Status of Women in Indian Society
The worth of a civilization can be judged by the place given to women in the society. One of several factors that justify the greatness of India's ancient culture is the honorable place granted to women. The Muslim influence on India caused considerable deterioration in the status of women. They were deprived of their rights of equality with men. Raja Ram Mohan Roy started a movement against this inequality and subjugation. The contact of Indian culture with that of the British also brought improvement in the status of women. The third factor in the revival of women's position was the influence of Mahatma Gandhi who induced women to participate in the Freedom Movement. As a result of this retrieval of freedom, women in Indian have distinguished themselves as teachers, nurses, air-hostesses, booking clerks, receptionists, and doctors. They are also participating in politics and administration. But in spite of this amelioration in the status of women, the evils of illiteracy, dowry, ignorance, and economic slavery would have to be fully removed in order to give them their rightful place in Indian society.
The worth of a civilization can be judged from the position that it gives to women. Of the several factors that justify the greatness of India's ancient culture, one of the greatest is the honoured place ascribed to women. Manu, the great law-giver, said long ago, 'where women are honoured there reside the gods'. According to ancient Hindu scriptures no religious rite can be performed with perfection by a man without the participation of his wife. Wife's participation is essential to any religious rite. Married men along with their wives are allowed to perform sacred rites on the occasion o...
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...nd greedy members of the bridegrooms' family take recourse to afflicting tortures on the married women. Some women are murdered in such cases. The dowry deaths are really heinous and barbarous crimes committed by the cruel and inhumane persons. The young girls should be bold enough in not marrying the boys who demand dowry through their parents. The boys should also refuse to marry if their parents demand dowry. But unfortunately the number of such bold and conscientious boys is very few. Even the doctors, engineers, teachers and the administrative officers do not hesitate in allowing themselves to be sold to the wealthy fathers of shy and timid girls. Such persons have really brought disgrace to their cadres in particular and society in general. The government should enact stringent laws to afflict rigorous punishment on dowry seekers, women's murderers and rapers.
The use of a variety of rhetorical strategies help to strengthen a speaker’s argument. In the speech “The Ballot or the Bullet,” Malcolm X uses the basic premises of the rhetorical situation, stasis theory, and the rhetorical appeals in order to emphasize the mistreatment and discrimination that African-American citizens have experienced. Throughout the speech, Malcolm X encourages black citizens to demand their right to vote as well as inspire them to be ready to take up arms if the government continues to deny their human rights. In this paper I will show that (X) through highlighting the hypocritical nature of American democracy, (Y) Malcolm X provokes feelings of anger (Z) in order to inspire his audience of African-American citizens to
In Nehru’s India, women were victims of a “passive revolution” that subtly advanced bourgeoisie men of higher castes under a guise of parliamentary democracy. Though women have presided over the Indian National Congress, served as a prime minister, and represent a large part of India’s la...
Within the earliest of civilizations of India, pre-pubescent girls were offered to men as wives, which ultimately lead to the destruction of women’s domestic independence. As said in Document 1, “because girls married before they could finish their education, they were not qualified to perform ritual sacrifices. Furthermore, wives’ legal rights eroded.” Likewise, Indian women became politically subordinate to men. However, by modern standards, women’s social
The philosophical and religious movement of Transcendentalism was created during the early 1800’s. People who consider themselves Transcendentalists are dedicated to the ideas and ways that society’s government and controlled religion will destroy the self. They believe in the self and the pureness of the individual. They also had an understanding that all people held a piece of God inside of them; belief that God is one being and all people are combined into one God. Henry David Thoreau is considered one of the well-known Transcendentalists of his time. In Walden and Civil Disobedience there is proof that provides insight into Thoreau’s life and why he was chosen to be one.
The Ballot or the Bullet, was delivered by Malcolm on April 3rd 1964. This speech was delivered and sponsored by the Congress of Racial Equality of Cleveland. In this speech, Malcolm urges the black community to rise over their differences and to unite as a front against the oppression of the white man. Malcolm uses rhetoric to highlight the ideas that, firstly, the white man was an exploiter of the black community, and secondly that the Black community should unite as one brotherhood.
