But we are getting another chance to redeem ourselves. Things may not get better soon. This bill is not the panacea for all ills.

Yes, there are technicalities.

Yes, it is politics.

Yes, there are many more hoops to jump through.

Yes to all that, but at least we the people can say we gave our collective best. We can pat ourselves on the back that we rallied together for those who are 50% of us irrespective of caste, creed, and religion.  

So, more power to the women.

They have saved us in the past.

They are our best shot for the future.

Image source: Moneycontrol