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Re: Is Sita an Ideal Wife?
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Subject: Re: Is Sita an Ideal Wife?
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From: trivedi@curie.uchicago.edu (Anil Trivedi)
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Date: 3 Oct 1995 06:18:58 GMT
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Approved: srh <srh@rbhatnagar>
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Article: 325 of soc.religion.hindu
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Newsgroups: soc.religion.hindu
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Organization: University of Chicago
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References: <44cdae$sbr@babbage.ece.uc.edu>
Megumi Hayashi <mhayashi@abo.fi> wrote:
>auther wrote, "In Hindu tradition, a woman is taught to understand
>herself in relation to others. She is taught to emphasize in the
>development of her character what others expect of her. A central demand
>placed on a woman is that she subordinate her welfare to welfare of
>others, especially her husband and children." Is this value commonly
>accepted?
Sorry, I am not a woman, but I would like to make one observation
which may be helpful.
Traditional Hindu society did place a great deal of emphasis on
relationships, duty, and responsibility, as opposed to ones's
own rights and gratification. However, whatever burdens and benefits
this may have brought came to both men and women. The most basic
divider in this respect has been not gender but age. Everyone,
male or female, was expected to serve and obey their elders,
male or female, and to nurture their youngers, male or female.
I believe that in an average Hindu family this remains the norm.
This is of course not to deny that after 1000 years of Islamic
invasions and rule, certain good and bad characterestics of Islamic
societies to our west have been absorbed too, and of these the bad
ones should be eliminated. Inequality and ill-treatment of women,
a very real issue, is one of these.
-Anil
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