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Society
Marking Women
Through Status Indicators
An Unjustified Rule of the
Society
by Dr. Ajit Kumar Sinha
 Simple
unwritten rules governing relations between the men and the women reveal
subtly the cultural ethos and prevalent nature of a society. These rules
typically relate to behavior of men or women under various social
meetings and gatherings. For example, a married woman is expected to
behave in a way different from the unmarried one. Some of these simple
rules have a strongly differentiating nature between men and women. Some
of these rules are naturally justified; for example, in a situation
where physical attack is a possibility, it is men who are supposed to
defend. However, there are also rules which could be distorted because
of men (or women) playing a dominant part in the evolution of such a
rule.
It is fair to judge these
rules of society if they are naturally justified or not. One should
perhaps find some simple way or a formula for deciding on justness of
these rules. One such formula could be simply putting a question to
check whether a given rule ensures an emotional equivalence between the
two when a reflexion (exchange) of the two parties is imagined. This
formula, which we shall refer to as the principle of reflexivity in
men-women relations, could be a very logical and simple way of deciding
on the justness of any rule or view.
Let us apply this formula of reflexivity in some cases and see if we
could achieve a fair evaluation of the degree of justness of a
prevailing rule or a view. Let us consider, rather arbitrarily, a rule
regarding the marriage. If a man could marry N number of times, then
this formula will suggest that woman could also go for N-marriages. This
will give a high degree of justness for the rule of N-marriages.
Another example could be simply to settle this view of mine whether I
should be loyal to my wife. The formula of reflexivity will suggest me
to ask a question to myself “how will you feel if she decides for the
“other way” ” I know that my answer to this question is “I will be
hurt”. Then our formula will help to settle the view that I should not
ever think of changing my way of loyalty.
Let us try to apply the above formula now to the question raised in the
title of this note. The point, which I wish to elucidate here, refers to
the system of attaching identifiers as to the personal status of women
while excluding such markings for the men. Here, it appears that there
is still a lot more to be desired in an otherwise very advanced and
mature Hindu social structuring of the men-women relationship.
All through the stages of evolution in a woman’s life, we expect or
enforce a certain “tagger” which reveals to any observer the personal
status of a woman; viz., pre- marriage indicators; post-marriage
indicators for the widowhood or non-widowhood status etc. A simple
application of the formula of reflexivity will tell me that these are
not just rules at all.
Using the reflexivity formula to achieve a higher degree of justness
about this system of marking of the status, men should be marked for the
personal status with the same visual clarity as the women get marked.
We could also bring in here the idea of emotional equivalence under the
interchange between man and woman in relation to the question of
markers. First of all, good number of these indicators carry statements
of the happiness and bliss in the life of the woman and it is likely
that they are as per her choice and men could also take initiative to
display their state of happiness and bliss as the woman are supposed to
do. But let us look at some other aspect of this display or marking.
Consider very painful and clearly “inhuman” aspects of the forced
marking of the state of personal pain and agony. Woman, during a change
over to widowhood, is supposed to undergo a complete transformation with
very strong visual markings of the pain and agony of her widowhood.
Apply the formula we talked about and you will notice that our society
has this rule/convention with a very poor degree of justness.
The need is to put in a law within the Hindu social structure which
forbids any such requirements which exhibits the personal agony and is
also only for the women. Under such changes of personal status leading
to pain and agony, we must encourage woman to remain untransformed
requiring no visual tagging of her status. She could follow the routine
way of dressing and living as per the way of her liking and give her
this right as her personal right. The society should grow to extend
respect due on a normal course to such woman undergoing a personal state
of pain or agony, who decides not to disclose through such “taggers”
forced upon her. If we do not wish to do so, then apply the rule to men,
based on reflexivity formula and force men, if their wives die, to keep
their head shaved and wear simple white dress, enjoy no festivity, eat
no meat or attend absolutely no religious or joyful events of the
families/society.
July 2, 2006
Dr Ajit Kumar Sinha is a research
scientist from Kolkata, India.
Top
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Society
The Week of July 2, 2006
Nuclear Notions: Critics of Indo-US N-deal Miss
the Larger Picture by Rajinder Puri
Kargil Remembered: A Homage to the Indian Army
Martyrs by Dr. Subhash Kapila
The Flood Story of the Hindus, Hebrews and Sumerians
by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Toxic Tourism by J. Ajithkumar
Achievement of Liberation by TA Ramesh
Know
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Suicide Tourism by Kusum Choppra
How Rejection Becomes A Writers Tonic by
Michael Levy
The Art and Science of Water by VK Joshi
Feeding Your Toddler by Garima Gupta
Yudhishthira: A Game of Dice with Dharma by
Satya Chaitanya
Hidimba: The unacknowledged Heroine of the
Mahabharata by Dr. Saroj Thakur
Restlessness Itself is Mind by A.
Thiagarajan
To Be or Not To Be ... Happy by Anjali Anand
Seth
On My Way to Haridwar – Uttaranchal Diary by
Ragini Puri
Ram Swarup : A Fearless Intellectual by V.
Sundaram
Marking Women Through Status Indicators by Dr.
Ajit Kumar Sinha
Version Control System by Ruchi Gupta
Chicken 'n' Robed
A Recipe by Davidbhai Jodhpurwala
A Bride Hunt by PGR Nair
The Witty Side by Melvin Durai
Love Stories from Mahabharata A review by
Amreeta Sen
The World of Tamil Politics by G
Swaminathan
Tales with a Twist by Lekshmy Rajeev
Ram Naam Bolo, Rahim Naam Bolo by C.R.
Gopalakrishna
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