In the name of tradition – by Manaswita Bhattacharyya Mukhaty
Tradition- what is it? whether we should follow or ignore? What are the facts of any tradition? So when we get answers to these questions may be we can understand a woman in a better way and give her a better place to live in.
For example, in many marriages, mother’s are not allowed to go with the boy or girl(bride or groom) and enjoy his/ her marriage. Why? It is been told to her, if she is present then ” Nazar laag ja sakti hai” ( evil eye); which is not true atall.
So the do’s and dont’s for women were actually made by the patriarchal society. A women has to take up the “gotra” of her husband, but it is totally a social custom, it has no biological fact. A widow can never dress like a married woman; again the reason behind it is, she should not look attractive so that there will be less chance of re- marriage. The actual focus was not on her but the assets will get transferred to the family where she re- marries.
Long list of such facts can be brought up infront and the points can be added one by one. I am not against tradition, but I am against the rules made by the patriarchal society which believed or believes a comfortable place for men to stay. I am not against any tradition which I have mentioned above, I am against the force put upon a women to accept that. If any girl/ woman chooses any of the tradition to follow knowing the real thing or fact; they can surely go for it.
My piece of this work is not for bashing men or patriarchal society nor to show all the traditions in India that we follow are illogical, I just wanted to bring infront that few traditions came up to satisfy a particular section of the society but again I repeat all the traditions are not so.
Many traditions made that we women follow have a great logical sense and good for the women too; the western world can never come up with those traditions or norms. So lets know the facts or reasons behind every tradition that we follow and make it more meaningful and carry out happily.
