‘Religious fundamentalism insult to religion’
Indian women and even little girls are not safe in the home, on the street or in the work space, and gender injustice is much too weak a phrase to apply to this shameful state of affairs
NEW DELHI: Religious fundamentalism is an insult to religion, a danger to all those who disagree with it and a frontal attack on our Constitution, said writer Nayantara Sehgal on Tuesday.
She said at the time of Independence, the founding fathers of the country had “the wisdom to respect diversity and declare India secular and democratic.”
Delivering the 24th Justice Sunanda Bhandare memorial lecture on ‘Women under Religious Fundamentalism’, Sehgal, an award-winning author and niece of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, said the “rising graph of rapes” is evidence of growing religious fundamentalism.
Quoting the late Justice Bhandare, who held the view that no society can call itself civilised unless its women have the same rights and freedoms as men, she said: “We don’t need foreign observers to tell us this; it is a fact that Indian women and even lit- tle girls are not safe in the home, on the street or in the work space, and gender injustice is much too weak a phrase to apply to this shameful state of affairs.”
Sehgal added that persisting age-old crimes against women are now aided by a “climate of lawless mob violence” that is “emboldened by a fundamentalist mindset.”
“Though this mindset endangers all citizens, women are its worst sufferers; it has made life especially dangerous for them, if we look at the rising graph of gang-rapes. Rape is central to mob violence that we see today; it is now an act that makes brutal use of women’s bodies to assert its power over an entire community. This prevailing climate is different from anything that India has seen in India before,” she said.
Justice Rajendra Menon, who also spoke on the occasion, said unless the orthodox mindset changes, real justice will elude women. He said the status enjoyed by men is not threatened when women get their rights.