Fwd: Dr Ambedkar on Burkha. Excerpts from 1941 written Thoughts on Pakistan

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From: sanjeev nayyar

Namaskar,

 

Subsequent to Na Mo remark on Congress wearing the Burkha of Secularism am reproducing excerpts from Dr Ambedkar's views on Burka. Excerpts from book Thoughts on Pakistan. It was in written in 1941, situation on the ground may have changed since then. Here is what he wrote.

 

"These burkha-clad women walking on the streets are one of the most hideous sights one can witness in India. Such seclusion cannot but have its deteriorating effects upon the physical constitution of Muslim women. They are usually victims of anaemia, tuberculosis and pyorrhea. Their bodies are deformed with their backs bent etc. Ribs, bones and nearly all their bones ache. Heart palpation is very often present in them. The result of this pelvic deformity is untimely death at the time of delivery. Purdah deprives Muslim women of mental & moral nourishment.

 

Further they become narrow and restricted in their outlook. Being deprived of a healthy social life, the process of moral degeneration sets in. They have no desire for knowledge, because they are taught not to be interested in nothing outside four walls of the house. It makes them helpless, timid & unfit to fight life.

 

The origin of purdah lies of course in the deep-rooted suspicion of sexual appetites in both sexes and the purpose is to check them by segregating the sexes. But far from achieving that purpose, it has adversely affected the morals of Muslim women. They have limited contact with the outside world; the men have no company of females except children & aged. The isolation of the males from the females is sure to produce bad effects on the morals of men. It requires no psychoanalyst to say that a social system that cuts off all contact between the two sexes produces an unhealthy tendency towards sexual excesses & unnatural and other morbid ways & habits.

 

Purdah is also responsible for social segregation of Hindus from Muslims, which is the bane of public life in India. The Hindus do not want to establish social contact because it means contact between a Muslim man with a Hindu lady and Hindu man. Surely Purdah is found amongst a section of the Hindus too but it lacks religious sanctity, as is the case with the Muslims.

 

To read more from the book http://www.esamskriti.com/essay-chapters/Thoughts-on-Pakistan-by-Dr-Ambedkar-11.aspx

 

Warm Regards
sanjeev nayyar
https://twitter.com/sanjeev1927
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