Sex and Power: Defining History, Shaping Societies PDF
Preview Sex and Power: Defining History, Shaping Societies
RITA BANERJI Sex and Power Defining History, Shaping Societies PENGUIN BOOKS CONTENTS About the Author Dedication INTRODUCTION The Maligned Serpent In Defence of Sex Sex: The Ultimate Power Weapon Origins of New Sins and Shame Sacred Master, Sex Slave: Cycles of Morality The Chronicle of Sex: An Indian Tale PART I THE VEDIC PERIOD: SEX AS A SACRED DUTY Hinduism’s Family Tree Sex and the Creation Theory The Altar to Virility Divine Semen Women in the Vedic Sex Equation Harnessing the Slave Jung and the Penile Archetype PART II THE BUDDHIST PERIOD: SEX AS A PRISON The Precipitants of a New Sacredness Breakdown of the Vedic Patriarchy The Search for Change Buddha, the Revolutionary New, Rebellious Ideas Buddhism: The Slaves’ Civil Disobedience The Expulsion of Sex Evolution of the Collective Consciousness Why Buddhism Failed in India The Mind at Odds with the Body PART III THE GOLDEN PERIOD: SEX AS SALVATION When the Slave Became Master Love: The People’s Movement The Resurrection of the Love God Repositioning Sex in Society Sex as Art and Science Sex and the Creative Drive The Psychological Dimension of Sex Women on the Warpath Tantra: Undoing the Duality Emergence of the Lingam–Yoni Embracing the Human Expression of Nirvana PART IV THE COLONIAL PERIOD: SEX AS SHAME The Arrival of Islam The Birth of Hinduism and a New Moral Incentive Hypocrisy of the New Master Class The British Prelude Safeguarding the Chaste The Indispensable Sin Sex in the Power Equation Redefining Women The Indian Woman Awakens Gandhi: The Moral Architect of Modern India PART V THE DEMOCRATIC PERIOD: A SEXUAL PARADOX Two Worlds, One Nation Who Will Be Master of the Democratic World? Women as Sex Objects for the Patriarchy Killing the ‘Other’ The Puzzle of the Lingam–Yoni India at a Crossroads: Which Way Will It Go? Notes References Acknowledgements Copyright Page PENGUIN BOOKS SEX AND POWER Rita Banerji was raised all over India (in about thirteen towns and cities) and then moved to the United States, where she lived for eleven years, studying and working in the fields of ecology and the environment. She is currently based in Calcutta, where she works as a freelance writer and photographer. Her works have been published in The London Magazine, New Orleans Review, The Word Worth Magazine and The Review-Asia Magazine. Rita Banerji is the founder and chief administrator of the online campaign The 50 Million Missing, at www.50millionmissing.in, which is soon to be set up as an NGO in India. With much shame to the millions of daughters that India discarded most unlovingly Introduction Languorously sensual and of exquisite form, men and women in stone on ancient Indian temple walls engage in explicit and imaginative love-making, in an array of intriguing poses. The atmosphere they evoke is of such immediacy that even now, more than a thousand years since they were first conceived, they retain the power to speak unabashedly and eloquently of the carnal passions of the human race. A man caresses his delighted lover’s naked breasts with a lotus bud.1 Another exchanges a coquettish glance with his lover as he attempts to seduce her with a glass of wine.2 And yet another kneels before his lover and performs cunnilingus while she languidly gazes down at him and snips off his hair.3 One couple prefers intercourse in the standing position—the woman with her leg draped around the man’s hips, her arms entwined around his neck.4 Another couple in coitus understandably requires assistance. Both are in a cross-legged sitting position, the man below, upside down and balanced on his head, the woman upright, held in position on top by two supporting female attendants.5 A temptress attempts to tantalize, brazenly calling attention to her vulva by framing it with her hands.6 Every year, thousands of visitors from India and abroad contemplate these temples and respond in ways that are just as varied—from awe and disbelief to voyeurism and bewilderment, sometimes, even disgust. But while the world regards these monuments like oddities on the Indian landscape, quite a few Indians wish it would divert its attention towards other equally splendid but more asexual aspects of Indian history. Aiming their indignation at foreigners and intellectuals, they remonstrate: ‘Why should people be so obsessed with these sculptures when India has so much more to offer?’ The answer could not be more self-evident. For how many civilizations of the world have been so inspired as to portray human sexuality with such artistry, elegance and candour, not just as a primal passion, but also a refined science and a cultivated art form? But even more significantly, what makes these temple sculptures particularly fascinating is how their very existence poses a challenge to the moral climate of contemporary Hinduism. Even though these temples are a product of Hindu culture, no architect in India today would dare construct a temple or for that matter any public building along similar erotic lines. It would be considered sacrilegious—a disregard for public sentiment—and in all likelihood, given India’s recent socio- political climate, could catapult the masses into a state of violent agitation. So it is little wonder that a section of Indians find these relics more than just a bit disconcerting. These temples are an embarrassment, incongruous with nurtured concepts of Hindu religious sanctimony. And they are much too palpable to wish away. Hence many modern Indians would rather have them understated than re-examined and reworked into the fundamentals of their social fabric. In fact, Mahatma Gandhi, the messiah of celibacy, had wanted organized bands of his devotees to storm these historic temples and obliterate the offensive sculptures.7 On the other hand, these temples have enthralled scholars and intellectuals, many of whom have attempted to
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