Why Have been Ladies Enslaved? (Pen Yen Adimaiyaanaal?, 1942) was initially written in Tamil by Periyar E V Ramasamy and was translated into English for the primary time by Meena Kandasamy. This essential work is far more than only a ebook as a result of it’s a revolutionary manifesto that boldly questions the foundation causes of girls’s oppression. Though it was written through the pre-independence interval, its message stays highly effective right this moment because the battle for gender justice remains to be ongoing within the twenty-first century.
E V Ramasamy, popularly often known as Periyar, was one among India’s most radical rationalists and anti-caste thinkers. He advocates that girls’s enslavement is just not unintended however is constructed into the construction of society by way of faith, custom, and social customs. He insists that true liberation requires dismantling patriarchy at its very basis. This implies not solely altering particular person beliefs but in addition reworking the establishments that preserve inequality.
The ebook displays Periyar’s feminist views, that are primarily based on rationalism and the idea that each one hierarchical social programs, together with caste and patriarchy, should be critically examined and abolished. He recognized faith, particularly Hinduism, as the principle software used to justify and proceed the oppression of girls. In keeping with Periyar, girls in India have by no means been handled as full human beings however as property whose goal was to serve males. They had been managed in each a part of their lives and denied primary rights like training, property, and freedom.
He argued within the ebook that the enslaved situation of girls is just not pure however created and maintained by spiritual guidelines, mythological tales, caste discrimination, and male dominance. As we speak, this ebook stays an important textual content for understanding how gender, caste, and energy are linked and why true liberation requires difficult all these programs collectively.
Chastity as a software of patriarchal management
A key theme in Periyar’s Why Have been Ladies Enslaved? Is his penetrating critique of the idea of Karpu (chastity), which he uncovered as a culturally weaponised software of patriarchal management. Whereas the time period can signify private integrity, he exhibits the way it has been traditionally utilized solely to girls, decreasing their ethical value to sexual purity. This, he argues, is a calculated patriarchal technique to legitimise male dominance and institutionalise unequal requirements of advantage.
Drawing from Hindu texts and traditions, Periyar deconstructs the Sanskrit concept of pativrata, loyal wifehood, and the place pati denotes “grasp.”
Drawing from Hindu texts and traditions, Periyar deconstructs the Sanskrit concept of pativrata, loyal wifehood, and the place pati denotes “grasp.” He critiques how spiritual narratives uphold a lady’s worth by way of obedience, silence, and struggling, whereas males stay unbound by any equal ethical expectations. His evaluation is especially compelling in the way it hyperlinks linguistic constructs to lived oppression.
What distinguishes Periyar’s argument right here is his willingness to problem not simply faith and patriarchy, but in addition girls’s personal internalisation of those values. He contends that till girls reject chastity as a divine or ethical responsibility, true liberation is just not doable. This part of the ebook is a daring confrontation of deeply entrenched cultural beliefs.
Marriage and masculinity: devices of enslavement in line with Periyar
Marriage, in line with Periyar, isn’t just a private union however a social establishment that performs a central position within the subjugation of girls. He condemns the ritualistic and Brahminical type of marriage as a result of it binds girls to their husbands by way of elaborate spiritual ceremonies. These rituals, in his view, glorify obedience and lifelong servitude. Consequently, they strip girls of the possibility to grasp their individuality and hinder the event of self-respect.
Furthermore, he strongly critiques Hindu epics such because the Ramayana and Mahabharata for selling idealised feminine figures like Sita and Draupadi. These characters, he argues, are revered not for his or her power or company, however for his or her struggling, obedience, and loyalty. Consequently, such narratives function a type of spiritual conditioning that justifies patriarchy. They reinforce the idea {that a} lady’s advantage lies in her endurance of ache and submissiveness to her husband.
One of the radical components of his feminist thought is his insistence that masculinity itself should be dismantled.
