Spirituality Spiritual Articles Men’s Spirituality and Women in Bangladesh Culture
Featured Articles
Jasim Uddin and National LiteratutreSalimullah Khan, Writter. A comprehensive story of evolution...
Full Story >>
PERTH: Pros and Cons of living in a low density city.PERTH: Pros and Cons of living in a low density city. Written by Dr. John Crouch Perth, the capi...
Full Story >>
Main Menu
Resources
| Men’s Spirituality and Women in Bangladesh Culture |
 |
 |
 |
|
Men’s Spirituality and Women in Bangladesh Culture
Amzad Hossain ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy Murdoch University, Murdoch WA 6150 Australia
Popie Hossain-Rhaman ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy Murdoch University, Murdoch WA 6150 Australia
Abstract
Introduction Spirituality is the source of the will to act morally (Smith & Standish, 1997). Thus exercising spirituality is an immanent activity aimed at the affirmation of humans’ moral values. In cultural terms, one can see spirituality as a unity of the totality of environmental, socio-political and religious traits, which constitute the cultural tradition and cultural dimensions of a country To the Bauls[1] whose spiritual influence has enormous impact in shaping the Bangladesh culture, men’s spirituality is an inner dimension by which men understand their role in relation to women, society and the ecological environment. Essential to men’s spirituality is a strong longing for women and that unity between men and women is crucial for sustaining the country’s culture, society and natural environment.
41). The paper builds on the overwhelming men’s spiritual reality in respect of women in Bangladesh portraying that the male folks of the country have weakness to and for women with regards to social, economic, religious and spiritual objectives of life. Bangladesh culture is enriched with feministic folk literature, both in oral and written form. Baul songs, a vibrant component of folk literature, reveal perspectives on male-female relationships that are constituted of the exoteric and esoteric aspects of Maya (attachment to world affairs). Maya plays the vital key role for holistic peace and happiness management amidst the country’s natural and political adversities such as floods, cyclones and droughts; and rampant corruption amidst unsustainable development policy, political unrest and bad governance. The syncretic Baul tradition that has been built on the synthesis of Hindu-Buddhist and Islamic Sufi traits plays active roles in the positive development of men’s spirituality in relation to women. The Bauls promote Sufistic values such as ‘equality’, ‘brotherhood’ and ‘matriarchy or feminism’[2]. They stress that women are men’s only refuge for gaining Sakti[3] for their physio-spiritual development as well as for socio-economic and environmental sustainability management. Evidence of women’s respectable position in rural household management is traditionally inherent in village culture. Some features of their position are observable at the Akhras (centres) of Baul gurus as well as at Mazars (Sufi shrines), which are innumerable in Bangladesh (Saklain, 1987; Hossain, 1990, 1995). Bangladesh’s political leadership by women is another example of women’s respectability in Bangladesh culture. Kari Wynn’s observation (in The News From Bangladesh, June 29, 2007) reflects the above cultural paradigm: although Bangladesh is considered a moderate Muslim nation, the influence of Islamic teachers is significant, especially among the many non-literate people who live in villages outside the country’s larger cities. God's love knows no boundaries in this country of 149 million people, 86 percent of whom follow Islam. Though many people in the villages cannot read, "(i)f you tell lessons in story form, you've got a group of listeners like you wouldn't believe" (The News From Bangladesh, June 29, 2007).
