Shunned from society, widows flock to city to die

http://www.cnn.com/ ^ | 7/5/07 | Arwa Damon

[B4Ranch]

VRINDAVAN, India (CNN) -- Ostracized by society, India's widows flock to the holy city of Vrindavan waiting to die. They are found on side streets, hunched over with walking canes, their heads shaved and their pain etched by hundreds of deep wrinkles in their faces.

Hindu widows are shunned from society when their husbands die, not for religious reasons, but because of tradition -- and because they're seen as a financial drain on their families.

[B4Ranch]

We need more immigrants, especially those men from India who think like this. Sicko bastards

[B4Ranch]

How could a son say this???????

“My son tells me: ‘You have grown old. Now who is going to feed you? Go away,’ “ she says, her eyes filling with tears. “What do I do? My pain had no limit.”

[Antoninus]

Stories like this are one reason why Hindu nationalists are so deathly afraid of Christianity.

[1rudeboy]

It’s amazing to consider this with regard to how, say, the Japanese regard their elderly/ancestors. The mind boggles.

[Millee]

Remember, every culture is equal. {{CAAAAACK}}

[IamConservative]

These people think a cow is sacred because it could be a relative, but they shun their own mother because their father has died. Sick indeed..

[bannie]

And we all know that babies/children are no financial drain.

snicker...

(My kids wouldn’t even tell their father to do this...although, he—essentially—told them to GO POUND SAND when they needed him.)

[Old Professer]

It is by ignoring the realities of these cultural conflicts that the well-meaning left embraces their romantic notions of multi-culturalism.

They don’t like cold-water-in-the-face-mornings so they pull the covers up over their heads and go back to sleep.

[ZULU]

Its hard to believe this reflects all levels of society in India.

This must be restricted to lower level “castes”.

Yet the constant drivel about social equivalency spoted by liberals - many of them women - appears on the surfcae of it - to be invalid.

Anyone born in a Western Country should thank God they were so.

[Allegra]

Is this really any better than when Hindu women were forced to burn alive on their husbands’ funeral pyres in the past?

[HeadOn]

Right - especially since there are specific mentions in the Bible that we should all help widows and orphans.

[Safetgiver]

Diversity is our strength, donca know.

[SergeiRachmaninov]

This is an interesting matter, and I commend you for posting it.

But not wanting to allow too much credit to CNN, I'd like to mention that this matter received an entire chapter in the terrific book, Age of Kali by William Dalrymple, which is about ten years old.

I could not recommend this book too highly.

[B4Ranch]

CNN has it on their website, so they do deserve a pat on the back in this instance, IMO.

[taxcontrol]

An excellent opportunity for Christian missionaries to spread the word, share God’s love, and impact lives.

[inkling]

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” — James 1:27

[SnarlinCubBear]

Life without Jesus.

[jagusafr]

..in fact, it’s defined as “true religion” to help widows and orphans in their distress (end of James, ch.1, I think).

[B4Ranch]

>Anyone born in a Western Country should thank God they were so.<

Yes, and not Allah or any other god.

[Gay State Conservative]

And we all know that babies/children are no financial drain.

In some parts of Asia (including India and China) daughters are seen as a burden and are very often treated cruelly.In fact,in India,doctors with ultrasound machines can be found on just about every street corner and in every village offering to tell a pregnant woman the gender of her child and to abort that child if it's a girl.

[Ancesthntr]

Hindu widows are shunned from society when their husbands die, not for religious reasons, but because of tradition -- and because they're seen as a financial drain on their families.

How compassionate! Somehow or other, I KNOW that the value of a human life is different from the present value of expected cash flows that the person will bring to a family unit. Sometimes its more, sometimes its less (usually the case with less than useless sports and movie stars)

[agooga]

“Water” is a fairly decent film which deals with the subject of Indian widows.

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Water/70041924?trkid=189530&strkid=1325747973_0_0

[ClancyJ]

Shows their ability to love. If you treat your mother this way, you will treat all worse.

