We, the men of India, believe in a simple truth: it’s a sin to be a woman. Hence, when you speak up, like Shenaz Treasury did - about molestation, rape, living in fear and never reaching your full potential - you challenge our hegemony.
If you read history, you will find that we do not take challenges lightly. For proof take this test: name five famous Indian women from the beginning of time to 1850. Historical women and not mythological ones like Sita, Draupadi, Savitri etc.
Drawing a blank? The first woman who makes a mark enough for history or you to remember, comes in the 13th century under Muslim rule – Razia Sultana – only the second woman in history to sit on the throne of Delhi, making her the empress of India. The second was Indira Gandhi.
One had to wait 600 years more after Razia Sultana to find another woman worth remembering – Rani Laxmibai.
What does this show you? That history is written by winners i.e. men. And that until the advent of the British who patronised 19th century reformers, the Hindu men had an iron-clad grip over the destinies of women.
But for these pseudo-sikular reformers, Macaulay’s children and foreign educated liberals; the great Indian Hindu culture and civilization would have continued unbroken.