Role and Status of Women in Sikh Religion through Sri Guru Nanak Perspectives

Abstract

The role and status of women in India is a very hot issue that is passionately debated every day, as ever more women become conscious of the inequalities and bias they suffer from. All around the world, women are an untapped resource to fight poverty and violence. And even though their potential has been very clearly revealed time and again in difficult circumstances (world wars, independence movements) men have too often lost sight of it in times of stability. The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women. There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. Woman has suffered for aeon, and that has given her infinite patience and infinite perseverance. India’s struggle for freedom is one such instance in history where women had stepped out of their regular roles as home-makers, mothers and wives to shoulder the responsibility of sculpting the concept of a new nation amidst the conflict between the people and the colonial state. In India, where religious myths and traditional attitudes define virtues and vices( relative to interpretation) , and these in turn condition popular imagination to form the social culture, the ideal and permissible cultural role of a woman becomes a contentious issue that can barely be assessed in uniform terms. However, a careful observation validates the fact that patriarchy has had an upper hand in general in most traditional norms across the country. India is a multi-religious country and every religion gives the special rights to women. In Sikhism Guru Nanak also raised a forceful voice against injustice towards women. He had pleaded for the full rights to women. The condition of women at the time of Guru Nanak was very deplorable. According to him woman has the same rights as man has. There is no scope of any discrimination against women because of their sex. They are fully at par with men. The present paper aims to explore the rights and status of women in Sikhism.