The Menstrual Taboo and Modern Indian Identity
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Convened by the Peace Council and the Center for Health and Social
CHSP_Report_cover.qxd Printer: Please adjust spine width if necessary. Additional copies of this report may be obtained from: ............................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................. International Committee for the Peace Council The Center for Health and Social Policy 2702 International Lane, Suite 108 847 25th Avenue Convened by The Peace Council and The Center for Health and Social Policy Madison, WI 53704 San Francisco, CA 94121 United States United States Chiang Mai, Thailand 1-608-241-2200 Phone 1-415-386-3260 Phone February 29–March 3, 2004 1-608-241-2209 Fax 1-415-386-1535 Fax [email protected] [email protected] www.peacecouncil.org www.chsp.org ............................................................................................................. Copyright © 2004 by The Center for Health and Social Policy and The Peace Council ............................................................................................................. Convened by The Peace Council and The Center for Health and Social Policy Chiang Mai, Thailand February 29–March 3, 2004 Contents Introduction 5 Stephen L. Isaacs and Daniel Gómez-Ibáñez The Chiang Mai Declaration: 9 Religion and Women: An Agenda for Change List of Participants 13 Background Documents World Religions on Women: Their Roles in the Family, 19 Society, and Religion Christine E. Gudorf Women and Religion in the Context of Globalization 49 Vandana Shiva World Religions and the 1994 United Nations 73 International Conference on Population and Development A Report on an International and Interfaith Consultation, Genval, Belgium, May 4-7, 1994 3 Introduction Stephen L. Isaacs and Daniel Gómez-Ibáñez Forty-eight religious and women’s leaders participated in a “conversation” in Chi- ang Mai, Thailand between February 29 and March 3, 2004 to discuss how, in an era of globalization, religions could play a more active role in advancing women’s lives. -
Recasting Caste: Histories of Dalit Transnationalism and the Internationalization of Caste Discrimination
Recasting Caste: Histories of Dalit Transnationalism and the Internationalization of Caste Discrimination by Purvi Mehta A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Anthropology and History) in the University of Michigan 2013 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Farina Mir, Chair Professor Pamela Ballinger Emeritus Professor David W. Cohen Associate Professor Matthew Hull Professor Mrinalini Sinha Dedication For my sister, Prapti Mehta ii Acknowledgements I thank the dalit activists that generously shared their work with me. These activists – including those at the National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights, Navsarjan Trust, and the National Federation of Dalit Women – gave time and energy to support me and my research in India. Thank you. The research for this dissertation was conducting with funding from Rackham Graduate School, the Eisenberg Center for Historical Studies, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the Center for Comparative and International Studies, and the Nonprofit and Public Management Center. I thank these institutions for their support. I thank my dissertation committee at the University of Michigan for their years of guidance. My adviser, Farina Mir, supported every step of the process leading up to and including this dissertation. I thank her for her years of dedication and mentorship. Pamela Ballinger, David Cohen, Fernando Coronil, Matthew Hull, and Mrinalini Sinha posed challenging questions, offered analytical and conceptual clarity, and encouraged me to find my voice. I thank them for their intellectual generosity and commitment to me and my project. Diana Denney, Kathleen King, and Lorna Altstetter helped me navigate through graduate training. -
Islam and Hinduism in the Eyes of Early European Travellers to India
Faraz Anjum * ISLAM AND HINDUISM IN THE EYES OF EARLY EUROPEAN TRAVELLERS TO INDIA Religion was an important identity marker in the early modern world. Whether in the East or the West, people distinguished themselves, among other things, with their adherence to a particular religion. In Europe, after Reformation in the early sixteenth century, the religious identities had got more sharpened and the Christian world was divided between the Catholics and the Protestants. Reformation strongly influenced the religious identities of European travellers and when they came into contact with the Indian religious beliefs and practices, they were “confronted with their own struggle for orientation. and the pattern for describing foreign religions was [thus] the pattern of differences between Catholicism and Protestantism.”1 While in India, Hinduism and Islam were the two dominant religions, though there were other minor religious denominations, like Budhists, Sikhs, and Parsees etc. The article is mainly concerned with the European representations of Islam and Hinduism in India. Focussing on the sixteenth and seventeenth century travel accounts of Europeans to India, it argues that these perceptions were strongly shaped by their belonging to Christian faith and their experiences of Europe. Most of European travellers considered Christianity as the only true religion and passed judgements on the Hindus and Muslims from a pure Christian perspective. They did not speak about them “without consigning them to eternal perdition.”2 This perception naturally resulted in their biased understanding of Indian religions. It is also a fact that some travellers were devoted missionaries and one of the principal motives of their travel to India was to convert the local population to Christianity. -
