Please leave emotions a side about the brother-sister loving relation, sacred thread / Rakhee etc., for a moment to read this:
In the olden days women were not individuals, but property, if they were not killed at birth. They were bought & sold in those days. They were stolen, kidnapped, raped and even killed! No questions asked. They had no rights except to decorate themselves as pleasure toys! Till the age of 12 a girl child was the responsibility of father. After marriage, she was the responsibility of husband. So every family wanted their child to be married at her 10th or 12th year, it does not matter even if the groom was 70 years old! Speaking in a word, a woman had neither identity nor protection. Indian History, Mythology, Upanishads and the Vedas have innumerable examples. After conquering a kingdom, the victorious only looted two things – gold and women.
In this back drop, a tradition /a festival /a practice started – the practice of Raksha Bandhan. A day was devoted for this practice (30th Aug 2023, for this year). On this day every woman ties a sacred thread to the wrist of her brother /a brother like person /simply to a man who she trusts with a request to protect her from being purchased, sold, stolen, kidnapped, raped, killed etc. and the brother promises to protect.
Celebrating Raksha Bandhan in 21st Century is but degrading all woman kind. Today’s women are educated, smart, hold equal rights in property, have voting rights etc. In other words, unlike yester years/centuries she is not a property who can be stolen. She is an individual. She has the law on her side. She is financially independent. She has developed over these centuries that capacity that she not only became stronger (in every sense) than man but also capable of protecting him.
Observing Raksha Bandhan (it cannot be called celebration – what is there to celebrate?) in 21st Century is like walking forward toward future while looking backwards to tradition. We are bound to fall. Let us observe Raksha Bandhan only if we consider women as property!
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com