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 -----From: Ram SarangapaniTo: Rajen BaruaSent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 8:16 PMSubject: 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 -----From: umesh sharmaSent: Wednesday, May 03, 2006 3:14 PMSubject: [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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