One of the more chilling books that i have ever read is the Handmaid’s Tale.
Based in a futue society, that is recovering from a nuclear war, it is about the changed role of women in society. If i can remember right, there were 6 categories of women in society. The highest is the wife, and the lowest the econwife. And there a whole bunch of categories in between.
But, the story is neither about the category wife or econwife. It is about a ‘caste’ called the handmaid. She has only a reproductive function in society. And she sent from family to family to procreate. And, in this society there is only one way left to procreate – the natural way. There is a brilliant bit where the central character, Offred, describes the process of reproducing:
My red skirt is hitched up to my waist though no higher. Below it the Commander is fucking. What he is fucking is the lower part of my body. I do not say making love, because this is not what he’s doing. Copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. Nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven’t signed up for.
Over the last few months i have often thought about the Handmaid’s tale. Especially in the context of the rights of women in India. While the state guarantees equal rights, neither society nor religion does. And lets fact it – religion and society play a bigger role in most people’s lives than the State – especially when it comes to women’s rights.
In the last ten days, we had the story of Irmana – raped by her father in law and ordered by a religious board to leave her husband and marry her rapist.
Then you have the story from Chattisgarh, where a woman who was raped – and delivered a baby – has been ordered by the village Panchayat to marry her rapist.
Then of course, crossing the border, you have the famous Mukhtaran Bibi case.
And these are just stories that have been reported. I am sure that there millions more that aren’t.
Somehow, this entire concept of the chattelization of women – seems to be gaining more ground. The concept of a woman being the vessel for bearing the child and who has no rights on her body is becoming a world wide phenomenon. The resurgance of the religious right across the world, is probably the main contributor towards this.
If it was a minority community facing the abuse that women do, then it would become a human rights issue. Now it is simply a ‘cultural’ issue or a ‘they will sort it out amongst themselves’ issue. Maybe, women ought to apply for minority status in India. Afterall, with the number of female foetus terminations we will soon become even more a minority than we already are
Just one comment – AWESOME SITE !!!
You have left me thinking about the Kerala Society.
Some years back, there was this rampant custom among the Nambudiri ‘clan’ who would associate(sexually) with a woman of a lower caste(mostly Nairs), this was called sambandham. The institution of marriage at that time caled ‘Veli’ allowed a Nambudiri to have multiple sambandhams. Most of the ‘women’ in sambandham were 13 year old girls, whereas the Nambudiri himself would be more than 60 years of age. I always consider this an institutionalized rape, but I never think the girls would have thought that it was rape,
They would have considered themselves to be lucky for being fucked by a rich Nambudiri. While being drawn into the contract of sambandham they would know what exactly is in store for them.
The subtler part here is whether the girl would have had an opinion of NOT associating with a Nambudiri, if there was such a girl then I would consider her to be raped by the customs. However the general rule in those times was that a girl never has the rights to her life. The KEY to her life is in associating with a man. The mans ‘power’ is her source of protection. So I guess 99.9999% of the girls would have volunteered to be associated with a nambudiri.
When I used to hear such stories from my mom about such customs, I would just Imagine how the sexual part between a 13 year old lean girl and a 60 year old fat man would be. One has just to change the words in the book and instead of travelling forward into time to view a handmaid you can travel backwards and view a girls mind in Sambandham.
Even though some people (who still believe in ‘Brahmin Supremacy’) would try to justify this i believe they were horrific crimes against humanity.
I used to hear some old tales(puranas) from my Grandma.From whatever little of what i know about the Puranas I dont think anywhere there was a woman treated like someone in sambandham… this sytem was not mentioned anywhere. Though women were lower to men in making choices, even in the ranks of the gods and godesses, they were always considered to be powerful and could make some choices. For example Gandhari, Kunti in Mahabharat. Sita in Ramayana. They were power houses and were very very respected(even now). I consider the Krishna devotee Meera also to be a woman of independent choice and also very powerful.
One knows what is the status of women in the present and in the near past. But what was the status of women, during the time of say Ashoka the great? If they were treated with respect and had the right to take decisions and make independednt choices, then we have a BIG question in our hands.
What made Indian society change? from one that respects women as its members to something that USES women as a utility.
The answer to this question will be something that will have a cure in it, for the present society.
great post, harini – just this morning I was reading about Mulayam Yadav’s response to Irmana’s case where he says that the religious leaders would have made a decision only after giving it a lot of thought and therefore he would respect it – or some such crap –
behind this whole ‘culturalisation’ (let the local religious / cultural law handle it rather than the commmon law of the land) of gender issues is again the political motive -the vote bank…
as for your prediction about women fast becoming the minority, it is such a scary thought – as an aside, have you watched mathrubhoomi yet? want to but havent summoned the guts yet…
I am enjoying your blog. I visited India recently (I am an American, living in Miami, Florida)
Hi Vijay – tnx a ton. u made my day. sorry about hte delay in responding, was stuck away in a studio far, far away
Laxmikant – i have heard about “maitri karar” friendship contracts in Gujarat. Which is much the same. I am not quite sure if it starts as early as 13. But, here too there is a societally accepted trade in sexual favours. this sambandham stuff is scary
Hi Charu, now the milli gazette says – rape what rape. these morons don’t seem to understand that the UCC does not cover rape. Rape is a criminal offense in India, and needs to be treated as such
Hi Apostle John.
thank you for your kind comments. HOpe that you enjoyed your trip to Inida. I have heard so much – and read so much about Miami – that i hope to visit one day!
By the way, that was such a great book. Possibly the only great one from Atwood, and yes, chilling! It affected me more than the other great totalitarian works of our time like 1984 and Brave New World.
The way she describes the war, always on television, on the fringes and the tenuous link that she sets up with the other handmaid. She truly believes that she had ‘signed up’ for the whole deal, even though somewhere she knows she hasn’t. The equation with the other women in her world. Ah, sublime.
Everyone should write like this. I’d be happy even if Atwood wrote like this more often….that Blind Assasin was such a load of bollocks.
How are you? Been atleast a year since I saw you.
Hi just thought i would tell you one thing.. This is twice today i’ve landed on the blog within the last 2 days hunting for totally unrelated things. Spooky or what?