In India, the mother is the centre of the family and our highest ideal. She is to us the representative of God, as God is the mother of the universe. It was a female sage who first found the unity of God, and laid down this doctrine in one of the first hymns of the Vedas. Our God is both personal and absolute, the absolute is male, the personal, female. And thus it comes that we now say: ‘The first manifestation of God is the hand that rocks the cradle’.”
–– Swami Vivekananda, Complete Works, Vol.4 p.170
As we are celebrating Navaratri, the festival of feminine divinity, unfortunately many stories are unfolding about the ‘sexual harassments’ of women at their workplaces with the hashtag Me Too. Many skeletons in the closet are coming out against many prominent personalities from the fields of entertainment, fashion industry, politics etc. on the social media platforms. One can always argue about the authenticity of the allegations; even the timing can be questioned. Regrettably, the partisan and polarised discussions are not addressing the roots of these #MeToo situations.
The social media campaign about the prevalent sexual harassment and assault gained momentum in October 2017 in the US, soon after the allegations of sexual misconduct against the famous Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Tarana Burke, an American social activist and community organiser coined the term in 2006 and was popularised by American actress Alyssa Milano on Twitter. It was followed by a massive #ChurchToo campaign in the US and Europe, exposing sexual abuses that takes place in a church. The entry of this trend in Bharat also coincided with allegations by a nun in Kerala against a Bishop of Church, where attempts of cover-up were evident. The models, film actresses and journalists have joined the bandwagon by narrating their stories on social media platforms. These allegations should be investigated, and culprits should face the consequences as per law.
At the same time we should understand and analyse the character of this phenomenon. This entire debate of sexual exploitation against the professional favours is peculiar to certain industries, involving glamour and money. Why is it so that the professions like modelling and acting are infested with such incidences, and still many prefer to keep quiet or turn a blind eye? Which are the carriers of these industries that make them prone to such inhuman behaviour? Why the so-called liberal-elite class that is raising their voice now kept mum when the nuns were fighting for justice, and the Bishop was on the run?
The obvious corollary is, many common women who face uncomfortable situations at the hands of common men do not fall in the category of #MeToo campaign. Even the women who are on the last ladder of the glamour industry are not part of it. Only where alleged perpetrators or victim of the sexual assault is a famous personality constitute this debate, making the stories more spicy and controversial. This campaign is for the professions where women are treated or portrayed as a commodity. Unless the general trend of growing misconduct and mere sensuous attitude towards the other gender is addressed, #MeToo will remain an elitist campaign.
Beyond these glamouraous professions, there are deeper social and economic reasons behind the sexual exploitation that we need to discuss and deliberate them in the context of Bharat. Mindless urbanisation and migration and networked spread of pornographic content are important issues. The material and consumerist way of life have diverted us from the path of values and restrained behaviour is also a reality. Though we keep on chanting about the feminine divinity, in reality, we do not even treat women as human beings.
At the fundamental level, the man-woman relationship is not competitive or conflicting but complementary and based on mutual respect is the essence of Bharatiya perspective. The problem of sexual misconduct by anybody is not just an individual problem but a social evil. This Navaratri, unless we truly invoke the Shakti, the God personified and take a pledge of spreading Sanskaras, the traditional way of inculcation of values, through the familial and educational process, ‘We’ as a society, as a nation will not reflect in the campaigns like #MeToo. So as rightly done by one of the sisters, #MeTooShakti should be the constructive campaign by both men and women who can be guided to the path of virtuous and complementary gender relations.
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