The recent fracas over the utterances of some social media “influencers” turned my mind onto how society degenerates when it loses certain core values.
Bharatiya values are to revere the parents. Mata, Pita, Guru, Deivam (Bhagwan) is a saying in Tamil. Your first God is your mother, who gives birth to you. Then your father, who helps to nourish you, then the Guru who enriches your mind, and ultimately, the God of the Universe (however one sees it, as the Brahman and Ultimate Reality, or in any of the myriad forms in which we imagine that Reality).
We revere the feminine as divine. The ONLY civilization existing that still does that. And yet, calumny is heaped upon us, calling us the “Rape capital of the world.” Frankly, given our meagre citizen-police ratios and the HUGE population, it is a wonder that we are still mostly a peaceful society.
This was brought home to me again, during our recent Kumbh visit. My younger child, on the way back, said, “You know. What was amazing was that, given the crowds, I never felt unsafe.”
Let that sink in. She never felt unsafe! Despite the huge number of men there (and women and children of course). There were no lecherous looks that came her way, no attempts to touch her. Things that are so common in so-called, well-heeled crowds in urban cities. None of that.
Women were having their baths, getting soaking wet, and changing in makeshift changing rooms formed by holding up towels by members of their groups, or under hastily held up tarpaulins. Yet, I didn’t see any lechery. No unfriendly eyes on women. People were gathered together, yes. But yet, each person seemed to inhabit their own personal universe and space, searching for something. Perhaps joy, peace of mind, or simply, an understanding of the Eternal Truth.
So how, if we are the “Rape capital of the world” as one well-known news portal pronounced us, did we not see any untoward behaviour? Nearly 450 MILLION people have been there and there have not been ANY cases of eve-teasing or lechery or debauchery or rape.
How can I be so certain, you ask? Because the outside world is constantly looking for it. Looking for that ONE slip, that they can then take to the world as evidence of the baseness of Hindutva and Sanatana. that they haven’t tells me, that it hasn’t.
Coming back to my question, why is it that so many women have been able to travel and get wet and change their clothes without feeling unsafe? It has to do with our culture. The culture of respect. We, the urban folks have lost it. But the rural folks, the ones who make up the majority of the crowds at the Kumbh, haven’t.
This is the culture that doesn’t mind subsuming ego at the feet of anyone blessing them, be they ever so humble. This is why, when a random woman asked me for money, and I gave her, she blessed us. And this is the same culture that prompted my kids to touch her feet in a gesture of respect.
They didn’t know or care for who that person was– which caste, or jati or varna or social status. They just fell at the feet of someone blessing them with all their heart.
And this culture is what the social media influencers don’t seem to have imbibed. If they had, they would not have tried to ape an alien mindset to pass the crassest of comments.
This culture is us. This is Bharat. This is Sanatana. This is eternal!
Arun Krishnan is the author of Battle of Vathapi: Nandi’s Charge.
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