Men’s Maya for Women Men’s passion of Maya for women in Bangladesh culture is perceptible. Dasgupta (1976, p. 178) observes that as the tree is fixed to the earth by its roots and the black-bee is attached to the lotus, so a man is bound to the woman – and all in love. The Hindu Sahajya cult (a pre-Baul mystic tradition of Bengal) claims that all women are venerable and no harm should ever be done to them, nor should any female animal be sacrificed (Dimock, 1966, p. 99). A popular Baul song that vibrates in rural Bangladesh day and night reveals insights of men’s Maya for women, children and the world in which he lives[4]:
“I have willingly bounded myself with the chain of Maya. The chain of steel can be broken open, but not the chain of Maya. I was born as a complete entity. I have liberated my half entity in marrying, a quarter to my offspring, and a quarter for sustaining Samsara[5]. ”
Hence, a man acknowledges his completeness in sacrificing, in the process of sharing with, and transmitting his entity gradually to his spouse, offspring and sustainability activities through Samsara – all out of Maya. A married woman is called ‘Ardhangini’ (the better half), meaning that she is the half-manifest of her husbandman. A Bangladeshi husband with his post-marital half-entity still transforms himself to a quarter after becoming a father – a symbol of complete manhood. At this stage he exhausts his remaining quarter-self in engaging himself in providing his family with socio-economic and other survival needs. This suggests that a man is dedicated to his family where his wife is the focal point of Maya that leads a man to fully liberate himself. Spirituality In Bangladesh culture, women’s most important aim in life is to become a mother. Motherhood is the starting point towards achieving completeness in the purpose of being on this earth. Women's spirituality for nurturing their offspring and all in the environment is profound in Bangladesh culture. Ruether (1996) argues that for rural Bangladeshi women spirituality is basically earth based. The relationship between women and earth is reciprocal. The women take care of the earth while the earth in return provides for their needs. This earth-based spirituality is manifested in the day-to-day life. Hollows (2000) finds that the ‘traditional’ feminine traits such as domesticity and motherhood that can lead women to a position in which femininity is treated uncritically are still sought by Bangladeshi women. It appears that though women in ‘masculine’ roles are seen as a sign of ‘progress’, this can degrade women’s position and spirituality (Hollows, 2000). In order to achieve such spiritual fulfilment and worldly completeness, most folk and many urban women visit the institutions of Akhras, Mazars and spiritual gurus with the aspiration to get married to good men and be blessed with the birth to saints, among other things. According to the principles of these institutions, women are Maer Jati (the gender or race of mother) who are at the centre of procreation, humanity development and social sustainability. It is widely held in Bangladesh culture that heaven lies at the feet of the mother. Bauls stress that spirituality of women is ‘regeneration bound’. Women's spirituality is considered the ‘inner-force’ while men's the "outer-force" for sustainability. They together constitute a fully integrated and cohesive social life (Chittister, 1998, for example, also maintains that both genders separately are only half of what they are). The much-criticised Purdah (to keep out of view or commonly interpreted as wearing the veil) system of Islam for both Muslims and Hindus of Bangladesh, is interpreted as an outcome of women’s intrinsic spiritualty. In rural Bangladesh where 14% of people are comprised of non-Muslims (such as Tribal Animists, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians), purdah “displays richness of a family and elevates its prestige and status. As a result, the richer the family, the stricter is the purdah” (Women for Women Study and Research Group, 1979, p. 230). Purdah also demonstrates the honoured position or higher rank of women in society. As women are precious to society for their procreative power and overall sustainability management, their chastity must be maintained. Many women pilgrims at Mazar assert that purdahless (immodest) women invite bad people to rob their jewellery, kidnap or assault them and distract men from respecting them as Maer Jati. These women firmly believe that women who observe modesty are self-guarded. It is also well versed in Bangladesh culture that marriageable girls who maintain modesty are in high demand for marriage without any dowry (Hossain, 1995, p. 116). In other words, women’s spirituality is central to Adab (etiquette). An interpretation of this reveals that Bengali women's spirituality manifests the social integrity of Adab, which is defined by Al-Attas as "the discipline of body, mind and soul; the discipline that assures the recognition and acknowledgment of one's proper place in relation to one's physical, intellectual and spiritual capacities and potential; the recognition and acknowledgment of the