Feminism started as an ideology from a movement that demanded the right to vote for western women. The suffragettes, as the women demanding right to vote were called, got the first successes in 1920s. The second wave started somewhere in late 1960s and it aimed for a social equality with men, freedom to take financial decisions and reproductive freedom. The third wave of the 1990s demanded an end to the workplace sexual harassment and demanded more women in positions of power. A fourth wave is allegedly going on and is beset with the gender politics of today.
Feminism made inroads into Bharatiya society as the influence of the west started to take over. Initially, it was well-received and was also perhaps required. Women were politically, socially and financially unequal to men in 19th century Bharat. Much of this was a legacy of the Abrahamic invaders.
However, feminism in Bharat today has almost nothing to do with the upliftment or welfare of women. In the hands of leftist entities, feminism has now been relegated into yet another mode of damning and defaming Hindu Dharma and discouraging women from practising the same.
Websites like “She the people”, “Feminism in India”, or Yahoo’s “Makers India” have surfaced as champions of churning out Hinduphobic content in the garb of feminism. “Feminism in India” goes a notch up by promoting Islam simultaneously.
“She the people”, put out an article about Mandira Bedi performing the last rites of her husband as “Breaking Away From Patriarchal Customs.” We are unsure what patriarchal customs are they referring to which Mandira Bedi broke away from. As a woman that had participated in the last rites of her maternal grandfather some 8 years ago, I can vouch that Hindu women have been participating in the last journey of their dear ones for a very long time. Sushma Swaraj’s daughter had performed her last rights in 2019. Though websites with journalists of half-baked knowledge make a quick extra buck by denigrating Hindu Dharma every time, it appears they do not know that in the Hindu Dharma, a deceased father or mother receives the water from the daughter’s offering on the 4th day of demise while the son performs the shradh ceremony on either the 13th day or 11th day.
On the death of Yusuf Khan, aka Dilip Kumar, there was not a single woman present at the Kabrastan, not even his wife of 55 years. But the feminist sites did not question this patriarchal banning of women continuing from the pre-medieval ages.
“Feminism In India” hails the hijab as freedom of choice and a Face Of Resistance, and in a show of utmost double-standards, uncivilized maligns the Ghunghat, boasted by Hindu women in some rural parts of India as a symbol of Patriarchal Control Over A Woman’s Body & Sexuality. They don’t even pretend to hide their blaring hypocrisy.
There is no part of the cultural uniqueness of the Hindu tradition that the modern third-wave feminists have not attacked. Sindoor, Mangalsutra, even the six yards of absolute timeless beauty that is the saree, none have been spared. The threatening impact they have on our young generations is beyond logic. While Muslim girls and women and being encouraged to take pride in every bit of their culture, Hindu women are given a guilt trip. They are being brainwashed into thinking that they have been born in a culture that doesn’t conform to the ways of the 21st century, that their rituals, traditions, even the grandest of festivals of rooted in patriarchy.
Young Hindu women are being indoctrinated to hate the Hindu family system and are convinced that their father or brothers are their greatest adversaries standing in the way of their ambitions. They conceal that in Hindu Dharma alone, women have been given the highest status and 36 Rishikas (female Rishi, sage-women) have made a significant contribution to the Hindu religious scriptures, the Vedas. On the other hand, you see no Muslim woman step into a mosque and pray in the same row as the Muslim men. Talk about gender discrimination anyone?
What’s more? With repeated pro-Islamic articles, feminists churning out propagandist content have programmed Hindu women into thinking that the Muslims are being marginalised in India and the Indian government is hounding Muslims for no rhyme or reason. They are conditioned to feel guilty for being a Hindu and apologetic to the Muslims. This has brought our generation to such a dangerous cliff that Hindu feminists are ready to be molested by Muslim men but not lodge a complaint against them because the government is already targeting them.
Whatever happened to being empowered and voicing out? What about the #MeToo movement? What kind of a feminist will endure molestation quietly? The kinds that are brainwashed by neo-Feminism working hand-in-glove with Islamists to promote and shield Islam in the country, or should we say the whole world?
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