Ideology of Hindu Case Study
Since its independence, India has made a spectacular breakthrough in socio-economic and political development, achieved outstanding success in modern areas of high technology, science and economy. Nowadays the country develops in conditions of political stability based on democracy. The shift in the public consciousness, individualization interests and political behavior of citizens indicate that India slowly but steadily moves towards the formation of civil society. At the same time, a definite number of social problems stand on the way of establishing the latter, and one of them is Indian female social situation.
To begin with, modern India is a country which follows two trends in its development: on the one hand, the rapid changes of industrial economy, on the other – so-called “revival” ideology of Hindu (Brown, 1985). Its main characteristic is the idealization of past experience outside historical specificity and time frames, mythologizing ancient society and prescribing it the virtues of total harmony and social justice. According to the degree of importance and influence on public life, the most important role belongs to the caste which establishes the principles of government (endogamy and availability exogamous internal divisions), its ideology (cleanliness, desecration, hierarchy, status etc.), and psychology (internal solidarity and external isolation) that spread to the whole society. Despite the fact that the Constitution of independent India (1950) proclaimed equality of all people and prohibited discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste affiliation, gender and place of birth, the caste system today is the most solid foundation of social organization, and therefore, women along with Dalit and Adivasi are in the position of vulnerable social groups.
In recent times, the barbaric tradition of murder in defense of honor and dowry has widely spread in India. Honor killing is a traditionally sanctioned murder of a girl or woman committed by her closest relatives for her “dishonorable” act or misconduct. The signs of “disgrace” are usually seen in the local culture as sexual acts, adultery, premarital sex, rape, attempt to get a divorce or even enter the marriage of one’s choice. Sometimes relatives force a woman to suicide which is also a part of the honor killing (Pope, 2013).
Most human rights activists rightly consider killing for family honor as a part of the wider problem of violence against women. For example, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in India more than 5,000 brides and young married women die each year for the reason that men believe their relatives’ dowry is insufficient. In 2009, there were arrested more than 174,000 people on charges of cruelty against women caused by dowry and more than 23,000 on charges of murdering women on the same ground (Pope, 2013). According to some human rights advocates, the murder of women because of dowry and betrayal are similar in nature to murder for honor, because they are committed by men that are family members, and these crimes are considered as “legitimate” and “understandable” in terms of tradition.
The other …
