Immortal India: Articles and Speeches by Amish

by Amish Tripathi

However, the truth is that our resplendent tradition also offers a solid foundation for alternative insights, including the strongly matrilineal. For example, while the hugely popular Tulsidasji’s Ramcharitmanas (a sixteenth-century modernisation of the original tale of Lord Ram) depicts Lady Sita as submissive and docile, the original Ramayan, scripted by Maharishi Valmiki, has a much stronger Lady Sita, portrayed as a woman with a mind of her own. The Lady Sita of Adbhut Ramayan (one among the hundreds of interpretations of Ramayan) is a fierce warrior Goddess. Even Lord Manu, the apparent torch-bearer of Hindu patriarchy, had espoused that ‘where women are honoured, the Gods are pleased.’ Perhaps liberal Hindus should highlight these alternative perspectives from the past to those who think a woman is inferior. A Deobandi fatwa makes it unlawful for Muslim women to find employment in mixed-gender work groups. Many non-Muslims may be unaware of the illustrious Lady Khadija al-Kubra, who ran a hugely successful trading business in ancient Arabia and donated large sums to charity. She would later marry one of the agents who worked for her, Mohammad Ibn Abdullah, a man who was fifteen years her junior; and her husband honoured and loved her. We know Him today as the Prophet Mohammad. Perhaps liberal Muslims should mention the example of Lady Khadija to those co-religionists who think women should be suppressed.