Would have never known there was so much sexual content in the image of two people looking at each other through sieves on a moonlit night until the riot act was read by the protectors of our culture on this Dabur ad. Say two young girls are wishing each other long life and happiness this way, they might be lesbians, they might not be. But why this uproar as if they are demolishing all that is precious and pure in human relationships! No, the fear lies elsewhere! Karva Chauth is sacrosanct because it is not interested in giving a message of love and fellowship but in reasserting the eternal sexual and emotional subservience of the wife to the husband. That message is the husband's monopoly! Who knows what makes corporate companies deviate from banal conservatism in their ads occasionally? Maybe a bit of variety sometimes brings more profits! Dabur however has withdrawn the ad. As activists in a women's organization, though, we feel that just as by sending the message of rakshabandhan to people who are not related to us by blood but are our sisters and brothers in humanity we reinvent a traditional ritual, similarly it would not be bad if we could change the content of the ritual of karwa chauth by allowing it to foster an image of love and fellow feeling between two persons, even two women, never mind whether they are lesbians or not.
Popularly known as Communist Ramulamma, she was active in the struggles against bonded labour, agrarian struggles, guerrilla squad strikes against razakars and deshmukh landlords. She was well versed…
Chityala Ailamma (1919-1985) was a participant in the Telangana peasant armed struggle. She revolted against the feudal landlord Visunoori Ramchandra Reddy to protect her 4 acres of land, which she…
Recipient of the Lenin Prize for Peace and the Bharat Ratna, Aruna Asaf Ali was Delhi’s first Mayor. Born in 1909 in Kalka (now Haryana) in an orthodox Hindu Bengali family, she was educated in…
Amiya Dutta came from a poor family in Bikrampur in Dhaka district (now Bangladesh). Was married off while still in her early teens. Amiya was deeply influenced by the underground activities of…
Ahilya came from a family influenced by the values of the social reform and all the four daughters and daughter-in-law completed their graduation. On 8th August 1942, in response to the declaration…
