Today my sister tied a Rakhi to me, so I thought about the topic of “Rakhi” and here is what I came up with.
If we look into the history or reason of Rakhi, it seems that women are weaker than men, that is, men are stronger, so the weak should take the protection of the strong, or have to take it, to stay alive, besides men are stronger and women are weaker. Therefore, men and women are not equal. Women are weak in intellect and physical strength, this is the teaching given by “Manusmriti”. And it was also made a law that women should not do men’s work. Valorous courage, battlefield work should only be done by men, women should not do fighting work, because the female caste is weak in intellect and strength, weak. Therefore, she should only do the work of the hearth and children, housework and labor and cleaning, like the untouchable society, only women should do the dirty work of the house, besides, she loses blood due to menstruation and becomes weak, besides menstruation is dirt.
That is, a woman is a dirty thing, therefore she is untouchable. Therefore, her status in Manusmriti is “untouchable”. “Society remained like this. Women have no common sense, women’s wisdom is only for the stove, such sayings were also popularized. Due to Manu’s laws that discriminated between men and women and the propagation of Vedic religion, the education of Pothi Purana, Katha Kirtan, the mentality of women became “Really we are weak and men are strong, all the abilities and skills are with men. We do not have something called common sense, it is with men”. Men also had the same mentality. Due to this wrong law and education, women started feeling insecure somewhere, so they started feeling that it was necessary to take protection from men, in fact, brother and sister are born from the same mother’s womb, so it is the duty of both of them that they should support each other in every matter. However, maybe she is not sure about her brother or to make him aware or to bind him to her protection, every year on the full moon of this month, the sister By tying a rakhi, one would “beg” one’s brother, or tell him, “Brother, you are a man, so you are strong and intelligent, and I am a woman, so I am weak and helpless. You and I were born in the womb of the same mother. Keeping this in mind, I am tying this protective bond on your wrist so that you may always be ready to protect me.” (Why is rakhi on the wrist, because the wrist has the strength to wield a sword).
This custom of tying rakhi was created to remind us of this, or so that a woman should not forget that she is weak, so she should tie rakhi every year. This is the idea behind tying rakhi, which is against the equality of men and women. It discriminates between men and women.
Actually, instead of calling this Rakhi Raksha Bandhan, it should have been taught that it is a bond of love, that is, a bond of love that makes one realize the unbreakable bond of love between a brother and a sister, but that does not fit into the principle of inequality. Therefore, the wise men of Manuwadi thought must have found the name “Raksha Bandhan” important and necessary. Because they did not want to make women self-reliant, but to keep them dependent. A woman is not a human being but a tool, for consumption and beauty. For the male class. That is the idea behind it. This idea is not only unequal, but also unjust. It is restrictive.
To free women from this bondage, Babasaheb Ambedkar, a great man of egalitarian tradition and ideology, wrote a constitution with the law of equality and included the Hindu Code Bill in it. Initially, this Hindu Code Bill of women’s freedom, self-reliance, equality between men and women was not approved in the Constituent Assembly. Not only men who had the superstitions of traditionalist, unequal old ideas, but also women opposed it. The majority rejected this Hindu Code Bill, so Babasaheb resigned from his post. Due to Babasaheb’s displeasure, Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Nehru got this Hindu Code Bill approved in some subsequent sessions of Parliament one by one.
If we understand this history of women’s liberation, then the reader will definitely have to say that the law to stop the practice of Sati to make a dependent woman self-reliant, to free a woman who was in bondage, the law to separate a woman from her husband who beat her, the law to break the bond of seven births, the law to give her a share in her father’s property if she is left by her husband, the law to give her a government or private job, the law to give women alimony in divorce, the law to give women maternity leave, holidays, and alimony to divorced women, Babasaheb brought many such laws for Hindu women and liberated them. And he presented the idea that women are better than men in any field, and he also included women in the army and police recruitment. And women are not weak, they have the ability to protect themselves, not only that, they can become policemen and protect the people, they are not stupid, they can also become collectors, they can even fight on the country’s borders with guns in their hands, not only that, but if women are given equal rights and opportunities and freedom, they can also become the President and the Prime Minister. Babasaheb realized that women could also govern the country, so he freed women from the constraints of the Law of Manu and protected them with the laws of the Indian Constitution.
That is, Babasaheb tied the rakhi called Hindukodbil not only on the wrist of his beloved but also on the wrist of all the sisters, and this rakhi of protection i.e. self-protection and self-reliance and the rakhi of freedom i.e. the thread of bondage was tied by Babasaheb. Babasaheb proved to be the liberating brother of all the Indian sisters. In fact, women should not forget this favor of Babasaheb not only in seven births but in every birth. Therefore, on every Rakhi full moon, every sister should awaken this memory of Babasaheb while tying rakhi to her brother, doing so would be a tribute to him.
