Is the average Indian woman frustrated? How?

An average Indian woman mirrors the whole community of women in Indian society with their desires, their frustrations, their depressions, and the like. They all are breathing souls, with a body full of desires and a mind hardly free to guide them in fulfilling their desires, in the circumstances enforced on them by their families or by their mere existence on this earth. 

In ancient times, women in India occupied an honored position in society and excelled in social, intellectual, and spiritual spheres. The Buddha, by permitting women to join the religious order, gave impetus to the spread of education and philosophy. The average intelligence and education among women was, therefore, high. Up to the 12th century, there was no ‘Purdah’ and co-education was prevalent.

There were poetesses, warriors, athletes, critics and philosophers. Devi, Maitreyi, Lilawati and Gargi excelled in different branches of learning. Nayanika of Andhra Dynasty and Prabhavati of Vakataka Dynasty were in charge of the whole kingdom. Rani of Jhansi needs no introduction. Sikh history, too, has Mai Sada Kaur, Harsaran Kaur, Sohag Kaur and Mai Bhago Shinese, who were bright stars in the firmament.

The position of women deteriorated in the latter Hindu period and their decline became more rapid with the advent of the Muslim rule. The 18th century saw a decline in their literacy to such an extent that in the 19th century hardly one woman in a hundred could read. The general image of Indian women that emerged is that she is homely type, as Tennyson sings;

’Men for the fields and women for the hearth’.(The Princess)

She can cook, sew, wash, knit, rear children, serve the elders of the house and do all household jobs, without ever craving for a paisa or even for a holiday from her jobs. All her life the mother or the mother-in-law din in her ears the importance of such things in her life. Nearly all of them labor under the impression that Indian ideal womanhood is the picture of a woman who always wears a veil remains indoor, never talks with a male stranger, worships her husband as a god, and so on.

In the 20th century owing to the influence of Western ideas, the transformation of the social outlook of the people, the combined effort of the social reformers, the efforts of the government and the re-awakening of the social and political consciousness amongst women there seemed to be an increasing urge for the education of women.

The modern society of the 21st century is nurturing woman as liberal, self-dependent, economically free individuals having choices of their own in their life. They are literally leading an independent life but the two cultures, the ancient culture having a solid hold on the Indian society and the modern one having a lot more to give to the woman along with a thinking mind, are tearing her apart. She can choose neither of the two.

If she goes with ancient tradition she loses her identity and remains a dumb, lifeless doll and if she goes with the modern concept she needs to be economically free, which is not always possible and she needs social security which is not possible as she is surrounded with hounds in the guise of men. Even if she has choices, due to her economic dependency, she behaves like an immature person depending on others to make choice for her and as a result, she suffers and remains frustrated.

And what they, the average Indian women, equally and surprisingly realize is that they have been beaten up by men in the race of life and that they have been denied of all that makes a life livable.

They are still hearing the age-old tale of the prince on a white horse coming to choose them as their bride but in reality, they remain a puppet wrapped in a sari, to suit the Indian frame of womanhood, smiling on their lot under frustration.