Women Power — A Gandhian Discourse -Gandhian Vision, Gandhian Thought, Kasturba

Description

• About the Author
• About the Translator and Editor
• About Ramkrishna Bajaj by  Shekhar Bajaj
• About Justice C. S. Dharmadhikari by Justice Satyaranjan C. Dharmadhikari
• Translator’s Preface (Dr Ramchandra Pradhan)
• From The Publisher
• Preface (Justice Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari)
• Translator’s Note by Dr Ramchandra Pradhan
• Women Power: A Gandhian Discourse by Randhir Kumar Gautam

Part I — Gandhian Approach to Women Emancipation

• Woman-Power
• The Foundation of All Laws Relating to Women
• Importance of Motherhood
• Widowhood — A Blessing Not a Curse
• Obscenity: A New Perspective
• Empowerment of Women
• Women Shanti Sena (Peace Brigade) and Peace Warrior
• Respect for Women: A Spiritual Value
• Gandhi’s Character: Key to the Treasure
• Convocation Address at S.N.D.T. University on January 20, 2017
• Women and Our Constitution
• Gandhi: The Commander of Brave Soldiers
• Mahatma Gandhi, Nonviolence and Women
• Uniform Civil Code for Unity in Diversity 115

Part II  — Some of the Prominent Gandhian Women Activists : Brief life-sketches

• Ba: The Fragrance of Kasturi
• Vimlatai: An Embodiment of Love
• Radhakrishna: The Role Model for Man-Woman Relationship
• Radhabehan
• Prabhavati: The Source of J.P.’s Inspiration
• Niharbehan: The Life-giving due Drops
• Tara Dharmadhikari: My Life Companion
• My Mother: Smt. Damayanti Dharmadhikari
• Sarala Devi: A World Citizen
• Janaki Devi Bajaj
• Mahila Ashram
• Appendices
  • Gandhi on Women Problems
  • Gandhi’s Last Will and Testament January 29, 1948
  • Vinoba on Women Problems
  • Dada Dharmadhikari on Man-Woman Mutual Fellowship
  • Dharmadhikari Family and Mahatma Gandhi
  • Dr. Rammanohar Lohia on Women Problems
  • Subhas Chandra Bose on Kasturba Gandhi
    
• Brief Biographical Sketches of Some of Most Prominent Women Activists by Randhir Kumar Gautam
• Index

About the Book

At present, we are passing through a transitional phase. Old values and status symbols are falling apart. We have not yet succeeded in evolving new social values and norms. Old tradition and growing materialism in human life have put him/her under the grip of gadgets and external agencies. Simultaneously, they have also made them self-centered. Human feelings and human values are being lost in the thick clouds of the crowd. The culture of tyag (sacrifice) is being replaced by the culture of Bhog (eat, drink and be merry). We want change but at the same time, we are also scared of it. At times, we feel that the solution for all our problems lies in the writings of Gandhiji. The way we look for the meaning of a word in a dictionary, so do we look for a formulae solution to our problems in Gandhi’s writings? We often forget that in a dictionary what we get is a synonym and not a real meaning of a word. We have to find ‘meaning’ in our real life. To that end, we have to fully understand various dimensions of any question in the first instance. That would require of us deep thinking, reflection and meditation on all the issues involved. The problems confronting us today were not there during the life time of Gandhi and Vinoba. Today our country is passing through a critical phase. So instead of those who prefer to walk on a beaten track, we require a generation of a few committed activists, realist and objective thinkers who have the potentiality and capacity to identify the needs and aspirations of the people. Such people alone could mold and take the country in the right direction. In other words, we need a group of such dedicated youths whose thoughts and actions are in keeping with the tune of our times. I strongly differ from the opinion of those who think that the new generations has deviated from the real path and as such they are a spoiled lot. I would like to tell such people that it is not the new generation but the people belonging to our old generation that have actually failed. It is not children but their parents who often move off from the right track. Someone has put it in a poetic language; the dust was on one’s face, but he went on wiping it out from the surface of the mirror.
Now we have to dust off our faces instead of the mirror and get into the roots of the problems confronting us today. How could we forget that when an abominable and tragic incident of gang rape had occurred in Delhi, it is the youth of the country that raised a powerful storm of protest movement? As a result, a committee headed by Justice Verma, the Ex-Chief Justice of India was set up which recommended certain changes in the legal provisions. Subsequently, those changes were carried out in our legal system. But that in itself would not suffice to meet the challenge of the situation. Unless a radical change occurs in the reactionary mindset of our society, all such legal changes would be like dusting off the mirror instead of one’s face. Because, we should never forget that honour/prestige are the qualities of the mind and not of the body. If the mind and heart remain pure, a woman would not lose her modesty even when being physically violated. Because, such a crime is not confined to an individual case, it actually afflicts the entire society. As such its roots lie in the words of Kahlil Gibran, “And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree”. Thus such acquiescence of the gentlemen is the first cause of the crimes committed by the evil doers.
The woman who has been violated is actually a victim, but the society looks upon her as an accused. She is taken to be a woman of blotted and loose character. In the words of Kahlil Gibran: the corner stone of a temple is never higher than the lowest rung of its foundation, and for the crimes committed by the evil doers, the gentlemen are never free from such sins’. So the need is to change the entire mindset of the society. Laws have their own limitations as they could not stand on their own.
Public opinion is the foundation for the actual implementation of any law. Law simply opens the path, but it could not make people walk over it. So it could not be implemented in its true letter and spirit in the absence of supportive public opinion. What is more, even of it is really implemented; it could not provide full protection to any woman. It could not inspire a woman to take recourse to ‘self-protection’ and unless that happens the honour and modesty of a woman could not be safeguarded. Unless and until a woman takes recourse to ‘self-protection’, there would be no women liberation or women empowerment. That would require not only a radical change in the mindset of all the members of a society; but also that of the entire administrative machinery. The fact is that even if the door of a cage is opened, the bird might still remain unwilling to fly away. So such an attempt becomes useless. After all, such a question is intimately linked to free and willing living togetherness of man and woman which in turn is related to the issues of ‘self-protection’ and women empowerment. In the words of Dada Dharmadhikari: “I have arrived at the conclusion that both God and the nature had joined hands to put a lock in the personality of a woman and have tied up its key to one end of her sari. But the woman is moving around the world to look for that key: which she searches at every place except in her own inner being! The first step towards finding her own independent identify on her part would be to drive out the fear of the man from her mind. The day she does that, she would be taking the first step towards gender equality and life togetherness. That is also the real role and foundation of democracy. If we really want to lay the foundation of democracy based on co-operative citizenship and gender equality, then we have to discard all separate yardsticks for men and women. We should never have two different yardsticks for man and woman.