The Role of Women in Forming The Portrayal of Indian Culture

Women plays a vital role in forming the portrayal of Indian culture. Even though they are part of this formation, women hardly get any opportunity to talk about their opinion or give any suggestion, especially in a family context as families are mostly run under patriarchal norms. The fact that women are surveilled more than men, in consistent at all over the globe. However, in Indian context this division of surveillance is stark and sharp. A lot of surveillance in India is more to do with fears around women’s sexuality and also on importance of women’s virginity for the reputation of the family. It is not just to keep an individual women safe, but more likely to save the reputation of the entire family and thereby the society in general. The weight of all this, falls on women’s shoulder. (Puri, 1999)

Foucault’s insight about the appropriation of the body enacted through self survellieance are more useful when applied to middle class women’s narrative on their sexuality. (Duncan, 1994) In the book, “Women, Body, Desire in post colonial India: Narratives of Gender and Sexuality” by Jyot Puri, most women feel threatened sexually by men, till the time they are adolescent. However, in teens and after turning into adults most of the women express their struggle of being responsible to keep themselves protected from male. Therefore, women themselves, take up the responsibility of their female body and make it as a priority to keep it safe for the sake of their family’s reputation.

In order to understand the surveillance of body especially of a female body, one needs to start observing from the very beginning on how a female body of a new born baby is considered in India. New born girl babies mostly are given “milk-besan” bath from the start in order to lighten their skin tone and to make them come under the “standard of beauty” set upon by society at large. A girl new born is never left naked as her vagina gets associated with her “family reputation’. Girl new borns are often massaged, taken bath by and gets changed their nappies by a female caregivers or female family member only. If looked at middle-class family, baby girls are advised by elders, to not use diapers as it leaves the skin around her private parts dark. This concern doesn’t come for the rashes or on overall health of the baby but at the overall skin tone of the baby girl and their best attempt to keep the baby girl under beauty standard.

As the baby girl is growing, body language is taught to her to again in order to maintain societal norms. Young girls are often taught to laugh with their mouth closed by keeping their hand on it. They are taught, in the name of feminity, to blush and to avoid eye contact. They are often encouraged to do household chores and to avoid playing with young boys. And in all means be the provider and have a pleasing personality in the family to be called upon as a “well mannered women” in future. Also, in context of how John Berger’s, “Way of Seeing” talks about gaze, Men watch women, whereas women watch themselves being watched, fits exactly in Indian family context. Women often in Indian families are expected to do all the work so as to be deemed as successful, well cultured women by the patriarchal family. (Berger, 1972)

Once the girl enters into teenager, extra lessons are forced upon her to dress appropriately by making sure her bra straps and her cleavage is hidden under her dress. There are immense numbers of restrictions put upon her in order to avoid her from having a conversation with opposite gender. Teenage girls are often morally policed in order to save family’s reputation. They are expected to take the responsibility of keeping their family or their clans reputation and often are made to feel guilty for not living up to clans or family’s expectation.

Once the girl enters adulthood, she is then trained to get married and are often scrutinized by potential groom families on being a deserving candidate for getting married. This scrutiny starts from the girl’s look – her body type, her waist line, her length of her hair and of course her skin tone - to her skill in the kitchen – dishes she had learnt to prepare, number of family members she can provide home cooked food, her hygiene standards - to her ability of multi tasking – her social life, how she manages her college or office work with family time and family responsibilities - and lastly, on how culturally driven she is – her behavior with adults and her attitude towards marriage and her husband. Her education qualifications are often regarded as a form of developing the social fame for the groom’s family. Although currently, in urban city, qualification of a girl is asked upon and is of utmost importance, not to understand her perspective and her thoughts, her likes and dislikes, but to understand how many hours can she be available for groom’s family and are often questioned upon managing work life and personal life. Many a times, women are asked to relocate their work life, if there is a prospective groom who the family has chosen for her. However, men are often not asked upon to relocate as according to Indian family, a man having a stable, secure job is far vital than for a female, whose professionalism and passion to work is often regarded as a hobby she has taken to keep herself occupied till the time her actual responsibility – of running her marital journey smoothly – comes up.

Reinforcing supremacy of one gender over another strengthens its claim by citing social norms again. Using same reasons of morality and culture, women are often denied access to technology, especially the kind that enables them to voice their opinion. Research conducted on “Connected Women” titled “Bridging the Gender Gap’, 3 billion people in low and middle income countries do not own mobile phones out of which 1.7 billion are females. By this report the fact that nearly two-third of unconnected women lives in South Asia and East Asia comes very starkly. (Khan, 2017)

In Gulbarga, a city in Karnataka state, my native place from where my parents belong, the idea on banning mobile phones is supported so as to protect the girls from becoming “ill-cultured’. According to the local newspaper, “Mathrubhumi” mobile phones provides space of privacy and independence which will lead to trouble for girls and therefore mobile phones are banned to keep girls out of trouble. According to locals in Gulbarga, mostly elderly men, as the place is patriarchal, think that mobile phone should only be allowed to girls ideally after marriage, that too, if the Groom’s family thinks it is needed for the girl. Obviously the same rule doesn’t apply for boys as boys are expected to be independent and be in contact with outer world in the name of professional growth.

In this sense, desktops are appreciated by all as mostly they are owned by the family and is kept in a room where it is under surveillance for 24x7. Even the desktop in schools and colleges are under the supervision of the supervisor who keeps a tab on the usage of desktop and internet. Many elderly women only are aware of Green button which helps them in picking up the calls and the red one for disconnecting the phone. (Khan, 2017) Women, who have more knowledge about than these two buttons are often looked upon as a disease of “modernity” which if not controlled will affect the overall functioning of the family.

The fear of women moving ahead of men is one of the major challenges of fighting patriarchy. Although government has and has always been taken up initiative for women empowerment and for their equality in the society, the process is way slower than expected. Also because major reason for such intervention through various government initiatives for women empowerment starts from home where the family is and that particular space itself is inaccessible for women to grow. Even now there are various villages and communities where girls are not allowed to go to school because the dress code for the school is deemed to be inappropriate. The surveillance of body, especially in women, is very strong in urban as well as rural context and family does pay a vital role in it in the name of preserving the reputation of the family and so as to preserve the Indian “culture’.