Date: Mon Oct 30 2006 - 15:23:27 AST
WUNRN
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/01/widows01.xml
Hindus Threaten Cinemas Over Film Exposing Plight of India's 'City of
Widows'
Amrit Dhillon in Vrindavan
(Filed: 01/10/2006)
When Paro Sharma's husband died in a rickshaw accident 28 years ago,
she became not just a grieving widow but a social outcast. Blamed by her
Hindu relatives for the bad "karma" that brought about his demise, she was
banished from home as an omen of bad luck and told to fend for herself.
"After my husband died, my two sons and daughters-in-law threw me out
of my own house," said Mrs Sharma, 50, from west Bengal. "They said I didn't
earn, so why should they feed me."
Outcasts: Many women in Vrindavan, the City of Widows, have to
rely on charity for food and shelter
On the dusty streets of Vrindavan, a Hindu holy town in northern
India, known as the City of Widows, countless sad-eyed women tell similar
stories after fleeing the harsh social stigma that comes with the death of a
husband.
Forced to shave their heads and dress in white, an estimated 10,000
widows have sought sanctuary in Vrindavan, from newly-weds and mothers in
their prime to elderly women who can barely walk, all living on handouts
after being deemed socially untouchable.
It is one of the cruellest Hindu traditions to have survived into the
21st century, and is an image that modern India would rather the outside
world did not see.
But to the fury of Hindu conservatives, that is about to change.
Water, a film by the Indian-born director Deepa Mehta, has been nominated
for an Oscar after she turned her lens on her country's inhumane treatment
of widows.
Her entry for the coveted award, however, will come not from India –
where protesting mobs attacked the film set and where no cinema dare show
it – but her adopted homeland of Canada, which has put it forward for best
foreign language film.
The irony that the film's only acclaim so far has come from audiences
thousands of miles from India has not been lost on Miss Mehta, 56, who had
to finish making the film abroad after receiving death threats for
"insulting" Hindu culture.
"A film about the widows of India in Hindi, which I had to shoot in
Sri Lanka because I wasn't allowed to shoot in my home country, is now going
to the Oscars as Canada's official entry," she said.
Hindu nationalist groups are outraged that the film may now achieve
international prominence and accuse Miss Mehta, whose previous films have
broached other taboo subjects such as lesbianism, of showing an unpatriotic
obsession with her country's shortcomings.
"Every society has weak points," said Omkar Bhabi, of the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad, or World Hindu Council. "It's shameful that she always makes films
about India's weak points for foreign countries. Why doesn't she show how
the West dumps its old people in homes?"
The film is a "conspiracy to tarnish the image of India", said Prakash
Sharma, the council's national convenor. "Why is Canada nominating an Indian
film?" he asked. "We will not tolerate a screening under any circumstances.
We will attack cinemas if necessary."
Although the film is set in the 1930s, during the rise of the struggle
against British colonial rule, the way in which many of India's
40 million widows are rejected by their families and shunned by
society has changed little since then. After her husband's death, a woman
must swap saris for white gowns, stop wearing jewellery and shave her head
to prevent her looking attractive. She must refrain from eating meat for
fear it will arouse sexual desire and keep away from weddings and births.
Many gravitate to Vrindavan, where donations by Hindu pilgrims to the
city's 5,000 temples allow religious authorities to provide the most
destitute with lodgings and a modicum of food. Many end up forced into
prostitution or begging.
"In India, a woman is only revered as a mother, daughter and wife,"
said Mohini Giri, who runs a home for widows in Vrindavan. "Without a man,
women have no social status."
Miss Giri, 57, and a widow herself, recalled how she was humiliated at
her great niece's wedding. "At the most auspicious moment, the bride's
sister turned to me and said: 'Auntie, do you mind leaving the room for a
few minutes please?' They thought I would bring bad luck!"
Indians may be able to judge the film later this year. Mumbai film
producer Ravi Chopra has announced that he is prepared to brave the fury of
Hindu fundamentalists by distributing it.
"I see nothing in it that should offend sensibilities," he said.
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