Religion reinforces low position of
women in society, in relation to the movie ‘Water’ by Deepa Mehta.
Water
by Deepa Mehta is a Canadian film which was released in 2005. The setting is
1938. The story revolves around the lives of widows in a widow ashram in
Varanasi, India. The film water intertwines many controversial and debatable
subjects like misogyny and ostracism.
In
this film the reason behind the suppression of women and the reinforcement of
lower position is the Hindu religion and its male chauvinistic concepts. The Manusmriti, an ancient Hindu text says
that “in life a woman is half her husband and if he dies, she is half dead. A
widow has three choices: she can throw herself on his funeral pyre and die with
him; she can marry his brother if one is available; or she can live out the
rest of her days in isolation and seclusion. If she chooses the ascetic path,
she enters an ashram, shaves her head, wears white as a sign of mourning and
tries to atone for her husband’s death.” These so called Hindu scripts
positioned women at a low level and treated them as slaves. The women were not
considered as human beings. According to Hindu belief, if the ordinary people
witness a widow in front of them, they consider themselves as polluted and must
go through rituals to protect them. People never realize that widows are also
human beings and have feelings. The basic human needs were strictly denied to
women, especially to widows.
I
consider it very appropriate to cite an interview response of Deepa Mehta
regarding the film: “Water can flow or water can be stagnant. I set the film in
the 1930s but the people in the film live their lives as it was prescribed by a
religious text more than 2000 years old. Even today, people follow these text,
which is one reason why there continues to be millions of widows. To me, that
is kind of stagnant water. I think traditions shouldn’t be that rigid. They
should follow like the replenishing kind of water.” I strongly agree with her
statement as I was brought up in an environment where rigid Hindu customs
strongly prevail. In Hindu ceremonies widows were not allowed to participate in
any rituals. If a widow remarries, the society looks at her as an object of
severe criticism.
Water
portrays the injustices committed to women by the name of maintaining religious
values. Religion used to deny the dignity and rights of women. Let us focus how
the women in the film were positioned to a lower status.
The
central character in the film is Chuiya, an eight year old widow. She does not
even know when she got married and who her husband is. Chuiya as a child
portrays the innocence and desires of small children. Chuiya’s question that
where the house of men who lost their wives is a right slap to the religiously
bounded patriarchal world. All her desires are deprived of. She longs to go
back to her home but she is unable to do so. It is very ironical that women
play an important role in imposing lower position on other women. Madumati, a
tyrant old widow symbolizes the religious system. She being a woman and a widow
encourages confinement of widows.
Madumati sternly initiates her into womanhood. It is a very pathetic
situation when a small girl is forced into a life of confinement like prisoners.
The most grievous situation arrives, when Chuiya was raped by one of the high
caste Brahmins. She was deeply traumatized and barely to respond.
Kalyani,
a beautiful young widow is forced into prostitution by Maduhmati. She uses
Kalyani as a tool by forcefully exploiting her into prostitution to run her
livelihood. Kalyani strongly believed in Lord Krishna vainly that he will come
and save her. Narayan an upper class elite Ghandian falls in love with Kalyani
who in turn loves him abundantly. She desperately longs for a life filled with
love with Narayan. Deprived of wearing coloured clothes since childhood,
Kalyani expresses her strong desire to wear a saree in blue to Narayan. We can
picture the internal desires and struggles of a woman and the intolerable pains
the religion forced on her. Although Narayan came into her life as a ray of
hope, soon that small hope vanished as a dew drop.
The
widow Shakuntala plays an important role in bringing enlightenment into the
film. Shakuntala is a strict follower of Hindu principles. Like all the other
widows, she accepts the hardships forced down on them by the religion. She
believes in salvation from the miseries of life and piously follows the rituals
and fasting assigned to her. The priest is an exceptional character in the
patriarchal world. He educates Shakuntala regarding the newly introduced laws
which prevent women. Shakuntala at the end turns into an external force which
is ready to liberate women. She helps Kalyani to get out of the ashram, but
Kalyani’s life is forever doomed. Shakunta does not let that happen to Chuiya. She
was unable to stop the sexual abuse of Chuiya but finally liberates her from
the rigid religious structures by giving Chuiya into the hands of Narayan to be
grown up under the guidance of Mahatma Ghandi.
This
film uses many feminist theories to question the biased religious practices.
Gender stereotypes and gender roles in religion like the construction of women
as ideal mothers and wives and let them bare all the responsibilities and the
consequences while men enjoy their lives, even engages themselves into adultery
are questioned. These men, like Narayan’s father are not penalized by the
religion. Narayan’s father is highly respected as being a high class man. His
words that lower class women are created by God for the pleasures of high caste
men forcefully bring out the theory of patriarchy. Modern feminists look at
this film from a very critical eye and comments on the religious male dominated
theories like ‘women as ideal mothers/ wives’, ‘Commodification of women’ and
‘weaker – sex’
Further
an analysis of Hindu theories and concepts related to this film will give us a
larger perspective on how the religion reinforces lower position of women.
According to Hinduism, women were created by
God to accompany men in all walks of life and their primary task is to give
birth to children, especially sons. This is evident from Narayan’s mother’s
words when she insists Narayan on marriage and the need for heirs. The Hindu
scriptures prescribed division of duties to men and women. The ceremonies and
rituals were performed by men. We can observe how the priest in the film
performs all the duties and the widows and other women piously followed the
rituals and traditions. If women are allowed to do rituals publicly, that is
only for worshipping the God/ Goddess for child bearing.
The
limited freedom given to them can be accessed in Hindu scriptures. Women from
their birth till death are solely dependent on men. As daughters they live
under the protection of their fathers, as wives they were under the feet of
their husbands as slaves, as mothers they had to nurture their children. These
duties can be traced in the film where the women piously act their parts as
wives and widows. Narayan’s mother is a fine example of a perfect Hindu wife
and a mother representing the assigned roles of religion. She fully knows her
husband’s adulterous acts but keeps on continuing her duties as a faithful wife
and a loving mother. Sita, even though considered as a goddess was humiliated
and discriminated by her husband Rama. It elaborates the fact that even deity
women were not exceptional.
Plight
of Kalyani depicts the sad truth that only death liberates women. Kalyani goes to the extent of sacrificing her
life in order to liberate her self from the intolerable pains imposed by
religion.
Thus,
I would like to conclude that the film Water
by Deepa Mehta effectively portrays the reinforcement of low position of women
by depicting a real example of the sufferings, pains and sorrows of a group of
women who were assigned as widows by a rigid institutionalized religion.
© Saambavi Sivaji