Originally posted by: MannMeinRadha
In Bengal it was opposite.
Highest castes and elite families would frown upon wearing blouses and it was shunned and looked down upon . Even women of rich jamindaar families and elite riches would wear sarees without blouses. Brahmins in particular would never wear blouses .
It's the Tagore family women who started wearing blouses with sarees and it was well known how close they're to British and very very western influenced. The first women in their family who made blouse fashionable in bengal actually went to Britain with her husband and stayed there for some years and picked up Western habits and culture from there.
So the origin of blouse in bengal was purely an anglicized culture move.
The thing is, in ancient India women enjoyed far more power, freedom and special treatment than they're given nowadays in so called modern India. It's very sad.
Thakurs are upper castes.
Hard disagree. Look at the protagonists of Ramayana and Mahabharata, our constitution gives way more power to women than Sita or Draupadi had. Even socially, several things which happened to them would be frowned upon even in the most traditional khaap panchayat. And that's mythical. We have to keep it in mind that history and myths are different.
Historically that's just not true at all. Even if you go as far as Rigveda, it's very clear that patriarchy was the system. All the kings are men. Most of the hymns were written by men, and compared to 329 men women were only 27. And the discrimination simply kept increasing as the Mahajanapadas formed (women subordination is a necessary part of any aristocratic society, to maintain the patrilineal line pure). By the time proper law code, manu smriti was written it's very clear how degraded women's conditions were.
Today if a woman wants, she can own property of any kind, not just streedhana and garbhadhana, divorce her husband, refuse to obey her family, her in laws, has reproductive freedom, and is legally allowed to do whatever she wants. She's her own person, an equal. Not a goddess, because it's goddesses who are burdened with ridiculous scrutiny and moral burdens.
Edited by salta - a day ago
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