AND SO SHE MADE HER CASE...

I found out recently that I won the Bronze Prize in the International Commonwealth Essay Competition, and thought it would be nice to post my essay here. So here it is :)

The blistering sun shone high above the gathering. She remembered the foremost

prayer of her religion –the Gayatri Mantra –it felicitated the sun for being the giver

of light; the light of knowledge and of understanding. She could not tell whether the

sun was in her favour today. They were all collected at the banyan tree; the tree that

towered over all others – that majestic symbol of justice, or so it was supposed to be. It

was also a shrine. The tiny red-and-gold flags wrapped around its lower branches were

from those who prayed to it wishing for good fortune and health. An idol had its place at

the base of the tree, as did incense sticks and a lamp with a wick; a symbol of the light of

knowledge.

The lamp was unlit; she did not think that the light of knowledge shone, or even

flickered, in the minds of any here.

The five people who held the power of the village sat at the tree; they were the court

of justice- the Panchayat*; they were all men. They were here to hear her case, and

sentence her, and the rest of the village gathered was gathered here knowing that she

would be sentenced as harshly as possible, no matter what.

The light of the sun suddenly seemed to her to be an unforgivable irony.

She held her head high as she walked to the middle of the gathering, and stopped in

front of the Panchayat. Her dark green sari contrasted with the light shades of the trees;

it spoke for her unbroken spirit and her courage. The gold bangles in her arms clinked

together as she walked. Her dark eyes challenged those who condemned her choices,

and curbed her freedom.

The man sitting above his counterparts, the Sarpanch**, spoke in a ringing voice; the

onlookers fell quiet. ‘We are here today’, he began, ‘to decide upon the case of this

woman standing before us. She has committed blasphemy! To preserve the dignity and

the honor of this community, she must suffer the consequences, as much to punish her

for her actions as to send a warning to others who may attempt the same.

What are her charges? You all know that she has refused to marry the suitor her parents

chose, in favor of getting educated, though she is well past the age of sixteen. She defies

the command of her father to work in his farm. She convinced her family to bend our

rules and let her study in the adjacent town. And she read the ancient texts of Sanskrit;

our holy books! They must be untouched by ordinary hands. Now she wants leave

to study outside this village, and earn her means herself. But knowing the nature of

woman, I am rather likely to believe that she has a lover tucked away somewhere! Why

else would she want to leave the place of her upbringing in this manner? Her family has

disowned her. Even a few nights locked up could not break her spirit. We cannot let her

leave!”

Her jaw tightened and the dark eyes flashed angrily as her mouth opened to retaliate.

Before she could, another Panchayat member spoke- “Look at that expression! This is

the kind of defiance that brought about the trouble in the first place. It should have been

beaten out of her many years ago! Hasn’t Tulsidas said-‘Dhol, gawar, shudra, pashu, nari,

ye sab tadan ke adhikari’***?”

The men behind him pounded their fists in agreement.

The Sarpanch continued- “We have her charges- defiance of her father, refusal to marry,

suspected love affair, rebellion against the community, dishonoring the dignity of this

village, and committing religiously unacceptable acts. Does anybody have anything to

add or ask before we begin sentencing her on these charges?”

It was all silent save the wind whistling its way through the leaves of the tree. Was it

mocking her too, she wondered, as she raised her hand, straight up, and said in a firm

voice, “I do!”

“And what can the convict have to say?” a third Panchayat member sneered.

“I ask for a chance to speak, to present a defense for my case, before you ‘sentence’ me!”

Her eyes were brighter than ever.

“Hah!” the Sarpanch snorted. “Do you really think that appealing to us will save your

skin? Very well, go ahead and try, but it is in vain. Do not expect mercy from us!”

Her voice was icy as she replied, “That is something that I would not expect of you.

Instead, I expect you to see, to let the light enter your eyes and banish the darkness you

have veiled them with.”

And she began the speech that blistered as the heat of the sun.

“Back in the Vedic ages, recounted in the Vedas which are the foundation of Hinduism,

women were not as you have made them today. Equal importance was attached, in this

country, to making both men and women, scholars. Have you not heard of Maitreyi

and Anusuya, renowned scholars of their time? Women a thousand years back had

a lot more freedom than we have today! They could choose who to marry, through a

swayamvara^, pursue the discipline they desired, handle weapons, write grammar;

everything you may imagine! You do not know what the pillars of Hinduism actually

say, you who recite a poet’s writings to me. For that matter, have you not heard the

verse from hundreds of years before Tulsidas was even born- ‘Yatra naryastu pujyante,

ramante tatra devata’^^?”