In early Indian society, only males were allowed to inherit land/property, officiate family rituals, educations was almost only male. The society placed women under the rule of men. The Lawbook of Manu told men to treat women with dignity and respect but that women should still use men as there guides in life and that there purpose was to basically have children and keep the house nice for the family.
Document one shows that a woman in India should be taken care of by the men in her life; her father cares for her as a child, her husband while she is a wife, and her sons as an elder. Even though women are to be honored and taken care of, they are still involved in a patriarchal society and do not have much independence. For the men, this is very important in dharma, as it is essential to take care of your wife if you wish to become closer to unity with the divine essence. Even so, compared to a woman 's place in
Goldman, Peter. The Death and Life of Malcolm X. 2nd ed. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979.
In the early Vedic period women enjoyed equivalent status & rights as enjoyed by their male counterparts .They were educated and had the freedom to choose their husbands. A system known as ‘Swayamvar’ actually during vedic period, women had superior position than the
Indian gender roles were well defined, and men’s and women’s responsibilities were equally crucial to
Spanning from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s, America saw the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement as the African Americans struggled to gain rights and opportunities equal to those of their white neighbors. During this time the two most influential speakers of all time emerged, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Junior. Despite their contrasting ideas and rhetorical strategies, these two martyrs had the same passion to motivate people to create justice for all races. Apparent in the practices of both Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr are similar methods of persuasion. Specific parallels are found in Malcolm’s speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” where he addresses the upcoming election to persuade the audience to practice Black Nationalism and when
In the novel This Earth Of Mankind by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, discrimination against social structure, race, and gender is apparent. The setting is in the Indies, or now called Indonesia. At that time, there are terms for different races in the book, which are “Native” indicating someone who is pure Indonesian, “Indo” a half European and half Indonesian, and “Pure Blood” or “European” when someone is pure European. An Indo and a Pure Blood receives more respect in society than a Native. Furthermore, European or Pure Blood is at the top of this social hierarchy, people who are European or Pure Blood receives the utmost respect in society. Differences in gender is prevalent in this novel, where most women in this book have power in their own homes, but in society is looked down upon. Female characters experiencing these are Annelies, the main character’s love interest, Nyai Ontosoroh, Annelies’ mother who is a concubine, and Magda Peters, the main character’s European teacher. Women in this novel are portrayed differently according to what race, social structure, and gender they are born in, which can be seen through Nyai Ontosoroh, Annelies, and Magda Peters.
Gender roles have been a predominant factor in our world since the early emergence of human societies. They are based on expectations that societies have over the people in them. Gender roles have always been a part of society, whether they are positive or negative. The Epic of Sunjata, shows us how men and women are treated almost equally in different forms. Women are praised for their ability to birth leaders, which is similar to the early Greek Society. In most societies, women are treated less equal than men. This was prevalent in the early Indian society. No matter the gender role, it has been shown that any society cannot survive without both men and women.
The role women play in today’s society is a drastic change from the previous role. Women used to be confined to the superiority of the man. Physically, mentally, and emotionally abused, belittled, embarrassed, and silenced. These are just a few examples of the emotion from the isolated treatment of the past. A woman’s role in today’s society is more valued than ever before.
Women have often been called upon to make sacrifices and suppress their personal desires.They have often been left on the margins of the social set-up as far as their personal desires and fufilment of those desires is concerned. Women are not a minority in our society but their “lives, experiences and values have been treated as marginal” and men’s experiences have been assumed to be central to society. One also needs to contest the often stated view that in India women have always enjoyed a place of respect and dignity, that they have been respected as ‘devis.’ It needs to be seen that “the respect and privileges which accompany the position of a ‘devi’ are not only anti-individualistic,” they are also anti-humanistic and “deny women a personhood”.