the position of women in Hinduism
Chaudhary, Parul. “Gender inequality in Hindu and Muslim personal laws in India.” International Journal of Home Science 1, no. 1 (2015): 34-37.
The article, Gender inequality in Hindu and Muslim personal laws in India, is written by Parul Chaudhary. The central idea in this resource is how gender inequality is perpetuated in the Hindu and Muslim communities. Women encounter so many difficulties or differences, which leads to stumbling blocks in their way of life. A state like India constitutes of diverse backgrounds as well as religions. While there are various religious groups in India, so are the laws that guide people of different backgrounds. For example, each religion has rules relating to how people intermarry, divorce, guardianship, or succession.in these laws. The author depicts that women are limited in the number of rights compared to men. Basically, personal religious laws give is the cause of most taboos like early marriages, domestic violence, and dowry. From this source, the author posits that it appears society has a plonked verdict on women making them feel inferior and helpless. The upbringing of women in such a society is done in a way that their voices are not heeded when they speak against discrimination. Despite the government’s effort to try uplift women’s status through approaches like education to girls and the implementation of civil code, much work needs to be done. The significance of this resource is its effort to pinpoint how women are less acknowledged and relevant in some societies.
Klingorová, Kamila, and Tomáš Havlíček. “Religion and gender inequality: The status of women in the societies of world religions.” Moravian Geographical Reports 23, no. 2 (2015): 2-11.
Klingorová and Havlíček, in their work, try to explore the position of women in Hinduism by looking at the status females have in societies of religious in the world. In general, the authors point out that women’s status in the world is diverse, and one of the traits associated with gender differentiation is religion. Some religious traditions or norms contribute to gender inequalities formation and the subordinate role of women in society. In this resource, the authors use an exploratory study analysis to look at the influence of religiosity on gender inequality in the social, economic, and political aspects. Based on data obtained from selected states, the authors observed that women’s status appears to be problematic in the Hinduism community. On the contrary, women’s engagement in their labor market is better than those of Muslim states. Hinduism limits women from being economically independent, and authors cite that to be the cause of gender inequality. Women seem to be subject to minority, whether in research or as study participants. According to the authors, there is a big correlation between gender differences and religious practices. By observation, the gap of inequality seems to be high in states with high religiosity. By far, Hinduism contributes significantly to forming women’s status through ideologies, as discussed in the article, hence its relevance.
Pathak, Hari Priya. “Hinduism and Women Religious Beliefs and Practices.” In Proceedings of the 13th International RAIS Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities, pp. 228-235. Scientia Moralitas Research Institute, 2019.
The central idea in this article by Pathak is that religion plays a vital role in shaping women’s practices and beliefs. Through religious beliefs or practices, women behave in specific ways or follow and obey a particular position in society. According to Pathak, religion plays a vital role in structuring society in a particular way through enforced morals or norms. Like other religions, Hinduism guides Hindus to live and behave in a particular way since the culture of Indian societies. Some ancient Hindu scriptures support the feminine principle, a woman as a goddess to be worshipped. In ancient times, women’s coordination confirmed with religion, and they seemed to enjoy freedom, liberty, and equality. However, the emergence of new religious teachings like Sastras or Epics, the ideal of a woman, was redefined, leading to practices where females are subservient to males. As such, the author points out that such a dissonance conflict of religious beliefs with practices has reinforced today, witnessing a steep rise in many crimes against women. The resource is useful in helping understand how women’s position has changed in the context of Hinduism.
Thakur, Pallavi. “A journey of Hindu women from Shakti to Sati in ancient India.” International Journal of Engineering, Technology, Science, and Research 4, no. 6 (2017): 383-385.
The resource by Pallavi Thakur seek to explore the relationship between practices and lives of Hindu women. The author presumes that Hindu has always been a religion looked upon in Indian society to guide moral behaviors or provide a code of conduct. On the contrary, the society of modern Hinduism appears to be different, enveloped by the context of materialism, which washes away the essence of being a true Hindu. Women have been pushed to a situation of an identity crisis- dowry death, discrimination, domestic issues, and sexual exploitation. Such social issues have become so rampant I the society incoherent with how Hindu dictates. According to the author, this grim situation forces the need for pondering reasons for the transformed attitude of Hindu society towards women. Looking at the topic like education, it is deemed essential for the growth of a society. Education help removes ignorance and substitutes with knowledge. Conventional social codes govern a society that fails to consider education. Initially, women in the Hindu community enjoyed education and became well-versed in texts. Additionally, they learned music or dancing. Education as a tool sustained by constitutional rights, women enjoy it, but still, they are not fully liberated from conventional dictates inflicted through Hinduism.