Religious Chauvinism

THE RED SHAME

Last year, in a college in Bhuj, a college principal forced the girls to remove their undergarments to prove that they were not menstruating.This happened after the hostel warden complained that the menstruating girls had entered kitchen and went near temple. Unfortunately, Such bizarre incidents of 'period shaming' are not very rare to hear, though most being unreported. 

Menstruation is a natural part of the reproductive cycle in which blood from the uterus exits through the vagina. Ironically, the same vagina which gives birth to human race is considered 'impure' when it bleeds each month  and so is the body of the girl. 

Shaming stems from secrecy and discretion which starts from the home itself. Mothers hide the sanitary pads in the cupboards.The moment a sanitary napkin ad plays on the TV, either the channel is changed or the kids are distracted. This stigma gets reflected in the commercial ads of sanitary pads which show a blue stain on the pads instead of blood. Just like the word 'sex' raises eyebrow in the society, so do the words 'menstruation' or 'period' . So, the admakers euphemize it with 'mushkil dino me' or 'un dino me'. Shopkeepers give the sanitary pads wrapped in newspapers or in black plastic bags.The shame and secrecy associated with menstruation have wide consequences. It forces girls to opt out of school once they reach puberty, impeding the growth of female literacy in India.

It results in improper disposal methods of sanitary pads thus harming the environment. Because the stigma is so pervasive , discussion on other related issues like disposal of menstrual wastes, menstrual hygiene,  affordability of menstrual products etc are always put on the backburner.

Seclusion and Restrictions 

 Every girl is more or less ostracised and discriminated for an inevitable and normal biological process that she goes through each month.  This untouchability cuts across societies, religion or regions. 

Menstruation already entails on a girl a variety of physical pain and weakness, hormonal imbalances and mood swings . If that wasn't enough, they have to deal with the family and society ready with a list of do's and don'ts to be followed by the menstruating girl. The diktats enforced range from  restrictions in daily life activities like not entering kitchen or prayer room, not touching the sources of water to being shamed and treated as untouchable or a jinx. The practice of making the menstruating girl sleep on the floor or a separate bed is common.In some parts of India and Nepal, there exists a practice of exiling women from their homes to huts or sheds during menstruation.  Unfortunately , all these often happens with the connivance of the mother or an elderly woman of the house who had already faced such discrimination but blindfolded by socio-religious norms, readily imposes the same on her daughter. Menstruating girls thus have to bear pain, shame and seclusion, all at once. They form a unique class of 'untouchables'. 

Religion : the oppressive catalyst 

Religions around the world have deeply entrenched patriarchy and misogyny. The rudimentary brains of early humans thought that women were being divinely punished by bleeding for a few days. This belief gradually got ingrained into the later religions made by men. Not surprising that, most religions (except Sikhism) strongly reinforce the notion of women becoming impure during menstrual cycle. 

♦️Islam 'excuses 'women to pray or fast or even touch Quran during menses.What if a girl feels absolutely fine during any point of her period and wants to pray or fast ? What if she wants to perform prayer or recite Quran as she hopes it may help her mood swings or peevishness? No, she cannot pray because her license to pray gets suspended temporarily each month when she is inevitably 'unclean'.

♦️ In Ramdhan, prohibition on fasting leads to awkward embarrassment and period shaming for Muslim girls who often eat secretly to not let the male members of their families know that they are menstruating. 

♦️ Prayer is a spiritual activity which just requires a  calm and focused state of mind with an intention to connect to the Almighty. Why should be Almighty bothered about it's own created bodily secretions and make it a reason for temporary suspension of one's desire to connect to Him? 

♦️  Hindu women aren't allowed to enter temples or puja room and kitchen. 

A person with a state of mind polluted with anger, lust, ego, avarice can enter temples and mosques, touch' holy books 'but a girl with a bleeding vagina cannot. Strange! 

If prayer is a complete spiritual process, why should a physiological process  become a reason to forbid it? For a girl ,menstruating days could be a time when she needs the divine connection more than ever. 

Breaking the mental shackles of should start from the women folk themselves.  

♦️ Call a spade a spade. During menstrual cramps, don't be quiet but express honestly that you are in pain because of periods , like you say openly when you have a stomach ache or headache. 

