Celebrating the Shakti. Castigating the She.

Across India, beginning last Saturday (October 17) and into next week Monday, is celebrated the holy nine nights of Navratri. In the South, East, and West of India, the nine nights are celebrated for Shakti: the universal power in feminine form who spends nine nights in a fierce penance atop a needle point to garner super powers that typical male gods have in aplenty. On the last day, She overcomes the buffalo demon in a battle involving black magic, lions, and an epic final confrontation where the goddess beheads the demon.

In the Northern India, it is celebrated as Ram Lila, where the Lord Ram fights the 10-headed demon, Ravana in an epic battle involving monkey armies, super-power weapons, and a final chase to find the demon's life source hidden in a bird, to winning over his abducted wife, Sita. Once he brings Sita back to his kingdom, Ram promptly forces her to perform a trial by fire to prove her chastity.

Do you see a common thread? Shakti is all great. But She needs to work for it. In outlandish ways that the male would balk at even thinking about.

This is not uncommon.

India has a very uneasy relationship with the feminine force (for they indeed are a force), even in the mythologies that we feed our children. These nine nights of fasting, praying, and celebrating the Shakti is in total contrast to how society behaves towards the She-force for the rest of the year.

Female foeticide: It starts right at the conception stage. Northern India has the largest incidents of planned female foeticide, despite the Government banning the discovery of the fetus sex at any point during the pregnancy.

Preferential education: In the hinterlands of India, most girls are taken off the education track as soon as they reach puberty, or in many cases, even before that. The boy, on the other hand, is allowed to plan a future involving colleges and employment.

Genital mutilation: In certain religions and communities, the social dictate is to mutilate the female genitals so that passion is in control. Male circumcision is based on hygiene, whereas female genital mutilation (FGM) is a psycho-physical act of subjugation.

Unclean bleeding: across all castes and religions, a woman during her periods is considered to be unclean, and in many homes, kept out of circulation for those three or four days. Menstruation is dirtier than a four-letter word, and men shudder at hearing it.

Fodder of whim: Unbridled male chauvinism, encouraged by films, peer group think, and lack of social control has created an ecosystem of constant harassment, brutal sexual assaults, and oftentimes, planned murder of girls, teenagers, and adult women.

Dowry debt: If the girl child actually manages to survive childhood and grows to a marriageable age, she is treated as a trade asset. The groom's family buys their son's future comfort through his marriage--wedding costs, cash, new vehicles, gold and silver, even house titles are valued against the bride's beauty, education, and long-term asset condition. It is a debt she inherits the day she is born.

Honor by death: While the male has unconditional freedom to choose his partner, the Indian woman in many regions have to marry the familial selection of the groom. The alternate choice is to be killed in a barbaric Honor Killing.

Alienated in alimony: In the ever-growing incidents of divorces, the woman always gets the short end. Till recently, certain religions even forbade women receiving alimony, and despite the government declaring alimony an equal right for the female partner, many divorces leave her in an abject situation.

Ancestry stops with DNA: an Indian woman's inheritance of property or ancestral wealth is totally dependent on the whim of the father. While the son has unconditional rights to ancestral property inheritance, a daughter has to inherit what her father deems fit.

Nine nights of celebrating the Shakti. Nine (and mores ways of castigating the She force.

A good time to reflect, reform, and repair the relationship with the Female force.

In hope

Karthik