One of the radical components of his feminist thought is his insistence that masculinity itself should be dismantled. He maintains that no motion led by males, although it claims to advocate girls’s rights, may end up in real liberation. It’s because male-led efforts are sometimes rooted within the assumption of male superiority. For Periyar, true gender equality is barely doable when masculinity is now not equated with energy, management, or rationality. Solely then can women and men coexist on equal phrases, free from the hierarchical constructions imposed by gender roles.
Assist for self-respect marriages and marital freedom by Periyar
In full opposition to conventional Hindu marriages, Periyar launched the idea of the Self-Respect Marriage, as a part of the broader Self-Respect Motion. Though the ebook doesn’t repeatedly identify Self-respect marriage, its rules of rationalism, anti-caste resistance, and gender equality are current all through.
For Periyar, marriage shouldn’t be a lifelong, unbreakable contract imposed by spiritual dogma or social stress. As a substitute, he helps the idea of self-respect marriages, that are non-religious, consensual unions primarily based on equality and mutual respect that permit for the dissolution of marriage if both social gathering chooses.
The ebook advocates for the correct to annul marriage and even the correct to divorce, viewing it as important to girls’s liberation. He critiques conventional Hindu marriage rituals that bind girls indefinitely, typically trapping them in sad or abusive relationships. Annulment and divorce, in his view, restore particular person freedom and dignity, stopping pressured endurance of cruelty or neglect. This angle challenges patriarchal norms that prioritise marital permanence over private well-being, marking a radical departure from orthodox views. Via advocating this, Periyar empowers girls to reclaim autonomy over their lives and our bodies.
Property rights and widowhood: breaking materials and social chains
Periyar was a robust advocate for equal property rights for ladies, recognising that financial dependence is a key mechanism of management over girls. He rejected the concept that girls needs to be confined to stridhanam (presents from marriage), which provided no actual autonomy or safety.
He even denounced the oppressive establishments of enforced widowhood as a software of patriarchal and caste primarily based management. He criticises the hypocrisy of social reformers who converse of girls’s rights whereas upholding oppressive practices in their very own lives. Highlighting the inhumanity of denying widows, even a lot of them youngsters, the correct to remarry, he argues that true social equality and freedom start with liberating girls from such bondage. Widow remarriage, for Periyar, isn’t just a reform however step one towards dismantling systemic inequality.
In Why Have been Ladies Enslaved?, he devotes a bit to praising progressive insurance policies (resembling these in princely Mysore) that gave girls the correct to divorce, compensation, and property possession primarily in circumstances the place husbands had been abusive or adulterous.
In Why Have been Ladies Enslaved?, he devotes a bit to praising progressive insurance policies (resembling these in princely Mysore) that gave girls the correct to divorce, compensation, and property possession primarily in circumstances the place husbands had been abusive or adulterous. For Periyar, authorized and financial independence had been non-negotiable foundations for real liberation.
A imaginative and prescient past reform: in direction of liberation
Why Have been Ladies Enslaved? is greater than only a name for social reform; it’s a robust and clear assertion advocating for ladies’s rights. On this ebook, Periyar questions the deep-rooted programs of patriarchy, caste, and conventional concepts about masculinity. As a substitute of asking for small adjustments or extra illustration inside the current system, he encourages an entire rethink of how society treats girls.
The ebook intensively urges girls to face up towards patriarchy. Periyar supported essential concepts like girls’s proper to remarry, personal property, and search divorce, issues that had been unusual on the time. He additionally launched the thought of self-respect marriages and different progressive adjustments that aimed to offer girls larger freedom and equality.
Reference:
Ramasamy, E. V. (1942). Why had been girls enslaved? (M. Kandasamy, Trans.).
Sivasubramanian, S., & Joseph, A. V. (2018, March). Thanthai Periyar On Ladies and Improvement.
Himani is a postgraduate in Political Science from Ramjas Faculty, College of Delhi with a eager tutorial deal with gender, tradition and social justice. Her tutorial and area expertise consists of analysis and mission coordination in areas resembling tribal entrepreneurship, environmental advocacy and neighborhood service.
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