A
new movement for women rights is being developed in India on the
occasion of Kumbhamela in Nashik. One sadhwi has demanded a separate
position for women ascetics called sadhwi. Her demand is not very big
however, concerned authorities have refused her any co-operation in
that demand.
She
has said that certain needs of these women sadhwis are much different
from those of male sadhus. She wanted separate places for them so
that they can manage their needs without inconvenience. Today they
are not having that separate facility to respect women's privacy, and
so it creates much inconvenience to these women. To achieve that she
demands that these women sadhwis will have a separate camp called
Akhada. Men have all the Akhadas of their types and women are forced
to be included in one of them.
Now
this sadhwi says she wants to create her own separate Akhada to
accommodate these inconvenienced women sadhwis. Existing authorities
in this matter who are primarily connected with sankaracharya
institute refuse to recognize her demand even though her demands are
natural and very much essential as women are different from men in
many ways. They have monthly period of which men know nothing. These
and other requirements of women must be understood but we see that
present authority is oblivious of that need. As we know this is a
man's world sankaracharya institute is no exception to this rule.
To
add to that our media is also controlled by men and women are only
subordinate to them. As a result I observe that this sadhwi is being
misinterpreted by all the concerned man's institutes. Here I want to
take a separate stand in this regard even though I am also a man. It
is not necessary that all men must be unjust to the demands of women.
Many media people try to show her past but the way they show is not
acceptable to me. They depict, this woman was a married wife of
somebody and on realizing that she should separate from him she
separated and began her ascetic life. What is wrong in that? Almost
all ascetic begin their career as sadhus only after having lived a
life of married men; then what is wrong if a woman does that? The
type of criticism thrown on her shows mean mindedness of this media
people.
The
point of issue is whether her demands are genuine or not. If they are
genuine we should support it. However, as she realized that her
demands are not being heard she wanted to declare a separate
sankarachary seat of her own to get what she wanted to achieve for
the benefit of her fellow women sadhwis. I appreciate her stand. It
is no doubt a very bold move to declare her own seat of sankarachara
to get her demands accepted. We believe that present Akhada tradition
began at the instance of adi sankar in nineteenth century and it is
continuing till present time. These Akhada accommodate certain types
of sadhus who accept and follow the traditions of those Akhadas.
Generally women sadhus, sadhwis, are not welcome in these manly
institutes. However, there are many women sadhwis of merits and they
need be accommodated with necessary changes or present sankaracharya
should allow her what she wants and co-operate with her by allowing a
new women's Akdada; so that women sadhwis are properly placed in the
order of sadhus. By not co-operating with her, present sankaracharya
has shown to be not fit to be a sankaracharya.
Unfortunately
other women sadhwis are not understanding the importance of her
demand, but that is not new; we often see women trying to shy away
from any bold move by other bold women and continue to tow lines of
men to keep away from affront from men.
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