Feminism…. Some Ideas and Thoughts

My humble pranaam and salutations to Master…I am deeply grateful and obliged that You blessed me which is more than anything to me. Today I will be sharing some views about feminism and how it came a long way..Though the concept is world wide known , I am not going to take the journey out of India.Since I belong to this country i will be sharing my views which is related to India and Indian women.What we know about feminism and feminist concept? Well, in  simple words we can take it in this way..feminism is something which is related to women and why feminism because  women realized someday that they need to be equal in every sphere, more simply they started searching for equal rights in a male dominated society. So from female took birth feminine and further feminist and feminism..It became a global concept. 

                                                                                                           When i started reading some books i realized that in ancient times  women were very superior .In Vedic period   there was no such domination.Women were fighters,teachers and excelled in many fields. We all know about the scholars like Gargi, Maitrayi ,Ghosa  and many more. Even courtesans were also given respect.  . Women students were divided in to two classes such as  Brahmavadinis  and  Sadyodvahas. Brahmavadinis continued to excel in studies.  They used to read philosophy,, veda and theology throughout their life. Generally they preferred to stay unmarried for spiritual and growth of knowledge. Many of them used to study  Purvamimansha  which discussed diverse problems related to vedic sacrifices. This science is very difficult and dry ,perhaps more abstruse than mathematics.( The position of women in Hindu civilization from pre- historic time to the present day by A.S Altekar). Similarly Vijayanka like Kalidas was a famous poetess believed to be an incarnation of goddess Saraswati.

                                                                                                               Slowly things changed. Education was restricted to boys. There arouse the concept of early marriages ,  sati  pratha and many more things in the flow. All these thing in a long run started to create a rebellion among women to fight for equality mostly we can say gender equality. There were waves of feminism. Such as first wave , second wave and then finally third wave and fourth wave in world level. Let us not go in depth.Because as i said  feminism is  a topic which has many shades and we really can not touch all the criteria in this post.

                                                                                                                  Today i  want to shade light on this generation .My question is that is feminism and feministic  thought really necessary now or not. recently I read in an article which caught my interest.Someone said we do not need feminist concept now because girls are equal to boys now. They are given  education, the salary is equal and more over  they can fight for their rights. They are free to do things  .So there emerged people who have anti feminist thought. In India where we have a diversity of culture, tradition,rituals  and our goddesses who portray the many shades of sita , Draupadi, Savitri, Durga, Kali ( I am not taking more ferocious forms and names of  Devi such as chinnamasta ,bagalamukhi n others) I feel we are some how confused between feminist thought and approach. Till now we love the image and idea of Sita  and Savitri but not Draupadi. We teach our daughters to become a laxmi and not a kali. Often when a girl is born we say ghar mai laxmi aayi hai .We do not say ghar mai kali aayi hai. Why ? Because we do not like the kali form in general. I am not talking from spiritual point of view. I am not discussing about sidhhas and yogis who have immense love  and bhav  and who do puja and sadhna to see the form of Mother Kali or Bagala or Matangi. These are all perceptions  and subjective. In simple term i want to say that people love the laxmi form.They want their daughter   sister and wife to be like laxmi and not kali because kali destroys.Kali drinks blood according to mythology. So till now the male always want the female to be submissive and vulnerable. So that he can control her.So that family will be balanced.Society will be balanced. A woman has to work indoor.She has to cook for the children.She can not escape.Her biology is made like this. She needs protection from other men so that she will be under the control of one man. If at the fortnight she will be raped by her husband then it can not be called rape . So then there emerged another percentage of women who called them feminists and they denied every aspect of limitation. For  example they started to wear short dress and dresses which can naturally arouse the sexual emotion and desire. But they argued if a woman wears saree or salwar then also she gets raped. So all the things are remained in the mind and eyes of men and not in the costume.We can show our cleavage and walk smartly in the road.Men are pervert that is why they look only to those parts. But it rarely happens that a man will walk in the street with showing his underwear or private part and argue the same thing. 

                                                                                                                       So then is feminism and feminist thought is wrong? Absolutely not.It is a movement. A movement for equal respect. in general terms there wont be any survival without men and without women.both are needed to run the cycle.Both have got their different biology according to which they work, they think,they react ,they perform .Both are beautiful and both have their ugliness.Both have to respect each other and both have to be free from a fixed mindset.Till then the voice of feminists will be echoed.And thanks to the feminist leaders like Suffragettes, Simone de Beauvoir,Eleanor Roosevelt,Amrita Pritam, Kamini roy and many more. The list is endless.

                                                                                                                           I  hope i have not hurted . any one’s emotion. Please feel free to discuss  about feminism and what are your ideas and thought in this topic. I will be really grateful. I think the post is a long one and there is no excitation in reading it. Thank you for bearing .Much Love. 

                                                  The pictures and images are taken from google. They are Respected Amrita Pritam, Elenor Roosevelt ,Radhika Radhakrishnan , the leaders of feminist movement… whose impact was very high in the movement. Of course there are others..Thank you all