♦️ Don't whisper to the friend or shopkeeper asking for a pad. Ask in a normal voice like you ask for a Band-Aid when you get hurt 

♦️ Don't use discreet words or euphemism to make it palatable to the society. The usual code of ‘I am not feeling well’ needs to end. Be specific and transparent. . 

♦️ Question the restrictions imposed on your mobility when you bleed. Have open conversations with family and friends even when they tacitly try resist it.

The elephant in the room must be addressed.Far from being treated equality, women are still struggling for being treated with dignity.  A human is born out of a bleeding vagina. In the womb, The human baby derives its nourishment from the mother's blood through the placenta. If the vaginal fluid and blood makes a girl impure , by that logic, the birth of human race itself becomes impure. Menstruation is an indispensable and inevitable biological process, a mark of fertility without which human race shall cease to exist. Nothing more, nothing less. Instead of shaming women for this natural cycle, we should acknowledge that our very existence is dependent on it. 

 

DIFFERENT SHADES OF SAFFRON

Was Delhi victory for AAP completely on the developmental issues? No it's a mixed arithmetic.Why does kejriwal have to recite Hanuman chalisa or or provide free Hindu Pilgrimage (तीर्थयात्रा) or  Chant Jai Hanuman or immediately after the victory  go to Hanuman mandir with all the media around? He has time and again reinforced his 'Hindu' identity. Kejriwal had congratulated his twitter followers when Aurangzeb Road was renamed APJ Abdul Kalam Road. So he became a party to the Hindu rightist 's vision of the bad vs good Muslim. Kejriwal had supported the scrapping of Article 370 and had even distanced himself from the Shaheenbagh protest. 

So, Even leaders like kejriwal now have to succumb to this 'soft Hindutva'  and majoritarianism even after delivering on developmental goals and vociferously asserting it. Earlier it was wearing skullcap or visiting shrines or sharing the stage with a Muslim Maulana type leader to woo the Muslim voters. Now it's Ram and Hanuman. Let us not forget that the edifice of Hindutva has been built by the BJP on the foundations of Muslim appeasement by secular parties.When would this religious appeasement end? 

Non-BJP Parties like AAP and Congress have taken the Muslim votes for granted and have started wooing the core BJP voters by the 'Soft Hindutva'. Where the choice is between soft and hard Hindutva, Muslim voters are bound to choose the former.Left is no longer the antidote of right. Unfortunately, Muslims are now bound to choose between different shades of Saffron. In the wake of extreme 'Hindutva' , this may be political pragmatism but It risks  India becoming a nation where politics is arranged on the different wavelengths in the Right-wing spectrum.  

CAB: The Beginning of the End

First of all, most of us don't know that the prelude of the discriminatory aspect of the Citizenship Act is already a law for the last 3-4 years. In 2015 and 2016, the central government issued two notifications exempting certain groups of illegal migrants from provisions of the 1946 and the 1920 Acts.These groups are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014.This implies that except Muslims, all other groups of illegal migrants will not be deported or imprisoned if they are caught for being in India without valid documents. Even the RBI in 2018 kept out Muslims long-term Visa (LTV) holders from property buying right. LTV holders of all other religions were allowed to purchase one residential property in India. 

The Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 goes leaps ahead and seeks to provide Citizenship to religiously persecuted individuals from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan belonging to all the world major religions except the Muslims. The Act has the discriminatory element at its face value but the long- term repercussions of such differential treatment are way more dangerous. 

Why are Muslims protesting? 

♦️ After the NRC excercise is conducted pan-India, it's highly likely that millions of people (of all religions) will not be able to prove their citizenship owing to lack of few documents or some mistakes wherein. Out of all such left-out people, if they want to acquire Indian citizenship by naturalisation, as per the amended Citizenship Act, only Muslims will have to prove that they've been residing in India for atleast last 11 aggregate years, while people of all other religions will have to prove the same for only 5 years. That’s blatant discrimination against Muslims.

♦️ The Bill states that on acquiring citizenship: (i) such illegal immigrants shall be deemed to be citizens of India from the date of their entry into India, and (ii) all legal proceedings against them in respect of their illegal migration or citizenship will be closed. Hence, only Muslims immigrants will be left out and they may be imprisoned or deported under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920.

