By Abhismita Sen
With the arrival of the grand festive season, India, though plural in its composition and desperate to drown out the voices of secession all over, witnesses a surge of peerless energy and enthusiasm. The excitement to extrude the most out of the festive fiesta is an unwavering sentiment from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.
Indeed, the media is a crucial catalyst in fueling this paramount exhilaration among the masses. In the era of the market economy and globalization, festivals have become more of economic and corporate exchange phenomenon than merely religious or cultural occasions as every brand comes up with its unique advertisement scheme and sales strategy.
The positive aspect of advertising is that virtually no festival in the India of 2013 is confined to any specific region or religion. Half a century ago Durga Pujas were held only at a few places in Kolkata and its vicinity, mostly in the ancestral homes of the affluent in the city and in the palatial mansions of the zamindars. Now, with stark commercialization, the festival so close to a Bengali?s heart is celebrated almost everywhere in the country and abroad. Similarly, the recent advertisements of a popular mobile network providing company depicting the pious and auspicious Eid have led to a steady growth in Non-Muslim participation in the Festival of Purity and sacrifices. Every Indian family enjoys handsome helpings of western confectionaries during the Christmas as cake shops come up with innovative decors, flavors and promising advertisement campaigns.
Karva chauth, which was primarily a northern Indian festival, is no longer an alien occasion to eastern, western and often even north-eastern and south India, courtesy the its glamorous depiction in Bollywood. Interestingly, recent reports from various news channels have also shown women from Pakistan and West Asia indulging in fasts as femme icons like Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor Khan are depicted fasting and waiting for their beaus on the terraces of their palatial abodes in all their finery by the media.
In a country like India, which has made significant achievements yet been deeply rooted in its cultures and traditions, fasts are not uncommon, rather are often considered to be the solutions to many problems by almost all prominent religions. But what makes Karva chauth appealing to even the modern, educated and working Indian women, in addition to media propagation and marketing strategy-is the notion of marital bliss and romance which is attached to it. As rituals have become opportunities for gift-giving while the prices of both gold and dollar rise,? the well earning middle and upper middle classes empty their newly thick wallets at jewel and fashion shops which open to packed crowds, lured by the seasonal discounts.
In addition to Bollywood, there is another aspect of India which has attracted considerable attention all over the world of late and it is none other than the crimes and atrocities against women. Many women?s studies departments and inter-governmental organizations across the globe have persistently focused on the relationship between Sexual crimes and social attitudes.
The filial and religious customs of any nation are two other extremely significant contexts for the making of social cultures. The typical Indian family has been very often regarded as a facilitator of the most pernicious aspects of masculinity. Indian clans contain elaborate formal and informal means of reinforcing and celebrating male privilege over female. Sons are brought up to both perpetuate and condone gender hierarchies and are nurtured with a sense of entitlement.
A festival like Karva Chauth where women are the sole bearers of a tradition where they happily overcome basic bodily necessities like hunger for the sake of matrimonial bliss and longevity of their partners can easily be viewed as an entrenchment of the established social notion of patriarchy in the nation. A situation wherein women are taught to willingly accept all the troubles and often wrongs launched at them in the name of social and religious decorum.
In a patriarchal society, the men are, in fact, equal victims, caught up in the image of being the supreme providers of their family and clan, putting undue pressure on their capabilities, which are determined by the society and not their personal choices. Hence, the result is the cultural repression of both the genders coercing them to live up to the expectations of the society.
Ever since the liberalization of the economy, the growing commercialization and accelerating consumerism has created a sharper class stratification among the ?have’s? and the ?have-not’s?. As the Karva Chauth fever soars high all over the country, relatively better off women, though educated yet greatly inspired by their icons to adhere to the so called ?cultural norms? can afford the products endorsed by their idols. Pitiable becomes the state of the ?not so well off?, who are pulling the ritual off with equal devotion and sincerity.? A similar pressure also prevails on the men from the middle and lower middle class stratum, as commercialization has shaped and altered the rituals of gift giving customs.
Nevertheless, these rituals have been a part of the cultural heritage of our nation for thousands of years and preserve our traditions in the wake of the frantic obsession of westernization.? All that can be said is that such festivals can be beautified once their true essence is reclaimed by doing away with the caricatures that have been incorporated in the name of ?social norms? by the media and society.
Rather than depicting an Indian women as a? ?Dasi? (slave) at the feet of her ?Pati Parmeshwar? (Husband as the divine entity in the family), when will the Indian media portray the women as the hero, the epitome of utter courage and sacrifice, who is ready to risk her own life to secure that of her husband?
And instead of portraying the conventional Indian husband as the mighty provider who would bestow the most expensive gifts on his wife, cannot the new Indian husband be visualized as neither a superior nor a subordinate but a friend and a confidant who in addition to bestowing expensive gifts on his wife, gifts her his unconditional support in both domestic and professional spheres and shares her responsibility? Why do all the advertisements of household products depict women exclusively doing all the domestic chores while men flaunt away their white shirts or shinning plates happily, especially when thousands of modern Indian men enjoy role reversals? Is it because the bulk of Indian society still considers domestic chores to be menial for men?
So, let us pledge to hence ensure that the new Indian woman sifts fears, insecurities and constrains through her sieve and emerges confident and victorious this Karva Chauth, while the new Indian man carves a niche for himself and not society. Happy Karva Chauth!
A?postgraduate student of the Jadavpur University-Department of International Relations, Kolkata, West Bengal. Has interned with the Alexis Centre for Public Policy and International Relations on the project- media and (mis) representation of minority groups. Speaks German and French in addition to English, Hindi and Bengali. Won the Winter Spring Writing Competition organized by the Centre for International Relations, International Affairs Forum for authoring the essay ?China ? Getting Ahead or Losing Ground?? which was published in the summer 2012 issue of the same.
