RIGHTS-INDIA: Hindu Fanatics Stop Film On Widow Exploitation

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Dev Raj

NEW DELHI, Feb 8 2000 (IPS) - Hindu fundamentalists have stopped the shooting of the Indian film ‘Water’ in the ancient holy city of Varanasi, but its theme, the sexual and other exploitation of widows in the name of religion, refuses to go away.

“What they (fanatics) are afraid of is the shameful sexual exploitation of helpless widows that goes on in this day and age at Varanasi and other Hindu pilgrim centres in (northern) Uttar Pradesh,” said women’s rights campaigner Pramila Pandhe.

Pandhe, vice-president of the Marxist-affiliated, All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) said the ruling, pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee acted predictably by banning the shooting of the film.

“Instead of cracking down on hooligans led by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and its sister organisations they have banned the making of a film which sought to draw public attention to the plight of thousands of widows,” she said.

Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta who leads a BJP government in Uttar Pradesh chose to accuse the film’s producer Deepa Mehta of creating a “law and order” problem in Varanasi — considered among the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities.

On Monday evening, local authorities in Varanasi, acting on directions from the chief minister, invoked emergency provisions in the city and banned shooting of the film for the next 15 days and until further review.

Mehta, along with lead actresses Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das reacted by saying in a statement “We have been defeated despite being right. But we have total faith in our film and in truth. This film will be made if not today then tomorrow.”

Azmi who is also a social activist and member of the Rajya Sabha (upper house of Parliament) told newspersons “Today falsehood has won. Our conscience has gone deaf and dumb. Our country is going to hell.”

For their roles, Azmi and Das have had their heads clean shaven as befits orthodox Hindu widows who are by custom denied dignity and even expected to burn themselves on the funeral pyre of their husbands.

Widows are routinely denied the right to own property or to remarriage in spite of modern laws and social reform movements dating back to the last century.

“What needed to be banned are the Pandas (the high-caste, Brahmin priests who control temples and religious institutions which house widows),” said Pandhe.

Pandhe said the widows were basically refugees from religious and social persecution and it was the government’s duty to ensure their proper rehabilitation in places away from religious centres where they are thrown to the mercy of the powerful priesthood.

Thousands of widows, abandoned by their families for the ‘sin’ of having become widowed, end up in Varanasi and in the pilgrim centres of Allahabad, Haridwar, Mathura and Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh in the hope of shelter and food.

But according to a 1999 study commissioned by the government- appointed National Commission for Women (NCW), a statutory body, widows below the age of 50 can expect to be routinely exploited for the flesh trade that flourishes in these cities.

In Vrindavan and Mathura (on which the study concentrated) the “flesh trade flourishes in many ashrams (religious retreats) under the cover of religious activities,” the study said.

Often the widows are asked to do domestic chores at the houses of rich businessmen where they end up being sexually exploited and sometimes get pregnant, it said.

“The police, politicians, local thugs and even the so-called godmen in the ashrams are in league with each other and exploit helpless women,” the report which was not officially released because of its controversial nature, said.

“Deserted by their families they (the widows) quickly fall prey to the grossest forms of exploitation, ranging from their dues being swindled to their bodies being sold,” the ‘Indian Express’ newspaper said in an editorial Tuesday.

As controversy over the film snowballed last week, the ‘Indian Express’ reported an organised racket which deprived the widows of the meagre government pension of 380 dollars each of them is supposed to receive each year.

“Even after years of reform and constitutional redress the view that a woman’s life is rendered meaningless once her husband dies or deserts her is still the dominant one,” the editorial

lamented.

Explaining the peculiar plight of the widows, Jyotsna Chatterji, director of the Joint Women’s programme (JWP) said “India is one of the few countries where widowhood in spite of being a personal condition exists like a social institution.”

“The JWP supports the filming of Deepa Mehta’s film ‘Water’ as it highlights the marginalisation of widows and their state of emotional and material deprivation,” Chatterji said.

The film, she said, in no way attacked Hinduism or Hindu culture as alleged by the VHP or the World Hindu Forum and other organisations but “depicted the status of women within a patriarchal system that works to subjugate them.”

She has demanded that the central government ensure that the Uttar Pradesh state government allows the shooting of the film without disruption since the script had been cleared by the Information and Broadcasting ministry.

Kumudini Pati, general secretary of the All-India Progressive Women’s Association (AIPWA) said there was far more to the controversy than whether or not the shooting of the film could proceed.

“The BJP is trying its utmost to impose its saffron (pro- Hindu) agenda of cultural nationalism in the country and the BJP- ruled states are being concentrated on for this ideological offensive,” Pati said.

Pati indicated a recent order in western Gujarat state which allowed government employees to become members of the fundamentalist Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS) known for its military-style drills.

Vajpayee and his Home Minister, Lal Krishna Advani, have defended the move of the Gujarat government saying the RSS was a cultural organisation and that there was no ban on it. However, the RSS was banned by previous governments.

“The BJP has been thoroughly exposed through Vajpayee’s support for the fascist designs of the Gujarat government and for the violent tirade against the shooting of a socially relevant film by affiliated organisations,” Pati said