Religion and Geography
Park, C. (2004) Religion and geography. Chapter 17 in Hinnells, J. (ed) Routledge Companion to the Study of Religion. London: Routledge RELIGION AND GEOGRAPHY Chris Park Lancaster University INTRODUCTION At first sight religion and geography have little in common with one another. Most people interested in the study of religion have little interest in the study of geography, and vice versa. So why include this chapter? The main reason is that some of the many interesting questions about how religion develops, spreads and impacts on people's lives are rooted in geographical factors (what happens where), and they can be studied from a geographical perspective. That few geographers have seized this challenge is puzzling, but it should not detract us from exploring some of the important themes. The central focus of this chapter is on space, place and location - where things happen, and why they happen there. The choice of what material to include and what to leave out, given the space available, is not an easy one. It has been guided mainly by the decision to illustrate the types of studies geographers have engaged in, particularly those which look at spatial patterns and distributions of religion, and at how these change through time. The real value of most geographical studies of religion in is describing spatial patterns, partly because these are often interesting in their own right but also because patterns often suggest processes and causes. Definitions It is important, at the outset, to try and define the two main terms we are using - geography and religion. What do we mean by 'geography'? Many different definitions have been offered in the past, but it will suit our purpose here to simply define geography as "the study of space and place, and of movements between places". -
Journal of Religion & Film
Journal of Religion & Film Volume 22 Article 4 Issue 2 October 2018 10-1-2018 Gender, Religion and Partition: The hiS fting Sītā in Chandra Prakash Dwivedi's Pinjar Shamika Shabnam McMaster University, [email protected] Recommended Citation Shabnam, Shamika (2018) "Gender, Religion and Partition: The hiS fting Sītā in Chandra Prakash Dwivedi's Pinjar," Journal of Religion & Film: Vol. 22 : Iss. 2 , Article 4. Available at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/jrf/vol22/iss2/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UNO. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Religion & Film by an authorized editor of DigitalCommons@UNO. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Gender, Religion and Partition: The hiS fting Sītā in Chandra Prakash Dwivedi's Pinjar Abstract My paper aims to negotiate the political illustration of the pure Hindu woman as propagated during the India- Pakistan Partition of 1947. The split of British India was followed by communal violence and the mass abduction of women from both sides of the Indo-Pakistan border. Amid the wave of sectarian belligerence, the abducted Hindu woman was popularly classified as Sita from the Rāmāyaṇa, who was held captive by the diabolical enemy or ‘Muslim Ravana.’ I examine how religious narratives during the Partition era endorsed a reductionist dichotomy of India-Pakistan, Hindu-Muslim, and the juxtaposed iconographies of the Hindu Sita and the Muslim Ravana. In tracing the dialogue on Hinduism, gender, and the nation in the 2003 Period Drama film Pinjar, I offer insights into ways in which the film contests religious/religio-national gendered subjects by portraying hybrid spaces, liminal identities, and psychically fluid boundaries. -
Missiological Issues in the Encounter with Emerging Hinduism
Missiological Issues in the Encounter with Emerging Hinduism PAUL G HIEBERT Neo-Hinduism emerged as a revitahzation movement in Indias encounter with the West In recent years it has become increasingly aggressive One branch has stressed Hindu spirituality and has sent missionaries to evangelize the world The other has become political, seeking to establish Hindutva, a Hindu nation, and to persecute Christians as followers of a foreign religion Around the world Indian immigrants have established Hindu communities and spread their faith This resurgence of Hinduism as an active formal religion challenges Christians to rethink their mission to Hindus and the Hindu world oly men declared Sunday, 6 December 1992, auspicious, and more than 300,000 people gathered that day in Ayodhya, a pilgrim town north of HVaranasi in Urtar Pradesh India l Most wore the saffron color of Hindu nation alism At midday, they broke down the police barricades around a mosque, reported ly built on the rums of the temple that marks Rama's birthplace, and hammered it to the ground The construction of a new Rama temple was to begin that evening Violence triggered by the demolition killed 1,700 people across the subcontinent Supporters justified the action as the liberation of Hindu sacred space to unify the nation Cntics decried it as communalism—the antagonistic mobilization of one reli gious community against another—as an attack on Indian civil society This event is symbolic of the emergence of Hindu nationalism in India that defines the nation in terms of ethnicity and religion, and appeals to primordial loyal ties deeper than the political affiliations of Nehru's crumbling secular democratic state It has also led to a growing crisis of governabihty that invites the use of vio lence to achieve political ends Paul G. -
