[aka.alias] Democracy?
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aka.alias
Sep 9, 2011, 6:04:15 PM9/9/11
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I recently visited the Toronto area Shri Swaminarayan Mandir complex. At 32,000 square feet, it is the largest Hindu temple, or mandir in Canada, and impressive it is, indeed. The carvings that grace the ceilings alone are more than enough to give a visitor quite the crick in their neck from looking upward so long in an effort not to miss any of them. The ceiling carvings are not all there is to see in this amazing structure, and it would take a very long time to truly familiarize oneself with all the visual wonders of the mandir.
The main floor display that details the contributions of the Hindu community to the world at large, however, is where the wonder of the place comes crashing down on the head of reality, with a resounding thud. The many wall displays rhapsodize claims that those who practise Hinduism have, through the ages, discovered or invented damn near everything worth note in our world. Each to their own opinion, perhaps, except that when one arrives at the display that claims India to be the greatest democracy in the world, that opinion is unacceptable. That is where the claims all become hollow sounding gongs clanging out a cacophony with the claim about democracy the most strident noise therein.
Before going any further, perhaps a definition of democracy would be helpful. Most would agree it is a form of government by the people, in which power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them and/or by representatives elected by them under a free electoral system. It is, further, a state of society that is characterized by an equality of political and social rights and privileges. Having established this as the definition of democracy, one needs only to look at a few figures for India to see how far short of the definition the country falls.
When the "great democracy" claim is made, those who make it usually follow it up with mantra of "one person, one vote" as though that should suffice to clear away any doubts there might be about the claim.
According to UNICEF, for instance, "A report from Bombay in 1984 on abortions after prenatal sex determination stated that 7,999 out of 8,000 of the aborted fetuses were females." Those who intone, "one person, one vote" forget to account for the females murdered throughout India each year, before they have a chance to be born; a chance to grow old enough to cast a vote. Obviously, the alarming state of affairs in Bombay (Mumbai) would hold true throughout the country where females are so devalued.
The 7,999 females referred to above are only one example of the chilling numbers one can discover upon looking into the gender inequality in India. Follow the link to find more, or simply type "female infanticide in India" into a search engine. Nor is infanticide the only type of gender-based violence practised in the country. Read about the women who have had acid poured on their faces as part of a bid to secure more dowry money, or as revenge for their spurning sexual advances or marriage proposals. Look at pictures of victims of these acid attacks and remember that legal persecution of the attackers is rare, with most lawyers portraying those women who do dare to take their tormentor to court as wantons who drove their attacker to throw the acid. It must be remembered that such attacks can never really be spontaneous crimes of passion, since the attacker has first to go out and purposefully purchase the acid, and then carry it in a careful manner so as to avoid harming himself with it. How even one of these attackers could be allowed to go free by a judicial system unless it accepts a less than democratic view of females as valueless is a question that needs to be asked of those who claim India to be such a great democracy.
I understand, of course, that India is not the only location in the world where life is an unending struggle for so many women, simply because they are female. I also realize that gender-based violence is not practised solely by those who call themselves Hindu. I do, however, find it impossible to listen to the claim that India is the world's greatest democracy, without thinking of all the females for whom this claim is nothing but empty words blowing in the wind. At the mandir, I found that claim negated the beauty of pretty much all the awe-inspiring carving to be seen on the ceilings.
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Posted By aka.alias to aka.alias at 9/09/2011 03:47:00 PM
The main floor display that details the contributions of the Hindu community to the world at large, however, is where the wonder of the place comes crashing down on the head of reality, with a resounding thud. The many wall displays rhapsodize claims that those who practise Hinduism have, through the ages, discovered or invented damn near everything worth note in our world. Each to their own opinion, perhaps, except that when one arrives at the display that claims India to be the greatest democracy in the world, that opinion is unacceptable. That is where the claims all become hollow sounding gongs clanging out a cacophony with the claim about democracy the most strident noise therein.
Before going any further, perhaps a definition of democracy would be helpful. Most would agree it is a form of government by the people, in which power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them and/or by representatives elected by them under a free electoral system. It is, further, a state of society that is characterized by an equality of political and social rights and privileges. Having established this as the definition of democracy, one needs only to look at a few figures for India to see how far short of the definition the country falls.
When the "great democracy" claim is made, those who make it usually follow it up with mantra of "one person, one vote" as though that should suffice to clear away any doubts there might be about the claim.
According to UNICEF, for instance, "A report from Bombay in 1984 on abortions after prenatal sex determination stated that 7,999 out of 8,000 of the aborted fetuses were females." Those who intone, "one person, one vote" forget to account for the females murdered throughout India each year, before they have a chance to be born; a chance to grow old enough to cast a vote. Obviously, the alarming state of affairs in Bombay (Mumbai) would hold true throughout the country where females are so devalued.
The 7,999 females referred to above are only one example of the chilling numbers one can discover upon looking into the gender inequality in India. Follow the link to find more, or simply type "female infanticide in India" into a search engine. Nor is infanticide the only type of gender-based violence practised in the country. Read about the women who have had acid poured on their faces as part of a bid to secure more dowry money, or as revenge for their spurning sexual advances or marriage proposals. Look at pictures of victims of these acid attacks and remember that legal persecution of the attackers is rare, with most lawyers portraying those women who do dare to take their tormentor to court as wantons who drove their attacker to throw the acid. It must be remembered that such attacks can never really be spontaneous crimes of passion, since the attacker has first to go out and purposefully purchase the acid, and then carry it in a careful manner so as to avoid harming himself with it. How even one of these attackers could be allowed to go free by a judicial system unless it accepts a less than democratic view of females as valueless is a question that needs to be asked of those who claim India to be such a great democracy.
I understand, of course, that India is not the only location in the world where life is an unending struggle for so many women, simply because they are female. I also realize that gender-based violence is not practised solely by those who call themselves Hindu. I do, however, find it impossible to listen to the claim that India is the world's greatest democracy, without thinking of all the females for whom this claim is nothing but empty words blowing in the wind. At the mandir, I found that claim negated the beauty of pretty much all the awe-inspiring carving to be seen on the ceilings.
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Posted By aka.alias to aka.alias at 9/09/2011 03:47:00 PM
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