reality that knowledge and being are ordered hierarchically according to their various levels and degrees" (Al-Attas, 1980, p. 22). Accordingly, women’s spirituality is traditionally vested with the responsibilities of motherhood, household management and foundation education for children. Breast feeding and nurturing of their children are the well-known aspect of women’s nature and spirituality that have been handed down from the beginning of creation. Napoleon is believed to have said: “Give me a good mother, I shall give you a good nation” (Values of the Wise, undated). Giving a good foundation education for children, equally for girls and boys, is the ultimate objective of motherhood spirituality. Related to this are the care and nurturing that women apply towards their home and natural environment. Women in Society Both in Islamic and Indian[7] social value judgements, men and women are equal. An assignment of lower status to women in Indian culture is only the outcome of an inadequate understanding of this culture as a whole. Duley & Edwards (1986, p. 128) note that in talking about the Indian subcontinent, there is theever-present danger of oversimplification, for there are many Islamic and native syncretistic traditions within India, Bangladesh and Pakistan for example. There is a vast amount of literature on the status of women in the Islamic religion and on Islamic women’s formal rights and relationships. Duley & Edwards (1986, p. 406) in particular point out that historically Islam has adapted to and interacted with a wide variety of ecological, economic and cultural environments. In the eyes of the Shariah (exoteric Islam) women are higher in status, as the Prophet Mohammad said that the position of a mother to her child is three times higher than that of a father.[8] In the esoteric sciences of the Indian saints, as blended and adopted by the institution of Mazar, it is emphasised that a woman is always the Guru of her husband and can also be a Guru to others, for "women are Gurus by their nature" (Dimock, 1966, p. 102). Bauls, inspired by a similar philosophy, rarely travel without female associates. They express their sentiments in songs in relation to the recognition, acknowledgment and proper place of women in the society. The following is an example[9]:
“Say to me, who can know woman in this world? She gives birth to the three worlds. As a mother she brings up her child. In ignorance, do not neglect her. Think once, who helped you to be independent?” Bauls believe in the spirit of the song and demonstrate it in practice. In any case, the social position of women in Bengali society in general is judged by the sociological expositions of Mazars and Bauls although western social scientists often consider women to be highly discriminated against in Bangladesh according to their own cultural scale of measuring. Women's presence at Mazars also appears
to be an example of their freedom to go out of their home boundary. This also defends the issue of the place of Bengali women in their society assigned by outsiders. To this end, Duley & Edwards (1986) suggest that anti-Islamic biases are pervasive in Western culture, and the assumption that Muslim women are particularly degraded is unfortunately virtually automatic in Europe and North America and does not necessarily corresponds to the way women are perceived from within their own society. Karim (1995, p. 26) notes that Western themes of feminism cannot envisage a situation where male and female relations are managed in a way as flexible and fluid as they are in South Asian countries such as Bangladesh. These relationships appear hierarchical on the formal level and as contrasting as the village is to the State; but in day-to-day activity, through the family and social life, men and women go about doing things which are important to them without asserting who are or which sets of activities are more valuable or indispensable. The ‘state’ is metaphorised in men and ‘village’ in women, and the former seems more visible than the latter, and hence more powerful and dominant. However, a state without people responding and reacting to it does not exist. In village Bangladesh, men work in the fields and women at home. Women’s jobs include the proper use and maintenance of household assets, processing of agricultural harvests, cooking and processing of food, hospitality, child rearing, house-keeping and treasury or money management[10]. “Happiness in family life depends on women’s quality” (Samsar Shukher hoy ramanir gune) – this secular saying is religiously believed in Bangladesh, perhaps, more widely than many other religious sayings. Women take decisions on most of the household matters. Above all, women’s desire, demand and decision in regard to household improvement have priority over men’s wishes in this context. This is an established fact in Bangladesh. The following folk story describes how the husbands should be loyal to their wives. One day a meeting with the agenda “who is not afraid of his wife” was organised in the market place of a village. The organiser called to his side those who were afraid. All the men came to his side except one. Everyone