The Widows of an Altruistic Suicide
So, our
fellow Aaravan was ready for a sacrifice to save his kith and kin in the
battle of Kurukshetra. More like our modern day suicide bombers except for the
bomb itself! The sacrifice from the Pandava side had to be a man who has his
chest hairs raising upwards i.e. towards his head. And this was found only in
two Pandava men- Aaravan and Arjun. But, how could the enthralling hero of the
story itself be sacrificed? Thus, it had to be him- Aaravan- the lesser known sacrificial
hero of Mahabharata.
Arjun had
Subhadra and Draupadi as his wives and apart from these enchanting beauties, he
had some minor (or err..major affairs) here and there. So, once during his
wandering course, he met this beautiful Naga Princess, Ulupi. And if all had
gone well, it had to happen. The consummation of their love bore the fruit of a
son named Aarvan. [wonder why the
wive(s) took the waywardness of their males so casually. May be it had been a
routine affair for these heroes to hook up with every other beautiful females
they came across!]
The
Altruistic
Aaravan was
beheaded for the sacrifice. But before that, he had two final wishes- to
witness the entire war and to get married, and these were granted by Krishna himself. He was able to watch the entire war with
his severed head placed on the top of a tree. And for marriage, Mohini the
eunuch form of Krishna became his wife before
death as no woman was ready to get married to a man for a day and remain
a widow for the rest of her life. Mohini gained an identity as the wife of the
War hero Aarvan and mourned his death like a widow. She was not discriminated
but given due respect and dignity as a martyr’s widow.
Come today,
hundreds of thousands of such Mohinis are battling discrimination, injustice,
loneliness above their distress over gender ambiguity in India . Also, it is overwhelmingly
horrifying to know that as a part of religious rituals many healthy male
children born in India
are castrated with a belief to help them attain a better life in the next birth. Abandoned
first by their own families, this community also faces isolation from the side
of the State. So, getting educated and employed is a distant dream for them if
they are not ready to withstand the ruthless sneer and isolation from their
peers. Naturally, many of them grow up as uneducated and unskilled and employers
hesitate to take up their services because of their gender ambiguity. Hence,
they resort to begging and extracting money from social ceremonies. However,
with the rise of highly secured society residences, access to the families has
become difficult these days in urban areas. Because of dwindling incomes sources, they are
thereby resorting to prostitution for sustenance. The statistics prove that as
high as 86 percent of the members of this community suffer from HIV/AIDS whereas for normal population this statistic is .36 percent.
While boasting about its open democratic values and
rich culture, India should
humbly take a cue from its lesser democratic neighbours like Nepal , Pakistan
and China
for enacting legal measures for protection of its third gender. In Nepal , third gender cards have been issued since
2007 and have become a legally protected class while in Pakistan they are protected against
official discrimination by the Supreme Court since 2010. Although the election
commission of India
has accepted the identity of them as the third gender, there is a staggering
gap of access when it comes to other Government institutions. Human rights should not be
considered exclusive to the domains of men and women. Its high time people with
ambiguous gender identities get their due share from the society and the State for
social and political acceptance. And thus the spirit of Aarvan should be
relived to give an identity to many a Mohinis.
