It’s that time of the year again. The Hindu calendar is beaming with the light, beauty, and magnanimity of festivals. And the woke uncles and aunties are at work again – publicly shaming Hindus who dare to associate themselves with these festivals and upset the “divine” order of their woke kingdom.
Diwali gets its fair share of hatred for the apparent air pollution caused by the burning of crackers for a couple of days. Never mind the vehicular emissions, construction dust, stub burning in agricultural fields, and other sources of air pollution. It is Diwali cracker burning that’s solely responsible for the alarming phenomenon of global warming, says the woke lobby.
But the Hindu festival that’s become the biggest victim of woke wrath is none other than Karwa Chauth. It’s just around the corner and the world of social media has already started buzzing with anti-Karwa Chauth rants and sloganeering.
Hindu Dharma is one of those rare belief systems that not only tolerate freedom of expression but celebrate it. That is the reason a festive ritual like Karwa Chauth has evolved beautifully with the times so much so that you have men fasting for the health and long lives of their wives on this day, just as women have been doing traditionally. But the woke lobby doesn’t talk about this aspect. Instead, they choose to attack Karwa Chauth on the grounds that since it’s the wife who is traditionally supposed to fast for her husband’s long life and not the other way around, it is a regressive ritual that degrades and devalues women.
“No matter how you celebrate Karwa Chauth, it’s not a feminist choice”, “ The Story of Karwa Chauth And Our Obsession with a Festival that Encourages Patriarchy at Home”, “Karwa Chauth: Why it’s time for Indian women to leave this archaic and patriarchal custom behind”, “ Why Karwa Chauth has made a mockery of Indian Women”, are just some titles of the anti-Karwa Chauth articles published in mainstream Bharatiya media over the past couple of years. One has to admit that Hindu festivals provide ample publicity fodder to anyone and everyone looking for publicity! All you have to do is pick up any Hindu ritual, start dissecting it without knowing anything about the context, and then rant on social media endlessly. So many good-for-nothings have made proper careers out of bad-mouthing Hindu festivals. Take any ritual associated with Hindu Dharma, start calling it anti-feminist, patriarchal, misogynist, and anti-Dalit, and you can become a celebrity overnight. You will be amply invited as a speaker and an “expert” to festivals and events sponsored by the woke lobby.
Last year, actress Ratna Pathak Shah made a rather controversial remark concerning Karwa Chauth. When asked if she celebrated Karwa Chauth, she retorted, “Am I mad?” She then lamented about the apparent stupidity of women in Bharat clinging on to a “regressive custom like Karwa Chauth in the 21st century and remarked that if Bharatiya women go on celebrating such customs, Bharat will become like Saudi Arabia very soon. Never mind that Ratna Pathak Shah never ever made any comment regarding the violence inflicted on the women of Iran for not wearing a Hijab, or on the issue of Taliban banning women from public spaces and educational institutions upon coming to power. Perhaps, according to the likes of her, women getting killed through state sponsored violence and women being denied education on the directions of the state because they are women, are not important issues, but Hindu women in Bharat observing a day of fast for their husbands out of individual choice is a massive women’s issue.
This year no well-known celebrity has come out ranting against Karwa Chauth so far, but perhaps it’s still too early, and many of them are busy ranting about the goodwill of a “human rights organization “like Hamas anyway. Hindu festivals are the most convenient scapegoat for everyone. Hindus generally don’t retort even if their customs are vehemently attacked. In the case of Karwa Chauth, it’s not just about critiquing the festival. Criticism has always been welcome in Hindu Dharma. But the woke brigade has gone many steps further and has started shaming and literally abusing and name-calling educated women who observe Karwa Chauth.
This public shaming that happens through social media is no different from something like mob lynching or the morbid practice of publicly flogging and stoning a woman by the likes of the Taliban. This sort of cultural Talibanization against Karwa Chauth is what is worrisome and alarming. The woke brigade has made rather far-fetched associations between boycotting Karwa Chauth and being a feminist. No matter how educated you are and how much you have worked for women’s issues, if you celebrate Karwa Chauth, you are not a feminist and you are promoting patriarchy. Such is the woke logic.
It’s the same logic that s sees female porn stars as epitomes of women’s liberation and sees “sindoor” and bindi” as instruments of female subjugation. It’s the same woke logic that doesn’t see anything problematic with women from low-income backgrounds being trafficked and forced to become sex workers but glorifies the “choice” of educated urban women in choosing to become call girls to earn some extra cash. It’s the same logic that doesn’t see any issue with paedophilia and child sexual abuse becoming rampant through the internet but claims Hindu women fasting for the long life of their husbands once a year is the deathbed of feminism.
Now let’s look at the woke lobby’s allegations against Karwa Chauth and refute them one by one.
First allegation: Karwa Chauth is patriarchal and regressive because it’s only women who are made to fast for the long life of their husbands and it’s not the other way around. So the festival promotes patriarchy, misogyny, and subjugation of women.
