BROADLY approximating the universal trend, women in our country journeyed from a position of relative freedom to progressively tightening bondage. This was true both within the Vedic period (which spanned some 17 or 18 centuries from the 12th century BC to the 5th century AD) and the periods that followed. During the pastoral nomadic life as described in the Rgveda (the earliest of the Vedas) women participated in productive labour outside home and enjoyed relative freedom. The Rgveda takes note of what is now called incest between father and daughter as well as brother and sister (e.g. Yama and Yami). After Aryans settled down to an agricultural life, with the introduction of plough on a very fertile soil and the resumption of maritime trade with the Middle East, Greece and Rome, considerable wealth accumulated in the hands of a minority. Women, those from the upper classes and varnas to begin with, came to be divorced from productive labour (this was facilitated by the use of slave labour) and made subservient to the male breadwinner — father/brother/husband/son. By this time or simultaneously with this process, women had been deprived of the right to education and artistic/literary vocations. Their seclusion in the inner chambers of the wealthy families, where unrelated males had no access, ensured patrilineal inheritance to legitimate sons only.

At least since the 8th century BC or thereabouts, women had as a rule no right to property. And not even to her own body. “When a wife refuses to satisfy her husband’s sexual desire”, says Yagnavalkya, “he should first speak soft words, then try to purchase her with gifts, and if she still refuses he should thrash her with his hand or with a stick and force her into subjugation.” (Compare this to Verse 34 of an-Nisa, which says a husband should urge his reluctant wife to mend her ways, refuse to share beds with her, and admonish her by beating). Polygamy was widely practised: Manu was credited with ten wives. Prostitution, abduction of women, leniency towards men’s sexual lapses as contrasted against the severe punishments meted out to women for similar or lesser lapses, discrimination against the girl child and social ostracisation of mothers who begot only girls, dowry (which was generously sanctioned while kanyashulka, very rare by itself, was discouraged), sati — you name it and the ancient texts have it.

As the stories of rsikas like Gargi and Maitreyi tell us, in the early Vedic period women from higher strata participated in religious practices as well as theological-philosophical studies and debates. But this freedom was circumscribed by male domination. Recall the well-known episode of Gargi- Yagnavalkya debate. When the former cornered the latter – a more renowned sage – in logical arguments, she was silenced by an unwarranted censure: “stop questioning any further, or else your head will fall down.”

However, Gargi at least had the right to participate in an open debate with a religious scholar. In our age, when at a public religious function held in Kolkata in 1994 Arundhati Roy Chowdhury was about to recite from the Vedas as scheduled, the Shankaracharya of Puri rudely stopped her. Women are not allowed to read the Vedas, he ordered. But if this showed the negative trend – the continued and in some cases tightened grip of Brahmanical patriarchy – the positive aspect was also there. Gargi had no one to rise in her support; in the case of Ms. Roy Chowdhury the insult was strongly rebuffed by AIPWA comrades. The very next day they stormed the hotel where the Shankaracharya was staying and gave him a sound thrashing in the presence of mediapersons. The AIDWA was nowhere to be seen, but the incident sparked protests from all progressive and democratic quarters.

From Yagnavalkya through Manu to the Shankaracharyas (past and present, and Singhals and Togadias), Brahmanism-Hinduism-Hindutva have consistently served to legitimise and intensify gender oppression in this country. While this has been generally true for all religions all over the world, in certain periods class struggle in the ideological realm found expression, among other things, in the rise of relatively progressive faiths or sects. In our context mention may be made of Buddhism and Jainism – which gave women a place of honour including eligibility for admission to the religious order – and the bhakti movement which sought to weaken the grip of Brahmanism and thereby also to somewhat improve women’s status. Particularly notable was Sikhism, which in its initial period enjoyed the patronage of Emperor Akbar. Sikh Scriptures declared women to be men’s equal, with the right to lead religious congregations, to take part in the akhand path, to work as a granthi, to participate in social and secular activities, and so on. Female infanticide was prohibited, and use of the veil, sutak (the custom of keeping a woman in solitary confinement after childbirth) etc. discouraged. The precepts were, however, practised only partially. As time passed casteist and other influences from Hinduism infiltrated Sikhism in a large measure, making the positions of women as well as lower caste men more or less equal to their counterparts professing other religious faiths.

These and similar experiences in other faiths including Islam shows that women’s subordination was not created by religion nor can it be abolished by religious or humanitarian preaching. It originated from given socio-economic conditions of class societies and can be done away with only on the basis of revolutionary transformation of those conditions.

The universal as well as peculiarly Indian modes of oppression on women, which arose in ancient times, in most cases became more intensified during the mediaeval period and have continued to this day in what Engels called “embellished” forms. We cannot discuss the entire process here; it would be more pertinent to come straight to the basic socio-economic mechanism of exploitation of women in our era.

(Most of the information used here is from “Women and Society in Ancient India” by Professor Sukumari Bhattacharji)