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