Every independence day, I come across at least one article titled How independent are we? or something on those terms. This year I decided to add a little spice to it. I decided to explore ‘How republic are we?’. At first, I thought of walking you through diverse issues not excluding caste and religious discrimination. But, the recent decision of Bombay High Court, “Groping without skin-to-skin contact is not sexual assault” left me no choice.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines ‘republic’ as ‘a government having a chief of state who is not a monarch.’ Before you start thinking about how can this woman, possibly explain feminism through this, I request you to keep reading. Okay! Read the definition again. Now tell me how many women you know are their own chief of state and men don’t consider themselves monarchs in their lives.
A woman, ideally, has three roles to play, a daughter, a wife, and a mother. Did you notice how all three are dependent on the man in their life, making them ‘monarchs’ to rule over her? So, when Rishi Jamadagni asked his son, Lord Parshuram, to behead his mother, Renuka, alleging her of breaking pativrat, assuming her extraordinary and exceptional pottery skills were a result of being chaste, he put himself in the position of authority. One man orders, the other carries it out, taking away her right even to her own thoughts.
When a father says, I let my daughter study further or when a groom says, I’ll let her work after marriage, they forget they are making decisions for a different individual. How are our women supposed to become their own ‘chief of state’ then? The recent decision of the Bombay High Court, literally, made men in-charge of a woman’s body as if it is not her own. “I can feel you over your clothes without your consent, make you uncomfortable because it is my right, by law now,” is a loose translation of the decision.
Patriarchy is deeply imbibed in our culture, society, and mindset. 72 years after the Indian constitution came into force, providing every citizen of this diverse and accepting nation, equal rights and freedom, why are the women of this land, ironically known as Bharat Mata, still struggling for basic human rights? I’ll ask you now, are our women republic enough?
