Response to comments on my recent posts

It seems my recent two blog posts caused heated discussion among the blog readers.

In one of the comments for GOMATHA EN KULAMATHA, I was charged as being very sentimental. It is true to some extent. Really, the Indian society as a whole, is very sentimental on the issues of cow. These sentiments are frequently exploited by the politicians for their own end which is altogether a different issue. I will explain the sociological reasons behind such sentiments on the issues of cow in a separate blog post.

But the recent post "நடுத்தெரு அநாகரிகம்" has been severely commented by Mr Ayya Pillai. He has defended two persons who really don't deserve such support. However disciplinarian one may be, he will not stoop to the level of beating his wife in public places such as a railway station or inside a moving public bus. Such behaviours show the low level of culture in which one was brought up. Defending such people in the name of culture and KARPU is all the more atrocious.

The first incident mentioned in the post, for which my wife and I were witnesses, took a long time to fade away from our minds. Being a woman, my wife was more offended by this incident than I. She narrated the incident to her friends while fully sympathising with the mother of the child.

Bringing the issues of family value and the purity of woman etc in this case are all tall talk and really it all sounds hollow. Even if we assume that in both these cases the women were at fault, the physical violence and heaping insult on the individual in public places cannot be the remedy. These type of behaviours cannot safeguard the family value. In the long run, enforcement of such discipline will break-up the family. In both these scenarios the husbands can be rightly branded as chauvinists. I repeatedly say they are perverts.

The chastity of any woman is not so fragile enough to be spoiled by a teenage boy sitting next to her. Economically dependent women and the fear of domestic violence are the main reasons for such behaviours of wreckless husbands. I would say, in both these cases, if the women were an earning member in their family, the behaviour of husbands would have been very different.

The tribal mentality of the uneducated people may be seen in the langugage they use while quarrelling . Derogatory words insulting the characters of the female family members will flow in their abuses. So, in our subconscious mind we feel chastity is a virtue to be safeguarded exclusively by women. But poet Bharati thought otherwise. In one of his poems he writes as follows:

"மாட்டையடித்து வசக்கித் தொழுவினில்
மாட்டும் வழக்கத்தைக் கொண்டுவந்தே
வீட்டினில் எம்மிடம் காட்ட வந்தார் அதை
வெட்டி விட்டோமென்று கும்மியடி
கற்பு நிலையென்று சொல்ல வந்தார் இரு
கட்சிக்கும் அதை பொதுவில் வைப்போம்"

Bharathi thought the word "Karpu" was used to enslave the minds of women. Periyar E.V.R also expressed similar opinion. Also, in Vathsyaayanar's KAMASASTRA, while explaining the concept of the chastity of woman, he writes as follows - "Occasional physical contact of a woman with a man when it is unintentional (such as while moving in festival crowd etc ) are not considered as offending the chastity of the woman". Our ancient sages were more liberal and enunciated the principles of life with a practical approach.

I am afraid defending such wrong persons may end in supporting HONOUR KILLING, which goes unabated in some states in northern India and in Pakistan. Let us be aware of this disturbing trend.

M.Gopalakrishnan