♦️ If persecution is the criteria for granting citizenships to immigrants, it's a fact that the Rohingyas of Myanmar,  Shia and Ahmadiyya Muslims  of Pakistan or the Hazras, Tajiks and Uzbeks of Afghanistan,Madhesis from Nepal or Tamils of Sri Lanka  or even Atheists face persecution in their countries.The UNO has called Rohingyas as the most persecuted minorities of the world. But BJP - led government won't grant them citizenship as the above-mentioned persecuted communities don't belong to the traditional vote bank of BJP.  Granting citizenship on the basis of religion is an absolute violation of Article 14 (Right to Equality) and a dishonor to the Indian Preamble, secularism being a part of its basic structure. 

♦️ The Act is also discriminatory in general because it shall provide citizenship to only those immigrants who entered India  before or on December 31, 2014. So, what about people who enter India after that date. Will they not have faced any persecution?

Why NRC is anti-poor? 

♦️ Millions of people in India have always lived under extreme poverty since ages. They don't own any land or house, neither  their forefathers did ; they never got admitted to any school. Can we expect such downtrodden people who live hand-to-mouth,  to show land and tenancy records to prove their citizenships? 

♦️ The unfortunate experience gained from NRC from Assam should serve as a warning to the rest of the country. Though the BJP is admitting that the  NRC process in Assam was “flawed”, it seems hell-bent to extend NRC to the rest of India. When the Assam exercise itself has given birth to a massive humanitarian crisis , can there be any rationale for extending it to even a single other Indian state, let alone whole of India? When the administrative cost of NRC in a small state like Assam alone cost thousands of crore, won't it be a financial disaster for India to afford pan+india NRC that would cost lakhs of crores at a time when the Indian economy is facing severe crisis?

Such a law that imperils the very secular foundation of our nation and create a huge humanitarian crisis should no doubt be protested against but the protest should be peaceful. Violence and Vandalism  are absolutely illegal, unethical and shall only dilute the public support and real cause the struggle stands for.

IRFAN

FISHING :No Less Cruel

Many people don't eat land animals and birds, not even eggs but are okay with eating fish. They justify this saying that fish aren’t raised in the cruel confinement of factory farms; fishing doesn’t require trees to be cleared for pasture lands or to grow feed crops or require huge amounts of pesticides and irrigation water ; fish don't scream, so they might not be feeling pain. All of these arguments are specious.

Fish does feel pain

1. Imagine someone forcibly keeps your head dip in a pool of water and you're gasping for air but all in vain. How suffocating and frightening it would be! The restlessness, panic, pain and struggle for life that you would feel is the same what fishes feel when they're out of water. Almost, every commercially-caught fish dies a slow and painful death from suffocation when it is pulled out of water and  kept tossed on the ice or rock. Fish caught in deep waters have it even worse: as they are pulled to the surface, depressurization can cause their organs to burst, or their stomachs to protrude from their mouths.

2. Sometimes we hear or see the news of a person accidentally been impaled by a metal rod or something. How painful it is even to hear that! So, definitely it wouldn't be a pleasure for the fish to be impaled on a fisherman's hook and be pulled out of the water.The hooks often pierced in the face, or even in the eyes of fish would cut its mouth open.

Researches prove that fish does feel pain.

Fish also have the tendency to move away from the pain-causing agent and this behavior is cognitive and not just reflexive. Fish don’t audibly scream when they’re impaled on hooks or grimace when the hooks are ripped from their mouths, but their behavior offers evidence of their suffering—if we’re willing to look. For example, when a biologist Braithwaite and her colleagues exposed fish to irritating chemicals, they lost their appetite, their gills beat faster, and they rubbed the affected areas against the side of the tank.
Fish, like “higher vertebrates,” have neurotransmitters such as endorphins that relieve suffering—the only reason for their nervous systems to produce these painkillers is to alleviate pain. Researchers have created a detailed map of more than 20 pain receptors, or nociceptors.

Eating fish isn’t healthy as you think

·       Industrial and municipal wastes and the agricultural chemicals flushed into the world’s waters are absorbed by the fish and get bioaccumulated in their bodies.

·       Fish can accumulate high levels of mercury and carcinogens like PCBs.(Polychlorinated Biphenyl). Fish is the main source of methyl mercury a substance that has been linked to cardiovascular disease, fetal brain damage, blindness, deafness, and problems with motor skills, language, and attention span. In USA, Seafood is also the number one cause of food poisoning.

