Bharat Varsh has a culture, the age of which cannot be fathomed or agreed upon. But one thing is clear – this land is one which has spawned the best of ideas, music, science, fine arts, mathematics, philosophy, sculpture and more, all of which are still alive. The philosophy of leading a frugal existence willingly even with blessed with copious amounts of wealth is something that people from other countries fail to comprehend, but we have done it for years. Joint family systems and bonding with family which protected the weaker family members to lead a life of dignity in society, is one main reason why we have fewer mentally ill patients or even substance abuse, as compared to the more developed countries. The flexibility and openness that our majority religion Hinduism has, is the reason why despite so many onslaughts of invasion and conversion, Hinduism did not die. But today, this very openness and flexibility is being abused some very spurious thoughts of openness and liberalism.
A couple of years ago, a video did the rounds of colleges and many youngsters were encouraged to see it. It was a video called, “Main Sunny Leone banna chahti hoon”. It was made by Ram Gopal Verma and it explored the freedom to choose one’s profession as against one which parents wanted their children to follow. As the title suggests, the daughter wanted to become a porn star and she was shown arguing with her parents who were expectedly aghast at her career choice. The ‘wise’ daughter went on to teach her parents the lessons of freedom from thinking about what the others would say.
We’ve been subject to a slew of films, serials, advertisements and even news channels teaching people about how regressive we are as a society. Is it necessary that to be a progressive society, girls should have boyfriends before marriage, wear revealing clothes, have live-in relationships, put her career before her family and all such things? If the opposite of all this is being a regressive society, I want to know how doing all this is a boost for any girl’s self-esteem? All that is being done is that you are moulding girls to believe that a particular life-style is progressive or regressive. Where is the actual freedom to think and decide? It is the same thought process of making girls think that all girls like baby pink and all boys should choose blue. You are boxing their mind to think what is being marketed as right or wrong – not what is actually right or wrong.
Look at the recent Parle 20-20 advertisements. There have been 4 advertisements of the brand that have been playing on entertainment channels. In one advertisement, an arranged marriage set up is shown and the girl tells the boy who has come to see her that she has had 3 – 4 boyfriends. The boy says that he has no problem with this so long as she doesn’t have any in the future. The girl is happy with this and offers him the biscuits. Another advertisement shows the girl wanting to go out in revealing, short clothes. One parent fumes while the other says that clothes worn can be short, but one should be broad-minded (‘soch choti nahi honi chahiye’). Another advertisement shows a young Muslim boy being offered a house on rent by a Hindu family and the last one talks about live-in relationships. All very innocuous, innocent looking advertisements which talk of a progressive society which wants to ‘equate’ girls with boys. But I want to know as why in any healthy society should even boys be encouraged to have three or four girlfriends, have live-in relationships, go out with indecent clothes in the name of fashion and so on?
The moment one falls into this trap of ‘physical’ freedom, one is then bound by what is being marketed as the correct thought process. This is exactly what makes children want to be ‘cool’ and get into addiction, be of a particular shape and size and get into food related ailments like binge eating, dieting, consumption of steroids, bulimia and anorexia, waste money on fashion fads and so on. As it is careers are taking precedence over family and family time is being cut short. Children in the absence of grandparents and the joint family system are becoming rudderless. We no longer have parents or grandparents reading us stories from our scriptures or taking out time to listen to our nonsense, in our homes. Everyone is working as per the clock. And then we have these various channels and devices peddling us an alternate life-style in a soft manner. We get hooked into believing that they are right.
When school books itself start teaching impressionable children that a joint family is not a happy one, what do you think children will learn?
I feel it is high time we started discussing the wisdom of our ancients in our families. Our ancients taught girls just as much as they taught the boys. Else there would have been no Rishikas who contributed to our Vedas; there would have been no Queens like Kunti and Draupadi who boldly expressed what they felt; there would have been no Queens like Kittoor Rani Chennamma or Jijamata who knew how to protect their Motherland and also influence others. But none of these women felt the need to satisfy the thought processes of others just to show their worth. They found strength and respect in their household duties just as much as they did in public life. The men too gave them respect in both these areas of life. It is time we repel spurious ideas of ‘freedom’, ‘liberal thought’ and ‘progressive society’ with real freedom of thought and progress, not just materially, but with mental and spiritual peace and with strong family ties. This would be true Independence.
When school books itself start teaching impressionable children that a joint family is not a happy one, what do you think children will learn?
I feel it is high time we started discussing the wisdom of our ancients in our families. Our ancients taught girls just as much as they taught the boys. Else there would have been no Rishikas who contributed to our Vedas; there would have been no Queens like Kunti and Draupadi who boldly expressed what they felt; there would have been no Queens like Kittoor Rani Chennamma or Jijamata who knew how to protect their Motherland and also influence others. But none of these women felt the need to satisfy the thought processes of others just to show their worth. They found strength and respect in their household duties just as much as they did in public life. The men too gave them respect in both these areas of life. It is time we repel spurious ideas of ‘freedom’, ‘liberal thought’ and ‘progressive society’ with real freedom of thought and progress, not just materially, but with mental and spiritual peace and with strong family ties. This would be true Independence.
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