Chowrangi

Purdah among Hindus

Muslims are not the only ones who observe purdah. Some Hindus also do it.

According to Jawed Naqvi (DAWN 9 Apr, 2009), the first Indian president (Rajendra Prasad) “was not allowed to see the face of his wife for the first several years he spent with her in his village in Bihar. A maid would accompany him to his wife’s room in the middle of the night, after everyone had gone to sleep. The hurricane lamp would then be blown out. Before dawn, Dr Prasad had to slip back into his bed with the rest of the family”.

This reminds me of the Arab tribe about which I wrote sometime back, where the men are not allowed to see the faces of their wives or other women in the family.

I wonder how a man would identify a female accident victim. But then, where they live, they probably don’t have roads or cars, but suppose such a man and his wife have gone to perform Haj, and his wife is killed during a stampede. How would he be able to identify his dead wife among several dead bodies?

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Shakir Lakhani

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14 responses to “Purdah among Hindus”

  1. Mohammad Yusha Avatar
    Mohammad Yusha

    @ Mr. Spratt: It seems as though your feeble mind was not able to comprehend what I said. I have also noticed from your comments in other posts that you have difficulty understanding what is being said.

    Reply
  2. James Killian Spratt Avatar
    James Killian Spratt

    Hi, Shakir: I knew they were pretty free with it, and it follows that if they were so they wouldn’t notice the cause-and-effect, nor bother with marriage. English Captains could be real stick-in-the-muds. It could be the way of isolated peoples to offer their wives to refresh their gene pools, wise old elders knowing things in their, I mean, OUR uncanny way. Which reminds me–

    –Mohammad, m’boy, I think your glands are aboil, and it’s got you a mite confused. That’s because there are two sides to anything, and you’re seeing both sides of women, the interestingest things there are, and you haven’t made up your mind which side is interestinger, wrapped or unwrapped.
    But have no fear, it will come to you before long, and in the meantime, celebrate thy youth, O Young Man. A few rounds of ferocious soccer or some such will do you a world of good, and it’ll all be better in the mornin’.
    The best to you, young Sir; you’ve got potential.

    Reply
  3. Shakir Lakhani Avatar
    Shakir Lakhani

    James, in case you don’t know, among the Polynesians there was no concept of marriage. They didn’t know that women became pregnant because of sex, they only knew that it gave pleasure, so it was free for all. In the movie “Mutiny on the Bounty”, there is an uproar when the English ship’s officer is prevented by his captain from having sex with the tribal chief’s daughter. I understand that this was the custom among some Eskimo tribes as well. The wife of the host would offer herself to a guest, and if the latter refused, he risked being killed. The Polynesians were converted to Christianity in the nineteenth century by missionaries and stopped being promiscuous.

    Reply
  4. Mohammad Yusha Avatar
    Mohammad Yusha

    Burka is a personal choice.

    How does a handful of people looking at boys compare with the millions of sick perverts who stare at women.

    Reply
  5. James Killian Spratt Avatar
    James Killian Spratt

    American Mormons also practice purdah, by making their women wear long dresses to the ground and bonnets that cover all but their faces. Baptists, to some extent, are also fussy how their women dress, in a Puritan way. They tend toward illiteracy, and read only their Holy Book, the Bible, if that.
    Young males are highly possessive of their women, their greatest treasures, and watchful against other males who would take the cuckoo’s role. Every adult knows that it takes only as long as it takes water to run from a broken vessel to ruin a marriage forever, even here, everywhere. This is not unique to Islam.
    A woman is an object and a possession, especially when she is of breeding age.
    With liberation comes responsibility, and it falls on the females to protect themselves. And they’d better, or no man will want them for more than a little while. A man should take a long time to get to know a “liberated” woman before he gets too close to her, to find out if she’s sexually trustworthy, and she has to prove it to his satisfaction.
    Are other people’s children beautiful, too? They’re only children, y’know, and didn’t ask for any of this. But do you really want to raise someone else’s child, unbeknownst?
    On the other hand, when an experienced woman chooses you over all others, knowing the difference, it’s a bit more to be proud of, isn’t it? And her paycheck doesn’t hurt things, either, huh?
    Food for heavy thought.

    Reply
  6. Shakir Lakhani Avatar
    Shakir Lakhani

    Yusha: what you say is not logical. There are men who stare at young boys also. Would you recommend that all boys should also wear the burka?

    Reply
  7. Mohammad Yusha Avatar
    Mohammad Yusha

    …and do purdah. I’ve seen some people stare at burka clad women. I don’t know what they were trying to see. Sickos.

    Reply
  8. Mohammad Yusha Avatar
    Mohammad Yusha

    The way people stare at women in the subcontinent, I think every women here needs a burka.

    Reply
  9. Shakir Lakhani Avatar
    Shakir Lakhani

    General, illiterate men feel insecure, especially where their wives are concerned. In Pakistan, such men are deeply suspicious and jealous, and it’s not uncommon for a man to kill his wife if he suspects that she’s not faithful to him. Sometimes a man comes home, hears his wife talking to a male inside, rushes in, shoots both the man and the woman, then finds that he has killed his own (or her) brother.

    Reply
  10. Lt. General Ayub Khan Avatar
    Lt. General Ayub Khan

    the concept of purdah is alien to me. It amazes me how some people, regardless of race or religion, can be so backwards.

    Reply
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