The Place and Role of Women in Hinduism Usha Bambawale • Padam Pallavi Society, Pune 411016
JPJRS 7/1 ISSN 0972-3331, January 2004 36-50 The Place and Role of Women in Hinduism Usha Bambawale • Padam Pallavi Society, Pune 411016 Abstract: Hinduism is a way of life. In the true sense one is bom a Hindu and cannot be made one by conversion or by an ‘institution.’ The way of life is today called a ‘religion.’ The rules and regulations, norms and structure utilized for peaceful happy living patterns have been adopted into rites and rituals. Today the ossification of cus toms into religious explanations has made the way of life into a rigid pattern. Yet Hinduism is one religion that has had several socio religious reform movements and there have been drastic changes in life and worship to accommodate time and tide. This paper traces the path of the Hindu woman from ancient to modern times. It estab lishes the fact that liberative attitudes have transcended religious oppression not limiting educational and social advancement of the Hindu woman. The forward march in the secular fields and the atti tude of liberal values is more evident amongst the Hindu woman than among the women of other monolithic institutionalized religions in India. Today women have received their equal status in Hinduism by being accepted as priests and Gurus. The paper has three distinc tive areas of discussion, 1.Hinduism, 2.The place of women in Hin duism and her role as interpreted in society. 3. The Hindu women in context to the process of liberalization and her ability to change the social attitude with the help of law and education. -
Changing Practices of Meat Consumption Among Hindus in a North Indian Town
Changing Practices of Meat Consumption among Hindus in a North Indian Town Mohit Chaturvedi, July 2019 A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of The Australian National University. © Copyright by Mohit Chaturvedi 2019 All Rights Reserved This thesis is my original work. Word count: 85,951, exclusive of footnotes, tables, figures, maps, bibliographies and appendices. Mohit Chaturvedi ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project has brought me in contact with a number of people whose help in completing it I would like to acknowledge here. At the Australian National University I would like to express my gratitude to Professor Simone Dennis, my supervisor and the chair of the advisory panel, for her guidance in writing this thesis and giving it a coherent structure. I am also grateful to Professor Christine Helliwell for guiding me in the right direction in the earlier part of my research. Professor Assa Doron, my research advisor, took time out of his busy schedule to give detailed and extremely helpful comments on the draft thesis. They are gratefully acknowledged. I thank Dr Keith Barney, also my research advisor, for stimulating conversations, and for detailed feedback on my research presentations and the direction of my work. I also take this opportunity to thank Dr Lan Tran, HDR (PhD) Administrator at the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, for her help in negotiating the university bureaucracy. In Dehradun, I would like to thank the participants of this study. They went out of their way to accommodate the demands placed on them by my research and were generous with their time and hospitality. -
Chapter Three Women Status in the Past Traditional Indian Culture
Chapter Three Women Status in the Past Traditional Indian Culture In this chapter we propose to deal with the concept of women in Indian tradition. Women are part and parcel of our life, as each and every person is related to woman at least once in a life in the form of mother in the childhood, if not more. Hence, women have a prominent role in one's development of personality and nourishment. Woman is man's companion, gifted with equal mental capacities. She has the right to participate in the activities of man of the very minutest detail and she has an equal right to enjoy freedom and liberty. She is entitled to a supreme place in her own sphere of activity as man is in his. This ought to be the natural condition of things and not just as a result of learning to read and write. By sheer force of a vicious custom, even the most ignorant and worthless man has been enjoying superiority over women which they do not deserve and ought not to have. Many of the movements stop halfway and much of the work does not yield appropriate results because of the condition of our women.64 Men and women are equal in status, but are not identical. They are a peerless pair, each being complementary to the other; each helps the other, so that without the one the existence of the other cannot be conceived. Therefore, it follows from these 64 Maria Mies, Indian Women and Patriarchy, Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi, 1980, P.30 61 facts that anything that will impair the status of either of them will involve an equal ruin of both. -
