Abstract
This chapter recapitulates some of the data presented in earlier chapters in order to construct a representation of Odia Hindu women that while ethnographically valid diverges quite substantially from other, more commonly available representations of Hindu women. These representations tend to portray Hindu women either as passive victims or as subversive rebels. This chapter suggests that both these representations are perhaps the result of a bias in favor of liberal values such as individual liberty or gender equality, and therefore, not entirely valid—because these Hindu women do not necessarily subscribe to these liberal values. If, however, one were to adopt the moral perspective of the Odia Hindu women who participated in the study, then a very different picture emerges—these women are neither passive victims nor subversive rebels; instead, they are active upholders of a moral order very different from that exemplified by liberalism, a moral order in which self-control, self-discipline, loyalty, patronage, protection, and the ability to defer or even subordinate personal gratification are prized moral goods.
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Notes
- 1.
Sabaras, a Mundari-speaking group of tribals who live in the hills of Ganjam district in southern Odisha. The idol of Jagannatha in the temple at Puri is supposed to be of Sabara origin and was stolen from them by an emissary of the king of Puri.
- 2.
This is one of Siva’s many names and it means “Lord of the Simple or Innocent.” Interestingly, in this Saivite town, this, together with Mahadeva, Mahaesvara, Mahakaal, and Lingaraj, is one of the more common ways of referring to the god. The name Bholanatha has the additional connotation, at least in this neighborhood, of “one who is intoxicated” because Siva is reputed to smoke ganja and bhang, and the resulting intoxication is thought to make him ineffective and simpleminded.
- 3.
As an ascetic, one who has renounced the world, Siva is disinterested in satisfying the worldly desires of his devotees.
- 4.
Such sacrifices would be fasting, eating last, and satisfying her sons’ needs without thinking of her own.
- 5.
Upendra Bhanja is a medieval Odia poet who belonged to the ruling family of the native state of Ghumsur in southern Odisha.
- 6.
Chandi is another name for the Goddess Kali.
- 7.
Maniso, in its simplest sense, means “human being.” But, Odias when they say maniso do not mean a raw human being but rather one who has been raised properly, one who has undergone the various rituals of refinement, and one who knows his or her responsibility toward humankind (manisojati prati daitvare gyana heba).
- 8.
Namrata has done her M.A. in political science. At this time, she was also doing a teachers’ training course.
- 9.
I am not claiming that this representation reflects the experiences of all women in the temple town, but I am certainly suggesting that this representation is one that almost all of these women would recognize—while at the same time accepting that their own lived experiences diverge more or less from it.
- 10.
As I have mentioned in Chap. 1, there are many modern, educated, Westernized Indian men and women who may agree with Hochschild’s thesis; in fact, it is possible that many of the women who presented at the conference would agree with her.
- 11.
Hochschild makes several other highly questionable assertions. I will mention just two: first, she claims that “all women were subordinate to all men” (2003: 152)—an unwarranted generalization that is immediately refuted by Sen’s description of her maternal grandmother (1999: 222), and second, Hochschild mentions that at the time Radharani was widowed in 1916, “suttee” had not yet been banned; she appears to be unaware of the fact that the English had banned it nearly a century ago—in 1829. The only purpose for such a claim, as far as I can make out, would be to highlight the misogyny that liberal scholars think is inherent in Hindu ideology.
- 12.
By “feminist,” I am referring to those Western/Westernized activists and scholars, who target Hindu cultural traditions as the root cause of gender injustices and exploitation on the Indian subcontinent today. Their goal is “absolute and complete equality as far as is humanly possible in any given situation at any given time” (Narayanan 1998: 26). There are others working to improve the lot of Indian women, but—and this is a crucial difference—these people are working not for gender equality but for female empowerment. They explicitly distance themselves from Western feminism—the most famous such example being Madhu Kishwar, editor of Manushi, a journal about women and society in India (see Kishwar’s article, “Why I Do Not Call Myself a Feminist”, Manushi 61 [Nov-Dec 1990]: 5). They believe that feminism, as an intellectual perspective and a movement, is located in a particular historical and sociocultural context and therefore has little relevance in contemporary India. They further believe that the potential for radical social transformation in India can be found within indigenous cultural traditions—one need not look westward for inspiration.
- 13.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the nationalist Hindu party; Ram is an incarnation of the Hindu god, Visnu.
- 14.
Tantrics are unabashed worshipers of the goddess and believe in the complete and total supremacy of the female principle. Of the 26 men that I spoke to during my first spell of fieldwork in the temple town, there were two who self-identified as Tantrics. Going by those figures, they are a very small minority even in eastern India where Tantric beliefs are more common than in other parts of India. I am, however, talking here of mainstream Hindu society which may be sakta in its orientation but not Tantric.
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Menon, U. (2013). An Alternate Moral Order. In: Women, Wellbeing, and the Ethics of Domesticity in an Odia Hindu Temple Town. Springer, India. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-0885-3_9
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