sangh
2nd January 2006, 09:03 AM
http://ghadar.insaf.net/November2005/MainPages/Khushboo.htm
"Karpu [the Tamil word for chastity] connotes such ideals as integrity, honesty and purity. The English equivalents -- chastity and virginity -- refer to a sexually pure state, applicable to both men and women. However, the Sanskrit equivalent of Karpu , Pativrata, introduces ideas of enslavement. Since this word connotes a woman who holds her husband as God, who is devoted to being her husband's slave, and who will think of none but her husband, and the word Pati connotes overlord/leader, the word Pativrata is infused with slavish connotations ... Karpu being equated with Pativrata and men being wealthier, physically stronger and earning larger incomes have created conditions favorable for the enslavement of women and men stupidly assuming that Karpu does not concern them. Furthermore, the absence of words in our languages to connote male chastity is solely due to male hegemony and nothing else."
"[The slavish status of women] cannot solely be attributed to religion and laws, for womenfolk have also contributed to this imbroglio. Just as years of practice causes the so-called lower-caste people to accept a lowly status and readily obey and let themselves be ordered, similarly women too consider themselves as properties of men, and are too concerned with obeying them and keeping them in good humor to contemplate their own freedom. If women are to be really free, the practice of female chastity should be replaced by a voluntary chastity equally applicable to both men and women. Forcible marriages that condemn (for the sake of chastity) women to partners they don't like should be abolished. The cruel religions and laws that force women to endure her husband's barbarity should die. The social wickedness that forces, in the name of chastity, a woman to suppress her real feelings of love and live with a man who has neither love nor kindness for her, should go ... I cannot find a more hateful practice in all of human society than the imposition of female chastity." [Translated excerpts from chapter 1 of a 1971 edition of the book, Why did the woman become a slave? ]
Elsewhere, Periyar says: "The words Patni and Pativrata are borne out of stupidity! These words are antithetical to nature, justice, equality and freedom." [Translated excerpts from an article dated May 5, 1973 in Viduthalai (Freedom), a Tamil rationalist daily founded by Periyar]
On marriage, Periyar said: "There's no difference between the Brahmin/Sudra institution and the husband/wife institution. Through enslavement of women, we're laying waste to (their) intellect that could have benefited humanity. The way out of this would be to illegalize the institution of marriage! It's the institution of marriage that engenders the husband-wife relationship and the (consequent) enslavement of women. Once a woman becomes a wife, that's about it -- she has become a proper slave! Besides, it's the institution of marriage that causes humans to procreate, and accumulate wealth for their progeny by all means possible." [Translated excerpts from an article dated June 28, 1973 in Viduthalai]
"Karpu [the Tamil word for chastity] connotes such ideals as integrity, honesty and purity. The English equivalents -- chastity and virginity -- refer to a sexually pure state, applicable to both men and women. However, the Sanskrit equivalent of Karpu , Pativrata, introduces ideas of enslavement. Since this word connotes a woman who holds her husband as God, who is devoted to being her husband's slave, and who will think of none but her husband, and the word Pati connotes overlord/leader, the word Pativrata is infused with slavish connotations ... Karpu being equated with Pativrata and men being wealthier, physically stronger and earning larger incomes have created conditions favorable for the enslavement of women and men stupidly assuming that Karpu does not concern them. Furthermore, the absence of words in our languages to connote male chastity is solely due to male hegemony and nothing else."
"[The slavish status of women] cannot solely be attributed to religion and laws, for womenfolk have also contributed to this imbroglio. Just as years of practice causes the so-called lower-caste people to accept a lowly status and readily obey and let themselves be ordered, similarly women too consider themselves as properties of men, and are too concerned with obeying them and keeping them in good humor to contemplate their own freedom. If women are to be really free, the practice of female chastity should be replaced by a voluntary chastity equally applicable to both men and women. Forcible marriages that condemn (for the sake of chastity) women to partners they don't like should be abolished. The cruel religions and laws that force women to endure her husband's barbarity should die. The social wickedness that forces, in the name of chastity, a woman to suppress her real feelings of love and live with a man who has neither love nor kindness for her, should go ... I cannot find a more hateful practice in all of human society than the imposition of female chastity." [Translated excerpts from chapter 1 of a 1971 edition of the book, Why did the woman become a slave? ]
Elsewhere, Periyar says: "The words Patni and Pativrata are borne out of stupidity! These words are antithetical to nature, justice, equality and freedom." [Translated excerpts from an article dated May 5, 1973 in Viduthalai (Freedom), a Tamil rationalist daily founded by Periyar]
On marriage, Periyar said: "There's no difference between the Brahmin/Sudra institution and the husband/wife institution. Through enslavement of women, we're laying waste to (their) intellect that could have benefited humanity. The way out of this would be to illegalize the institution of marriage! It's the institution of marriage that engenders the husband-wife relationship and the (consequent) enslavement of women. Once a woman becomes a wife, that's about it -- she has become a proper slave! Besides, it's the institution of marriage that causes humans to procreate, and accumulate wealth for their progeny by all means possible." [Translated excerpts from an article dated June 28, 1973 in Viduthalai]