The Role of Women in Hinduism: Becoming Leaders of Patriarchal Traditions
Running head: THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN HINDUISM 1 The role of women in Hinduism: Becoming leaders of patriarchal traditions Monica Munoz Illinois Wesleyan University THE ROLE OF HINDU WOMEN 2 Abstract “Religious space often requires a spatial separation of men and women that comes with the associated power differentials” (David, 2009). This separation of power can be seen in many religions today although there are also religions, such as certain protestant churches, that present a more equal statues between women and men. This paper, however, will only focus on the diverse Hindu religion, specifically on the role and status of Hindu women. Through the study of mostly scholarly journals and some books, and by focusing on Hindu women’s domestic and temple worship, rituals, and their portrayal on Hindu texts, I aim to answer: What is the role of Hindu women in Hinduism? From a female perspective, it is important to explore this question because women used to have a submissive and weak role in the past. However, I have found that as time progresses women are becoming more powerful leaders in Hinduism. THE ROLE OF HINDU WOMEN 3 The role of women in Hinduism: Becoming leaders of patriarchal traditions I. Background: Hinduism and Women Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world with an estimate of 851 million people identifying themselves as Hindus. It is the dominant religion in India, Nepal, and South Asia, and it is very diverse in that it does not have a single founder or holy text, and that there are many different branches of Hinduism. -
History of the Indian Caste System and Its Impact on India Today
HISTORY OF THE INDIAN CASTE SYSTEM AND ITS IMPACT ON INDIA TODAY By Manali S. Deshpande Advised by Dr. Harold Kerbo SOCS 461, 462 Senior Project Social Sciences Department College of Liberal Arts CALIFORNIA POLYTHECHNIC STATE UNIVERSITY, San Luis Obispo Fall, 2010 Table of Contents I. Research Proposal II. Annotated Bibliography III. Outline IV. Final Paper i. Introduction ii. Caste Structure and Characteristics iii. Origins and History iv. Religion, Culture, and Caste v. Movements and Political Policies against Caste vi. Modern India vii. Conclusion V. Bibliography Research Proposal The Indian Caste System is historically one of the main dimensions where people in India are socially differentiated through class, religion, region, tribe, gender, and language. Although this or other forms of differentiation exist in all human societies, it becomes a problem when one or more of these dimensions overlap each other and become the sole basis of systematic ranking and unequal access to valued resources like wealth, income, power and prestige. The Indian Caste System is considered a closed system of stratification, which means that a person’s social status is obligated to which caste they were born into. There are limits on interaction and behavior with people from another social status. This paper will be exploring the various aspects of the Indian caste system and its effects on India today. The caste system is a classification of people into four hierarchically ranked castes called varnas. They are classified according to occupation and determine access to wealth, power, and privilege. The Brahmans, usually priests and scholars, are at the top. Next are the Kshatriyas, or political rulers and soldiers. -
Hv Dec 1.Qxd
October-December 2016 HINDU VISHWA 1 WORLD HINDU COUNCIL OF AMERICA (VHPA) National Headquarter: Tel.: (281)496-5676 P. 0. Box 441505, www.vhp-america.org [email protected] Houston, TX 77244-1505 Volume XXXXVI No. 4 October-December 2016 meJe&Üejs<eg osnsçeqmceved ÒekeÀeMe GHepee³eles~ %eeveb ³eoe leoe efJeÐeeod efJeJe=×b meÊJeefcel³egle~~ Þeerceod YeieJeod ieerlee 14-11 sarva-dvaresu dahesmin prakasa upjayate Jnanam yada tada vidyad vivrddham sattvam ityuta Shri Mad Bhagavad Gita 14-11 When through the perceptual senses of the body illuminating knowledge manifests; know that certainly the mode of goodness predominates To all the readers of Hindu Vishwa, I am privileged to be your Editor in the USA. In the shortest introduction I can provide, my name is Rajranee Jaipershad, aka Ronica. I was born and raised as a Hindu in Guyana, South America; migrated to Canada in 1973, where I studied for a degree in Computer Science at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario; and graduated in 1978. I worked at IBM Canada from 1974 till 1994 and then migrated to Florida where I now reside. I have worked with several IT firms in the USA, owned IT and Media businesses in the past, and served in several local hindu/indian organizations in Canada and Tampa. I am a co-founder of the Indo-Caribbean Golden Age Association in Toronto, an organization designed to provide seniors an opportunity to meet up, learn from each other, and spend quality social time with each other, at least once a month. By interacting with these seniors over two decades ago, and experiencing all their growing pains and problems associated with 'old age', or growing old, I vowed that I would do everything possible to become and always be a healthy senior citizen.