I'm an untouchable!!

The subject of untouchability has been at the very heart of Indian “culture”. As a part of our great 5000 year old culture and tradition, we propagate, even in this time and age, a certain amount of untouchability. This is especially prevalent within the illiterate sections of the society where a person’s caste determines which well he drinks from, which temple he is allowed to enter and even where he is allowed to sit to see a movie. I guess 5000 years of tradition and culture is hard to be unshackled from.

I realized from an early age that I’m also a part of the untouchable society. I’m a woman. By that definition, I menstruate. And as per Hindu rituals, I am literally untouchable for the days when I have my periods. I’m not allowed to go to temples, take part in holy rituals. In fact even people who touch me are considered impure and hence not fit to do anything which involves Gods. In earlier days, this was stretched to the extreme where women were not allowed to enter the kitchen, have any contact with others, refrain from touching anybody. I guess, with the passage of time, the growing financial contribution of working women to the house hold and the grip of the nuclear family on the modern society; it became clear to the male dominated Indian society that to keep the women isolated will do them no good. If the women enjoyed in isolation, who would do all the slave labour.. Earn the money, cook, clean, keep the house in order. So the lowly woman was allowed to enter the kitchen and do everything around the house…. But she was still kept away from God and everything holy, lest she makes it impure.

I researched the subject a bit to see if Hindu scriptures actually mention something about the acceptance of such untouchability. I also wanted to know if it’s just Hindus or are all religions equally fanatic about such forms of female domination. I was sure that they were and right I was.
My first problem was laying my hands on the right source to search Hindu religion’s views on the subject. Being a staunch believer that Hinduism is not a religion, this was kind of difficult. Apparently the views regarding this have their origin in the scriptures by Manu. Considering the fact that this guy was of the opinion that women should not be educated or given any kind of freedom, it’s not difficult to imagine that he really would not be too opposed to the idea of declaring women as impure generally, especially when she is having her periods. Christianity apparently prohibits women from accepting the Holy Communion during menstruation, however not many practice it – most women are not even aware of this prohibition. Guru Nanak, apparently condemned declaration of women as impure during the “special days”. Even Islam, for a change, didn’t target women alone. It just considers all impurities be removed before prayers and that includes menstrual blood, semen and vomit.

I understand where the concept could have stemmed from. Maybe in the ancient days, there were no effective ways of keeping a woman clean during menses - they hadn’t discovered sanitary napkins and tampons then, I guess. So maybe a woman walking about would not leave the best trail. So it would have made sense to keep a woman isolated to a room so that she doesn’t cover the house and surroundings with her menstrual blood. Also I would like to assume that they she was forbidden from house work was because she was maybe considered weak due to blood loss and stomach cramps to actually be productive around the house. I rather like that theory. So maybe it all started innocently with good intentions.

But nothing ever stays the same over time. So the interpretation changed and then somewhere over the ages, women became impure. I so abhor the thought and concept. Imagine someone telling you that you are impure. Believe me it’s the most insulting scenario you can face. It’s worse than racism – I think. I have in many instances entered temples when I’ve had periods. Unless God has already ruled eternal damnation for me and he is waiting for the right time to unleash his forces on me, I don’t think either God or I have been negatively affected by me entering his abode. The worse thing I think is that women strongly believe this concept and they alienate themselves from religious ceremonies when they are in their cycles. I think if we insist on being backward in our thoughts, next we can start actively practicing child marriages, sati cremations and all those wonderful concepts of our 5000 year old culture and tradition.