Most years I make a picture commemorating this day each year. Thinking especially of the troubles of India's daughters, this year I have used familiar lines from Siri Guru Granth Sahib.
We are told that a woman is raped in India every 20 minutes? Give me a break! It's more like every 20 seconds. This has two major causes. First a lack of respect for women in general and second, the purposeful demeaning of people of low caste. So many of higher castes see the sexual use of the body - living or dead, with or without consent - of a girl or woman as their god-given right. There is a solution, a very simple solution.
In the days when Guru Nanak walked the earth, the plight of women was even worse than it is today. He gave us the key to right this terrible wrong. It is up to us, to unlock the door to respect and equality and to walk in.
If taken to heart, these six simple lines from Siri Guru Granth Sahib would completely revolutionize the treatment of women in India, indeed in all the world. It is so simple, so easy and so terribly frustrating. Caste, of course, is India's enduring evil gift to the world. If all women were treated with respect, perhaps caste could be overcome.
We are told that a woman is raped in India every 20 minutes? Give me a break! It's more like every 20 seconds. This has two major causes. First a lack of respect for women in general and second, the purposeful demeaning of people of low caste. So many of higher castes see the sexual use of the body - living or dead, with or without consent - of a girl or woman as their god-given right. There is a solution, a very simple solution.
In the days when Guru Nanak walked the earth, the plight of women was even worse than it is today. He gave us the key to right this terrible wrong. It is up to us, to unlock the door to respect and equality and to walk in.
If taken to heart, these six simple lines from Siri Guru Granth Sahib would completely revolutionize the treatment of women in India, indeed in all the world. It is so simple, so easy and so terribly frustrating. Caste, of course, is India's enduring evil gift to the world. If all women were treated with respect, perhaps caste could be overcome.