[FreedomPoster]

It is interesting to note that the British pretty well ended the practice of suttee, the act of burning the widow on the husband’s funeral pyre, so she could follow him into the afterlife. And not be a general “inconvenience”.

A famous quote from Sir Charles Napier, while governor of one of the states of India, on the subject:

“It is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and hang them. Build your funeral pyre and beside it my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your national custom - then we shall follow ours.”

And you’re right, this seems to have replaced suttee.

[Married with Children]

“What do I do? My pain had no limit.”

And her son has no HEART

[Nathan Zachary]

"These people think a cow is sacred because it could be a relative, but they shun their own mother because their father has died. Sick indeed.."

Well, when they die, they turn into a cow, and can then feed themselves, and all is well (hindu guitar sound)

[cblue55]

And Hindu prayers were just recently spoken in the US Senate?

[Wil H]

What are you implying?

These other religions are truly diverse in dealing with their problems, some stone their women to death, others just let them starve.

Come now, there’s diversity for you..

[Millicent_Hornswaggle]

Gospel for Asia operates in India spreading the good news. Check out http://www.gfa.org/. We support them through our church.

[csuzieque]

I know nothing about the Hindu religion. Does anyone know if it speaks of this issue?

[BuffaloJack]

I recall reading about the roots of this about two years ago in a book called “Genocide of Women in Hinduism”. Centuries back when the muslims invaded India, although India had a huge population it submitted to subservience very well under muslim rule. The muslims made deals with the Brahmins to reduce the population through attrition and other means. Most of the population reduction came in the form of a female killing. Sons are better than daughters so kill infant daughters. Widows should wear their best jewelry and gold and crawl onto the funeral pyres of their husbands (The Brahmins would sift the ashes afterward to reclaim the gold and precious stones; most they kept but a portion went to the muslim rulers). Women had the status of property. This practice actually got India’s population down to a male to female ratio of about 10:1. When this was achieved a caste system was set in place and warefare between castes and social groups for the remaining females ensured further reduction of the population. When the muslims were eventually kicked out, the Brahmins liked the status, wealth and privilege they had and continued the system.

If anyone is to blame in this whole thing the root culprits were the muslims. The vestige culprits were the Brahmins, only because they had been elevated to the privileges class.

[VOA]

Hindu widows are shunned from society when their husbands die,
not for religious reasons, but because of tradition

Somebody at CNN needs to go back to school for proof-reading lessons...
and/or lessons in logic.

Because if it's Hindu widows that are basically the real target
of this practice...it sure sounds like a practice that is at least
a very bitter fruit of the Hindu worldview.

[jonascord]

Let’s see. By banning suttee, and allowing the family to simply boot the widowed mother out the door, you have saved the family the cost of a fire built for two...

[B4Ranch]

That is my view also and I tend to judge people by the way they treat animals or the defenseless.

[nyconse]

Nonsense, Hinduism is a brutal religion-always has been. This article doesn’t mention the brides who have been burned alive mostly by their mother in laws in order to extract money from the bride’s family. I had an Indian friend who was in hiding from her family. She had refused to marry a man chosen for her by her parents...and feared being kidnapped and forced into this marriage and/or being murdered. I worked with Indian men who considered themselves very high caste. They were absolutely horrible to those Indians they viewed as lower caste and had to be taken aside and warned ‘this is America-no caste-if you continue, you will lose your job’ (H1 visa in many cases).

[B4Ranch]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1861255/posts?page=31#31

[B4Ranch]

>They were absolutely horrible to those Indians they viewed as lower caste<

In what manner?

[HeadOn]

Yep. Looks like that was quoted in post 16. Thanks.

[csuzieque]

Christians have the admonition to “honor thy father and mother.” I was just wondering if there was anything like that in Hinduism - evidently not.

[Savage Beast]

"When her husband of 50 years died, she was instantly ostracized by all those she thought loved her, including her son.

"'My son tells me: "You have grown old. Now who is going to feed you? Go away."'"

I suppose a Mothers Day card would be out of the question?

When the Left finds out about this, they'll want to enact special laws respecting all this Cultural Diversity.

