Out of all the possible relationships between men and women, the institution of sisterhood has had an immaculate importance, specially in the societal traditions of India.The institution of sisterhood is in stark contrast to that of the institution of consorthood. While the former emanates the feelings of motherliness & daughterliness converging into the instinct of protecting & safeguarding, the latter harbors amorous innuendos of exploiting & pleasure seeking.
While being in consorthood, has conventionally been an exclusive and non-transferable privilege with a one-on-one coupling; extending the institution of sisterhood was universal. The classic dichotomy of addressing a woman of similar age-group was answered by simply terming her a sister at once. The corollary stood true whereby women could at once strike a sacred relationship with men of similar age.
This clear-cut acknowledgement has had been the foundations of a wonderful social order whereby women found it safe and secure across the spectrum. The institution of sisterhood worked beyond biological families within the social and community fold creating a safety net of unimaginable dimension.
Strikingly, this sacred institution of sisterhood is breaking. The rate of splintering is accelerating at a fast pace which in turn is abrogating the intact institutions of motherhood and daughterhood too. The increasing spate of sexual crime against women is a stark testimony to this hypothesis.
The institution of sisterhood used to act as a guardian angel to keep the carnal instincts of society under check which ironically the forces of consumerism have to exploit to the fullest to advance their growth statistics.
The institution of sisterhood used to check the objectification of womanhood in popular arts, cinema and consumerist promotions. There used to be a thin line of self-ordained decency whereby the sacred thread of relationships was not touched upon. If at all aberrations were to be depicted for artistic compulsions, the anti-dote narrative was always supplanted in the said context.
In a world of free market consumerism, the underlying writ is to evaluate all relationships between men and women from a singular yardstick of sexuality.
You don't have to go far to encounter the same. Mainstream Cinema, Tele-Serials and Product Promotions can establish at once this rabid infestation.
The central narrative being driven almost across the spectrum is to get the woman encountered laid in bed in the shortest possible time. This might be a crude exposition of the subtle nuances which are presented in variegated artistic manifestations, but the overarching mindgame centers around this narrative of consorthood.
The advertising campaign of Gaana.Com which started with a shy boy and an advancing girl meeting in a metro, catching up in parks & restaurants and ending up on a beach. The next phase of the campaign was to ameliorate it by showcasing a bikini party, setting it as the goal in the minds of the consumers. The simplistic message being indoctrinated is "even if you are a shy lad, if you spot a gal you can end up at a bikini party if you are a gaana.com consumer".
The "Jindagi na milegi Dobara" flick with all its open and wonderful storyline has its inline depiction of one-night frolic ridden escapade of Farhan Akhtar with a Spanish lass, won over by extending a spree of Casanovaic adventurism. Ingrained within the innocuous artistic settings of the flick, this escapade sets it as a legitimate goal of a foreign trip.
As far as the confines of cinema & advertising promotion is concerned, they are quite well within their right of artistic expression. Nonetheless, these amorous narratives when executed onto the social spaces do lead to inordinate complications for the serenity & semblance of the social order abrogating the entire web of sacred bonds & relationships.
You tend to raise a social orgasm by washing your hubby's underwear out in the open; you let go a married woman indulge in a hit-and-run sexual encounter amidst the sound of a passing religious procession just because the protagonist has worn some magic perfume; you make your lady actor consume a delicacy in the most erotic of the settings. This goes on and on.
Amidst such market driven settings, whereby every woman of the similar age-group has to be transposed as a potential consort, how could the institution of sisterhood survive?
These scripted narratives when consumed in an inebriated state lead to differential states of arousal of the body and mind, which raise their clamor for satiation in one way or the other.
The privileged lots do have their social structures intact to let go their arousals and get back into their saner state of mind, but the ones who are condemned to work under distressed conditions far off from their family bonding, retort to abominable crimes which cast havoc on societal sentiments.
The modern jurisprudence and intellectual scrutiny limits itself to the direct spokes of relationship in the evidence graph of the crime, but let go the entire envelope of influencers which they don't tend to restrain for the very reason as in their logical framework, these influencers are in the ambit of the unalienable human rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
The doctrine of state being the lone arbiter of citizen's conduct is a very recent one, but has led to immaculate complications in conventional settings of civilizations like India whereby social norms & conventions have had been guiding & goading social behavior with finesse. The intricate web of relationships and the underlying checks & balances championed over ages used to create a fantastic balance and restrained the aberrations at once. The just-in-time bond of responsibility forged by the social institution of sisterhood prevented all the nauseating aberrations of human relationships which we are encountering day-in and day-out without restraint.
Rakshabhandhan - the Indian festival commemorating the institution of sisterhood - need to reinvigorate its efficacy all over again. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's seminal endeavor to send all his Women Minister to have a public display of this institution of sisterhood would somewhere help to sensitize the society at large including its key influencers to impose a self-reflective restraint on their artistic expression in the larger interest of societal semblance.
In a civilization of antiquated customs, traditions & conventions which have shaped and cultured our societal fabric so very well, we should not let the modern constitutional frameworks limit the display and adherence to our finer relationship indices. The cultural nurturing & germination of millenniums can't be supplanted by any constitutional skeleton at once.
Though we do need the enforcement of modern constitutional constructs, we should look back and evaluate the veracity of our time tested traditions like the ones of the institution of sisterhood and make all out effort to resurrect them in all grandeur.
