Welcoming the Goddess!
Since childhood, this has been one of my favourite festivals, not because it provided a good number of holidays, but it made me as a female, feel important, respected, honoured, as elders used to say that all girls are “Shakti”; however the older I grew, the more I started disliking the festival, not because my faith in goddess Durga has undergone a change, it is still intact, but the depiction of a girl as “Durga, Shakti and Kāli feels like a façade.
When I see little girls being worshipped on Aśtami by the devotees, my heart palpitates for their safety. When I hear Shakti associated with women, I feel betrayed, for life of a women is more like a puppet doll whose strings are controlled by the patriarchal society. From cradle to grave, women is “taught, instructed, ordered”, she hardly “speaks, walks, expresses”, she rarely has her voice in family matters (other than curtain colours, crockery, culinary et al).
Manusmriti gave several dos and don’ts for women. We have commentaries and law books which govern property rights of women even to this day. Mitakshara explained that since women are like shudra, who had no right of upanayana ritual, they were debarred from educational life. Worshipping Shakti evolved from Vedic period to later times till the early 20th century. The lesser was the position of women, the more female deities rose to importance. Puranic literature on goddess were written. Shakti Pithas in early India dotted the nook and corner of the country. This depiction of Goddess set an example for Indian women to “follow” the deity and sacrifice her life family, for she was portrayed now as Devi who had, karuna, and who would commit no mistake.
Keeping aside the historical analysis, today a girl is revered as “Shakti” and “Durga”, and she is thought to remain silent and not become Kāli. She is met with injustice every time and yet expected to remain silent with a smile.
A young girl, who is a volleyball player in school, is denied further career in sports because it is against her “maryada”. The same category of people who deny rights to these girls, fill their social media with acclamations for Olympians winning bronze, silver and gold for India. The news channels are flooded with debates on concerns of “fewer participation of women in sports”.
A working lady is expected to leave her job which she got after years of perseverance, only because her husband-to-be “earns enough”.
A representative at local gram panchayat is substituted by her husband. The incidence of “Pradhan Pati” is on rise; and we wonder why do we have only seventeen women as female chief ministers in India in 77 years of independence.
Father of every girl has to be worried for arranging dowry since her birth (because he contributed an XY chromosome); this dowry is same for every “class” of fathers, never sufficient enough to satisfy the greed of the groom's family, due to which he tends to spend less on her education and career; ironically we spend hundreds of crores on beautification of pandals( Last year the figures were Rs.40,000 crore). Women is being abused by her husband and in-laws, but, since she is portrayal of “Shakti”, she bears every slap on her face with a lipstick-coated smile.
Double jeopardy of working women has gained another problem in the society. Women are expected to handle both household chores and look after children and elderly as well as make presentations, because she has “ten hands”, alas men don’t have even four hands!
Goddess Kāli is beautiful, but sadly, standard parameter of a bride matrimonial is still “fair”. We Indians, who fought British against their racist policies who considered us “dark”, lose our own conscience when we objectify women’s beauty.
Goddess Gauri took the form of Kāli to kill the demons. Conversely, we as “Shakti”, have lost our weapons to defend our own body from predators at our “home, at school, at workplace” leave the idea of defending the world from demons!
With the festive season on, e-commerce platforms have already started their discount deals. I wish they sell the power that goddess Durga has for we “Shaktis” out here lack the power, courage and even audacity to defy the demons in the form of “misogyny, patriarchy, norms, shastras” but , the demons within us,“compliance with abuse” and “compromise with prejudice”, need to be killed firstly. This Durga Puja, let us take a vow to make ourselves as powerful as Durga is, and become Her real counterpart rather a mere symbol!
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