Islamic invasion gave birth to child marriage, ‘sati pratha’: RSS leader
Exhorting women to pursue their desired fields, RSS leader Krishna Gopal said they should also take care of their family and manage the kitchen
Social evils, such as child marriage, ‘sati pratha’ (burning of widows), a ban on widow re-marriage, cropped up in the Indian society, leading to subjugation of women, due to the Islamic invasion, senior RSS functionary Krishna Gopal said on Sunday.
Addressing an event titled ‘Nari Shakti Sangam’, organised at the Delhi University, Gopal said various kinds of restrictions were imposed on women and girls in the medieval period to protect them from invaders.
Stating that the medieval period was a very “difficult” time, he said, "The entire country was struggling with subjugation. Temples were demolished, big universities destroyed and women were in danger.”
“Lakhs of women were abducted and sold in markets the world over. Be it (Ahmad Shah) Abdali, (Muhammad) Ghori, (the Mahmud of) Ghazni, all of them took women from here and sold them in markets across the world. It was an era of great humiliation,” Gopal said.
He said, to protect women from these invaders, several societal restrictions were imposed on them and "as a result, they stopped going to schools, gurukuls ... and became uneducated".
The RSS leader also claimed that the practice of child marriage started as people used to get theirs daughters married off at a young age to protect them from invaders.
“There was no sati pratha in our country.... But jauhar (self-immolation) started happening, women started becoming sati. Restrictions on remarriage of widows were imposed with a large number men getting killed in wars, resulting in a shortage of men," he claimed
He said before the Islamic invasion, women used to participate in ‘shastrath’ (scholarly debates) and even gave verses to the Vedas.
He, however, said that over the years, the situation has improved and girls are not outperforming boys in board exams and women are making huge contributions in various fields.
He, however, cautioned women against being influenced by the western culture and exhorted them to remember the Indian values to pass those on to their children.
‘Remain a woman’
“The women of our country have to be careful against western influence.... Use technology, fly airplanes, work in the ISRO, become a scientist, doctor or engineer – do whatever you like, but remain a woman,” Gopal said.
“A woman is the pivot of her family, remember that,” he said, adding that it is a woman who imbibes values in her children.
The RSS leader also said taking care of the family and managing the kitchen at home are as important as having a career in a desired field.
“Do you know that Indiraji (former prime minister Indira Gandhi) used to manage her kitchen herself when Nehruji (Indira Gandhi's father Jawaharlal Nehru) was the prime minister?" he asked the gathering.
“In our country, women are in respectable positions. We must see our past, look at the present, retain what is good, rectify what is not right," he added.
