On Raksha Bandhan, an ode to my sisters
On Raksha Bandhan Day, we must abandon our fierce politics and participate in that benign, defanging entity called tradition. On all other 364 days, we can cry hoarse about gender equality, patriarchy, and crippling institutions.
We cannot allow political-correctness to come in the way of enjoying a good holiday that our wise elders and cultural custodians have gifted us. Because they bequeathed this duty upon us men to go and protect women. From men. What can be more noble than that? To recognise and acknowledge the demon in ourselves is an act of emotional evolution that men must make at least one day every year.
The feminists ask men to stop considering women as someone’s sister, wife, mother and daughter and treat women as women, as individuals. This is misplaced. But isn’t that also the problem? Men in this country have for long been considering women as women only - albeit at a very crude level.
That is why our divine elders have written stories, fables and festivals for protecting sisters. Perhaps, if we turn women into asexual beings in men’s eyes, we can aspire to have some peace. So boys, next time when Farhan Akhtar pops up on your screen in that sexist Delhi Police ad before a movie screening, and speaks about protecting women, I want you to latch on to every single word as if divine injunction is being decanted directly in your ears.
Our elders had the foresight to recognise that Indian men were not equipped to treat women as equals.
The festival is crucial to our consumption-led economic growth too. Insurance companies, cell phone companies and chocolate manufacturers tells us in their advertisements today that we must protect and gift goodies to our sisters. When tradition and capitalism come together, it can work wonders - women can finally declare the day as Women’s Safety Day. The festival also teaches us that all relationships are transactional after all. I pray for you, and you protect me. Without that prayer of that pious sister for your long life, your protective instincts cannot be invoked – and vice versa.
Whether it is our festival traditions, or police officers or members of respectful Khaps, the message is the same - women must go out in public after dark only with their brothers. Or fathers. Everybody else is a predator. Forget the fact that 90 percent of rape in India is perpetrated within our homes, by people we trust. Why let the NCRB data come in the way of tradition?
We may also seize the day and immediately declare all women from other religions as sisters. A goodwill gesture. If we declare our beloveds as siblings and arrange for their Ghar Wapsi, then just imagine the goodwill and the bonhomie it will generate between communities.
We may even consider honouring some of these lovers-turned-sibling couples by renaming few of the roads after them. We still have Babur, Humayun, Akbar, Lodhi, and Feroz Shah Tughlaq Road to rechristen. If there is scarcity we would even review Safdar Hashmi Road. His credentials as a good Muslim are suspect too. We will have our own Arpita-Iqbal, Shreya-Shehzad, Asma-Arjun roads.
On this day, I call upon all of you to collectively abandon our liberal politics and partake in what truly makes us one - a festival that is an enduring ode to patriarchy.
A heartfelt Raksha Bandhan to all my sisters.