Hope this Rakshabandhan, sets in this Social Soul Searching on our part. Enjoying a public holiday on the occasion should add to its re-invigoration in its truest form.
While being in consorthood, has conventionally been an exclusive and non-transferable privilege with a one-on-one coupling; extending the institution of sisterhood was universal. The classic dichotomy of addressing a woman of similar age-group was answered by simply terming her a sister at once. The corollary stood true whereby women could at once strike a sacred relationship with men of similar age.
This clear-cut acknowledgement has had been the foundations of a wonderful social order whereby women found it safe and secure across the spectrum. The institution of sisterhood worked beyond biological families within the social and community fold creating a safety net of unimaginable dimension.
Strikingly, this sacred institution of sisterhood is breaking. The rate of splintering is accelerating at a fast pace which in turn is abrogating the intact institutions of motherhood and daughterhood too. The increasing spate of sexual crime against women is a stark testimony to this hypothesis.
The institution of sisterhood used to act as a guardian angel to keep the carnal instincts of society under check which ironically the forces of consumerism have to exploit to the fullest to advance their growth statistics.
The institution of sisterhood used to check the objectification of womanhood in popular arts, cinema and consumerist promotions. There used to be a thin line of self-ordained decency whereby the sacred thread of relationships was not touched upon. If at all aberrations were to be depicted for artistic compulsions, the anti-dote narrative was always supplanted in the said context.
In a world of free market consumerism, the underlying writ is to evaluate all relationships between men and women from a singular yardstick of sexuality.
You don't have to go far to encounter the same. Mainstream Cinema, Tele-Serials and Product Promotions can establish at once this rabid infestation.
The central narrative being driven almost across the spectrum is to get the woman encountered laid in bed in the shortest possible time. This might be a crude exposition of the subtle nuances which are presented in variegated artistic manifestations, but the overarching mindgame centers around this narrative of consorthood.
The advertising campaign of Gaana.Com which started with a shy boy and an advancing girl meeting in a metro, catching up in parks & restaurants and ending up on a beach. The next phase of the campaign was to ameliorate it by showcasing a bikini party, setting it as the goal in the minds of the consumers. The simplistic message being indoctrinated is "even if you are a shy lad, if you spot a gal you can end up at a bikini party if you are a gaana.com consumer".
The "Jindagi na milegi Dobara" flick with all its open and wonderful storyline has its inline depiction of one-night frolic ridden escapade of Farhan Akhtar with a Spanish lass, won over by extending a spree of Casanovaic adventurism. Ingrained within the innocuous artistic settings of the flick, this escapade sets it as a legitimate goal of a foreign trip.
As far as the confines of cinema & advertising promotion is concerned, they are quite well within their right of artistic expression. Nonetheless, these amorous narratives when executed onto the social spaces do lead to inordinate complications for the serenity & semblance of the social order abrogating the entire web of sacred bonds & relationships.
You tend to raise a social orgasm by washing your hubby's underwear out in the open; you let go a married woman indulge in a hit-and-run sexual encounter amidst the sound of a passing religious procession just because the protagonist has worn some magic perfume; you make your lady actor consume a delicacy in the most erotic of the settings. This goes on and on.
Amidst such market driven settings, whereby every woman of the similar age-group has to be transposed as a potential consort, how could the institution of sisterhood survive?
These scripted narratives when consumed in an inebriated state lead to differential states of arousal of the body and mind, which raise their clamor for satiation in one way or the other.
The privileged lots do have their social structures intact to let go their arousals and get back into their saner state of mind, but the ones who are condemned to work under distressed conditions far off from their family bonding, retort to abominable crimes which cast havoc on societal sentiments.
The modern jurisprudence and intellectual scrutiny limits itself to the direct spokes of relationship in the evidence graph of the crime, but let go the entire envelope of influencers which they don't tend to restrain for the very reason as in their logical framework, these influencers are in the ambit of the unalienable human rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.
The doctrine of state being the lone arbiter of citizen's conduct is a very recent one, but has led to immaculate complications in conventional settings of civilizations like India whereby social norms & conventions have had been guiding & goading social behavior with finesse. The intricate web of relationships and the underlying checks & balances championed over ages used to create a fantastic balance and restrained the aberrations at once. The just-in-time bond of responsibility forged by the social institution of sisterhood prevented all the nauseating aberrations of human relationships which we are encountering day-in and day-out without restraint.
Rakshabhandhan - the Indian festival commemorating the institution of sisterhood - need to reinvigorate its efficacy all over again. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's seminal endeavor to send all his Women Minister to have a public display of this institution of sisterhood would somewhere help to sensitize the society at large including its key influencers to impose a self-reflective restraint on their artistic expression in the larger interest of societal semblance.
In a civilization of antiquated customs, traditions & conventions which have shaped and cultured our societal fabric so very well, we should not let the modern constitutional frameworks limit the display and adherence to our finer relationship indices. The cultural nurturing & germination of millenniums can't be supplanted by any constitutional skeleton at once.
Though we do need the enforcement of modern constitutional constructs, we should look back and evaluate the veracity of our time tested traditions like the ones of the institution of sisterhood and make all out effort to resurrect them in all grandeur.
Hope this Rakshabandhan, sets in this Social Soul Searching on our part. Enjoying a public holiday on the occasion should add to its re-invigoration in its truest form.