Fish ‘Farming’ does exist and it’s cruel

·       Fish “farming” involves large-scale, highly mechanized production of fish Thousands of fish are crammed into ponds, troughs, or sea-floating cages, so that fish farmers can raise the greatest possible number of fish per cubic foot of water. In most cases, each fish is allotted a space scarcely larger than their body.

·       Farmed fish are fed pellets designed for unnaturally rapid weight gain. Under these abnormal intensely crowded conditions, fish suffer from stress, infections, parasites, oxygen depletion, and gas bubble disease.

·        In an effort to prevent the spread of disease among the fish, producers give them large amounts of antibiotics. Even so, many fish die before slaughter.

·       For economic reasons and to reduce fish feces, most farmed fish are starved for days or weeks before they are slaughtered.

·       Farmed” fish also are fed dyes to give their flesh a pink color, as well as massive amounts of antibiotics to stave off bacterial diseases and sea lice.

·       Ever heard of a cruel practice called Eyestalk ablation ?  Female prawns have their eye sliced open or cut off — usually without pain relief — to make them reproduce faster. It is routinely practiced on female shrimps (or prawns) in almost every marine shrimp maturation or reproduction facility in the world. Female prawns have a gland behind their eyes which tells their ovaries when to mature. In the wild this could be influenced by things like breeding season or environmental factors but prawn farmers have found that the stressful and crowded conditions on farms can make prawns reluctant to reproduce.By destroying this gland, farmers rapidly force ovary growth, denying female prawns the natural instinct to only reproduce when the conditions are right

Fishing destroys Environment.

Lets start by a ubiquitous term in fishing industry called "Bycatch". Modern fishing gear, often undetectable by sight and extremely strong, is very efficient at catching the desired fish species—as well as anything else in its path. So, it's not only the target fishes that get caught up in the fish gear or net but also huge amount of other marine lives—including turtles, dolphins and juvenile fish—Such 'unwanted' lives are then discarded overboard dead or dying. Now Some alarming figures :

·       About 40% of fish catch worldwide is unintentionally caught and is partly thrown back into the sea, either dead or dying.

·       It is estimated that over 300,000 small whales, dolphins, and porpoises die from entanglement in fishing nets each year, making this the single largest cause of mortality for small cetaceans.

Very often fishing gears or nets are lost or abandoned in the ocean. They are called 'Ghost net or Ghost gear'.Ghost nets don’t only catch fish; they also entangle sea turtles, dolphins and porpoises, birds, sharks, seals, and more. These nets continue to trap everything in their path, presenting a major problem for the health of our oceans and marine life.

·       A staggering 640,000 tonnes of ghost gear is left in our oceans each year – more than one tonne every minute

·        Every year more than 100,000 whales, dolphins, seals and turtles get caught in abandoned or lost fishing nets, lines and traps. Made of durable material, this ghost gear can take up to 600 years to break down. Some nets are bigger than football pitches.

·       Fish nets are major contributor to more than 8 million tonnes of plastic leaks into the ocean each year – equal to dumping a garbage truck of plastic every minute.

·       Bottom-trawling and dredging destroys the fragile sea floor and coral reefs which are extremely important for the ecosystem.

·       The farming of marine fish, crustaceans and even bivalves produces waste in the form of fecal matter and unused feed. These largely nitrogen-based wastes can cause oxygen depletion in coastal environments and a net loss of marine productivity in certain coastal areas. Additionally, the use of antibiotics, antifoulants, and pesticides are all problems that aquaculture can introduce into the marine environment.

·       Some fishing techniques cause habitat destruction. Blast fishing and cyanide fishing, which are illegal in many places, harm surrounding habitat.Blast fishing refers to the practice of using explosives to capture fish. Cyanide fishing refers to the practice of using cyanide to stun fish for collection. These two practices are commonly used for the aquarium trade and the live fish food trade.

So, next time, if a poker-faced fish ,unable to scream or show apparent signs of pain , falls short of arousing your compassion but waters your mouth, you can still skip eating it for the sake of your health and environment.

EVER WONDERED ?

MY ONLY WISH

May my heart know no joy, no sorrow

May it not wish for a better tomorrow 

May it be stoic to events - good or bad

May it strip all its emotional clads

May i have no expectation, no hope 

No desire to gain, No fear to lose

No amount of chaos unsettle my calm

Little brooding and no qualm

Jaded of this mortal role, 

Liberation now allures my vibrant soul.