A third member of the Panchayat said- “Your showcasing your petty knowledge of verse

is beside the point! It only shows how you have defiled the holy books by reading them.

Is that all you have to say?”

She retaliated- “If you actually read the texts, you will know that the ancient sages

championed the education of women. After that golden age came the age of wars,

expansion, plunder. Women were locked up to keep them safe from the hands of

the conquerors. They, who had many times the courage and honor of their men-

folk, resorted to sati^^^ out of respect for themselves and their husbands, and their

sense of dignity. But then you made it the societal norm for a woman to die with her

husband, even if she faced no danger from another’s hands at his death. You made sati

a necessity; mocking the woman who lived if her spouse died. Why should a woman

kill herself if her husband does and she still has decades in front of her? It is not her

fault that he died. These laws you wrote amount to cold-blooded murder. If a man

was treated this way in Indian society, you would charge his assailants with strict

punishment. But what about your other halves? And who would challenge you on this

issue? The women? But they had no access to learning the language you wrote in, did

they?”

“Oh, spare us this rant! We are not any law writers. In case you have a point, come to it”,

the Sarpanch exploded.

She shot him a disgusted look before continuing- “You think yourselves superior to

women in every way, do you not? You say we are the same as animals. You say we must

marry and run houses; that is all we are fit for. And you say that wanting to study and

wanting the freedom to choose who I spend the rest of my life with breaks the honor of

our community! I say you curbing my freedom to live my life the way I want are what

dishonor the ideals of not just this community, but of the country!

For all your misogynist talk, can you get along without women, you who have too much

pride to learn how to cook and clean, you who cannot even have a family if not for a

woman? How would you live if you had no food? And how would you get food if no one

cooked for you and you do not cook yourself? All you do is earn. And you believe that

this must afford you respect and a healthy dose of fear from the people around you?

We women earn wages and raise families simultaneously. We add to what you earn. We

do twice the work that you do! And you simply cannot compete with that. So where is

the respect that I should be afforded? If you claim respect for working and earning, I

should be getting twice the respect you do, for I do twice the work you do!

The deities of fortune and knowledge, Lakshmi and Saraswati, that you pray to and

kneel in front of, are both goddesses. The manifestation of energy itself is a female form,

Shakti, and the earth you live on is Bhudevi, again a woman.

You say that a wife is the ‘other half’ of her husband. A half and a half are equal in every

way, and so a husband and his wife must be treated equally in all ways. So why do you

not follow this basic premise?”

Her questioning eyes were darker than ever.

Some of the women looked roused, as they recognized the truth of her words, but more

looked apprehensive and fearful.

The men looked shocked. But the expression of the Sarpanch was shrewd, calculating.

Under cover of the mutterings around the tree, he had a quick consultation with the

other members and came to a decision.

“Very well!” he announced, stanching the flow of confused thoughts. “We have decided.

Since you are so very against the views of this community, you shall leave it. That is

your sentence. You are exiled. Leave us, and be gone. We have no wish to have you here

anymore. That is all. We are adjourned!”

He got up, turned his back, and walked away quickly. The other four followed with the

villagers.

She remained there standing, she who stood for the Indian Woman.

And so she made her case…

The clearing was empty, save for her and the whistling of the wind and the heat of the

sun.

NO OF WORDS- 1681

FOOTNOTES-

*- Assembly of five elders from a community to resolve disputes or potential

problems; In Hindi, Panch is five and Yat means assembly.

**- The head of the Panchayat.

***- Tulsidas was a renowned composer of the late sixteenth century. The verse is

roughly translated from Hindi as-‘Illiterates, low castes, animals and women-

these are entitled to beatings.’

^- The practice of a girl choosing a husband from a list of suitors; Swayam in

Sanskrit means self; and Vara means choice.

^^- Translated from Sanskrit as- ‘The place where women are respected/

worshipped; that is the place that the gods themselves inhabit’.

^^^- The practice of a woman jumping into her husband’s funeral pyre to follow him

in the afterlife as well.

SOURCES-

http://www.politicsandreligionjournal.com/images/pdf_files/engleski/volume3_no1/

babita%20tewari.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism_in_India

Edward C Sachau, Alberuni’s India, Rupa & Co., New Delhi, 2002, pp. 562-565

L.N. Rangarajan, Kautilya: The Arthashastra, Penguin Books India, New Delhi, 1992,

pp. 392-412.