While walking in the internet I stumbled upon a article in 'Bangalore Mirror' by K. R. Sreenivas titled 'INDIAN WOMEN WERE TOPLESS BEFORE THE BRITISH CAME', this was his view w.r.t to the recent attack on women in Mangalore Pub(After this incident there are only two kind of people in India, one who condemn and one who support. I blamed myself why i voted for BJP). We were really liberal w.r.t sex, nudity in olden days. If you visit any of our temples you can see our goddesses in skimpy clad clothes, most of them indeed topless. And if you visit Khajuraho temple(i have never been there though, have seen on tv) its as if visiting some porn site. So how come we Indians became so irresistant to all these.
Recently I watched a documentary about Indian temples(esp South Indian) made by BBC 2. It was mentioned that the British couldnt digest the fact that these temples showed nudity and Indians worshipped nude gods and godesses. It will shock anybody to see phallus being worshiped as a main god.(most south Indian temples worship Shiva as main god.For us worshipping Shiva is a sacred thing and not disgusting). So the britishers didnt give much importance to these temples and they made sure a visit to India by foriegners was mainly to the North Indian part(esp Taj Mahal, because no nudity there). Many foreigners recognise India by a photo of Taj Mahal. British might have liked the Taj Mahal than our temples depecting nudity. Even today only 2 out of 10 foreigners visit the South Indian temples. In my opinion even the moghul rule might have made us to be more conservative w.r.t women. Ours was a land where women and men had equal rights, and even Kama is one of the 4 main aims of Human life in Hinduism. I wonder is there any women Mogul warrior like our Kittur Rani Chennamma in the history of Moguls. Hinduism surely knows how to treat women equally.
A little cocktail of Mogul and British rule has changed our culture. And these so called, no where officially registered, groups like Bhajrang Dal and Shri Ram Sene(monkeys indeed) are just acting against our own old culture and trying to bring in Mogul/British rule once again.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
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