This argument is the main bone of contention when it comes to the anti-Karwa Chauth stance of the woke lobby.
Now to refute this argument, I would simply say that in Hindu Dharma, the practice of Vrat is not exclusive to women. Both men and women observe fasting on multiple occasions. In most Hindu festivals where fasting is required, both men and women can keep those fasts. The Navratri Vrats for example, are done by both genders. Hindu Dharma doesn’t impose fasting only on women. Karwa Chauth is one of the few occasions where traditionally, only women are expected to observe fast. If all Hindu festivals made it compulsory that only women fast and men enjoy their meals, then this argument would have held ground. But nitpicking one festival to declare Hindu Dharma as misogynistic and patriarchal doesn’t cut it.
Moreover, as I mentioned at the beginning of the article, Hindu customs and traditions are fluid. They evolve with time. Nowadays, many men observe the Karwa Chauth fast along with their wives. So again, the Karwa Chauth being misogynistic and patriarchal argument falls flat on its ground.
Also, Hindu Dharma doesn’t follow a Taliban-like approach. Nothing is imposed on anyone. There is no fatwa out there to observe Karwa Chauth. So the woke lobby’s incessant ranting about the custom being misogynistic and regressive doesn’t make sense.
The second argument given by the woke lobby is that a festival like Karwa Chauth forces women to stay hungry and thirsty for a whole day, thus violating their rights and compromising their health. This argument is quite hilarious, to be honest. Fasting is not exclusive to Karwa Chauth or Hindu Dharma. The woke aunties and uncles have nothing to say about the ritual of keeping Rozas in Islam or various fasting rituals in Christianity. Intermittent fasting is catching on as the new trend to lose weight and stay fit. Wokes wouldn’t have a problem with such trends either but single out a Hindu fasting ritual and exaggerate it to say women are being forced to starve.
If some women are indeed being forced to observe Karwa Chauth fasting by their in-laws against their wishes, that’s of course wrong. We don’t support it in any way. But coercion and forceful conformity are universal problems that have nothing to do with Hindu Dharma specifically. If some women are forced to observe Karwa Chauth fasting, that doesn’t make Karwa Chauth bad, per se. There are plenty of other women who are not forced into it and do it willingly and happily. What right do the woke uncles and aunties have to lecture them then? Don’t these women have any freedom of choice? Or is it that freedom of choice reaches a full stop when it comes to Hindu Dharma?
Yet another argument leveled against Karwa Chauth is that it’s too outdated a custom for the 21st century. Many write-ups ranting against the festival talk about the story behind Karwa Chauth and call it ridiculous in modern times. I don’t want to get into the details of the Karwa Chauth vrat katha here. That’s another subject altogether. But in a nutshell, it’s the story of a woman determined to save the life of her husband. How is wanting to save the life of someone you love deeply regressive and outdated? It’s a symbol of valor, courage, and determination if anything. But for the woke lobby, all sorts of “casual fun” between men and women should be celebrated but when it comes to a beautiful ritual celebrating the divine love of a husband and a wife, that needs to be condemned as regressive.
If the katha of Karwa Chauth seems too fantastical by 21st-century standards, then by that logic we should be banning all customs, traditions, and rituals that ever existed in this world. Hindu Dharma is complex with myriad stories and kathas signifying a symbolic universe that becomes a microcosm of essential human values and ethics. If one starts taking all the kathas literally and starts examining them from a narrow, western interpretive lens, that’s obviously going to be a shallow and biased reading.
If one were to critique customs related to Christianity or Islam, they wouldn’t feel competent enough to do that unless they have thoroughly read the Bible and the Quran and understood the context. Why is that then when comes to Hindu Dharma, every second person feels they are competent enough to critique our festivals based on Wikipedia summaries of the stories behind those festivals? What gives them the right to vehemently attack the Aastha (faith) and lived experiences of peace-loving Hindus based on some bigoted and unfounded assumptions of their own?
It’s important for Bharatiyas to raise their voice and critique this demonization of Karwa Chauth because as I said, it’s no longer limited to criticism. Its next goal is to shame and cancel educated Hindu women who celebrate Karwa Chauth, by telling them that you are not a feminist if you dare celebrate Karwa Chauth. Feminism is about fighting for the rights of women; their right to franchise, political participation, their right to become economically independent and free from abuse and exploitation. Feminism is not about some elitist rant against harmless Hindu festivals like Karwa Chauth. It’s not about spreading venom against Hindu Dharma.
One must raise their voice against the appropriation of Karwa Chauth by the woke gang because next, they would want to file a petition in the Supreme Court demanding Karwa Chauth be banned because it’s apparently patriarchal and regressive. Going by the anti-Hindu climate permeating Bharat, this doesn’t seem too far-fetched either.
The time to stay quiet has passed away. As Hindus, we need to be vocal about the beauty and magnanimity of our festivals and tradition and defend them confidently and wholeheartedly against the toxic appropriation of the woke lobby.