If Biswas's son decides to come to the U.S. and run for public office--as a DEMOCRAT, of course--he can count on NOW's support--especially if his wife is a "feminist" and has DEMOCRAT political ambitions of her own!!!

[VeritatisSplendor]

"We need more immigrants, especially those men from India who think like this. Sicko bastards"

An Indian friend of mine cherishes her widowed mother, her brother does the same. They are educated, successful and Americanized.

But this from the article you posted:

She married at 12 and was widowed at 15. Seventy years later, she finds herself at Amar Bari. "I used to live in front of a temple, but then I came here," she says.

She carries with her not only the pain of a life without love, but also the loss of her only child. She gave birth at 14; her baby lived a year.

What a heartbreaking life; seventy years of loneliness and exclusion.

Mrs VS

[ClancyJ]

I do also.

What amazes me is that in humanity all the way back, there seems to be an underlying source or strain of cruelty in man.

The fact that any can enjoy watching another human suffering and cause that suffering is the very opposite of christianity and the love for man that God teaches.

I could never ever want to see a human or animal suffering - and never would I want to cause it. I could never - ever - enjoy it. Of course there are many instances where the cruelty is done to man in such a horrendous way that the hatred in man is enflamed and they can fight back.

But in history it is interesting that man is capable of such horrors to other men. And I wonder if that is the power of the devil on earth and God is allowing the power to have man choose his Master. Or some other purpose.

But, it is there and thankfully in America we don’t have to watch it daily as they do in other countries.

[Syco]

You beat me to it. Jesus rules!

[B4Ranch]

In order for us to defend ourselves and those who cannot we must be capable of inficting pain, ie., cruelty. Of course the definition of cruelty can be many different things in many different situations.

When someone inflicts pain that is unwarranted or has no purpose, to me that is cruelty. Subjecting a person or an animal to unnecessary pain is cruelty.

Am I capable of cruelty? You bet I am. Harm my wife or children and you’ll see a very unemotional, cold hearted monster of a man seeking to inflict serious pain and possibly a delayed death in retribution.

Is that the Devil in me? Possibly.

[B4Ranch]

It is stories such as this that make one believe that Heaven and Hell exist here on Earth. That lady found both and Hell certainly won the war, in her case.

[am452]

“Remember, every culture is equal.”{{CAAAAACK}}

Correct. Please remind me why the liberals hate western culture so much???

[nyconse]

They refused to work with them on company projects...one in particular refused to speak to one of the other guys. They were very rude and condescending. During one of the disagreements (the lower caste guy forgot his ‘place’ I guess), there was almost a serious physical confrontation. It simply could not continue.

[design engineer]

Caste discrimination usually involves a lot of power play and clannishness, depending on the numerical and political strength of a caste in that region. One neednt be upper or lower caste to discriminate each other. In north india, the intermediate castes are more powerful than both upper and lower castes. Christians are generally treated OK, but I’ve lived only in Bombay, so cant generalize.

I’m well aware that there are atleast 10 Hindu temples in India that do not allow any non-uppercaste person to enter (needless to say, they refuse entry to christians as well).

[ZULU]

Allah = Ancient Arabic Moon-God

Islam = Evil Cult of Death

[Old 300]

In other news:

July 6, 2007
Microsoft: North to Canada

Microsoft needs more brainiacs to fill its developer ranks, so it's going North to nurture them.

The software giant said it plans to expand its presence in Canada by opening a new software development center in the greater Vancouver, British Columbia, area. Doors are slated to open this fall, and it will house software developers from around the world.

The announcement comes at a time when Microsoft is facing a shortage of developers, and after the U.S. Senate recently ended debate on an immigration reform bill that would have included provisions for allowing more special visas for tech workers. Microsoft bemoaned the move.

The H1-B visas allow U.S. companies to sponsor foreign-born U.S. graduates in science, engineering and math for up to six years of U.S. employment. Tech executives and lobbyists insist an increase in H1-B visas is necessary to fill what it claims is a chronic shortfall in American IT talent.