curiously went to this man in the hope that they too might learn how each of them could likewise win over his wife. When asked, why he was different from the other men, the man replied that his wife asked him not to participate in the meeting. Such folk stories are commonly the product of culture Conclusion Men’s spirituality recognises women as a source of Sakti for men in order for spiritual development, regeneration, resilience, complementariness, and hence, holistic sustainability management to be maintained. This is why marriage is regarded in Islam as "half of religion", implying that its purpose is primarily spiritual (or psychological) and social welfare and development, and not an economic one. Material and economic conditions ought to be arranged to suit the social purpose and the social conditions are to be arranged to serve the spiritual purpose, not the other way round as is often the case in the West. It is often claimed that “the overall low value status of women in the society” does prevail in Bangladesh (Women for Women Study and Research Group, 1979, p. 380), and, as a result rural Bangladeshi females face severe discrimination in terms of household expenditure (Quisumbing 2003, p, 89). These claims are not only occasionally or fractionally true, but also the situation is aggravating and likely to worsen should the acculturation of Western model of cultural globalisation continue repositioning the country’s traditional spiritualistic value system with that of aggressive materialism. The promotion of globalisation that presently lacks sustainability education is responsible for this. A revival of values-based educational system, which is on decline in the formal educational sectors of Bangladesh, could restore the losses. One laments: In those beautiful days of the Vedic period of India, the glory of which still surrounds the country like a faint halo, women took part freely in the social and political life of the country (Duley & Edwards, 1986, p. 133). However, mothers are still the primary gurus (educators) of their children’s foundation education in rural Bangladesh where most people are not formally literate. Men’s Maya based spirituality for women is likely to enjoy long term sustainability in Bangladeshi pluralistic culture. [1] The Bauls, the feminist mendicants who roam from one shrine to another in Bangladesh villages and cities along with a female associate, are seen as being at the root of Bengali culture. While mostly unlettered, they show a full measure of poetic, musical, and philosophical talents. They come from both Muslim and Hindu backgrounds. The Baul tradition is unique in the world and famous for socio-religious syncretisation. They are simple, natural and unembellished. Their songs are of great relevance for a holistic view of life and hence have a crucial importance from a sustainability point of view [2] Feminism comes to bring both men and women to the fullness of life, the wholeness of soul, for which we were all made in the image and likeness of God (Chittister, 1998, p. 37). [3] As Sakti is religiously believed to be a goddess – a female deity (Karim, 1995, p. 133), the folk philosophers of Bangladesh venerate woman as the symbol of sakti for men. [4] Bara Sadh kore poresi bidhi mayar beri pai. Lohr beri vangle khule, mayar beri khula dai. Nia elam sholo ana, bia kore anlam jare dilam aat ana. Char ana nilo jadu moni, char anate samsar moy. [5] The meaning of Samsara is materialism for a living. [6] It is of interest to note here that Islam did not have much to do to introduce the Purdah system in Bangladesh. It already existed in the upper strata of Hindu society and there this was “related to the consideration of prestige and to the desire to maintain high rank, much like the Victorian cult of domesticity” (Duley & Edwards, 1986, p. 155). [7] For historical reasons the Bangladeshi culture is strongly influenced and in many ways derived from Indian culture.
[8] “A man came to the Prophet Mohammad and said: ‘O Messenger of God, who among the people is most deserving of my good companionship?’ He said, ‘Your mother.’ He asked, ‘Then whom?’ He said, ‘Your mother.’ He asked, ‘Then whom?’ He said, ‘Your mother.’ He asked, ‘Then whom?’ He said, ‘Then your father.” [9] Narike vober pore ke bolo chinte pare? Vobe, garvadhari hoe nari trijagat prasab kore. Matri rupa kore dharon ei narite kore palon vrame andha hoe o mon tare tussa koro omon vebe dekho dekhi, nari seki kar bole berao ghure? [10] About 95% of village people in Bangladesh do not have accounts with banks. Their cash savings are kept at home under the care of housewives.
References Al-Attas, A.-N.. (1980). The concept of Islamic education. Kuala Lumpur: Art Printing Works. Chittister, J.D. (1998). Heart of flesh: A feminist spirituality for women and men. London: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. Dasgupta, S. (1976). Obscure religious cults. Calcutta, India: Firma KLM Private Limited. Dimock, E. Jr. (1966). The place of the hidden moon. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. Duley, M.I., & Edwards, M.I. (Eds) (1986). The |
|
| Last Updated ( Thursday, 29 May 2008 15:52 ) |