New Delhi: BJP President Amit shah shrugged off the damage caused to the bust of social reformer Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar during his rally in Kolkata on Tuesday but the smashing of the bust is seen by some as manifestation of the hatred RSS nurses for what all he did for the uplift of women.
Vidyasagar had come under attack from Hindu chauvinists for using his knowledge of scriptures in his fight for widow remarriage and starting schools for girls’ education. He rejected the scriptural injunctions against women as superstitious. He was hated for going against the Puranas, Manu Smriti and Mahabharat, which put great emphasis on irrevocable monogamy and sexual steadfastness of women, which disallowed their remarriage.
Vidyasagar campaigned much to the disgust of the orthodox viewpoint, which is also held by the RSS. In his fight against obscurantism, he once wrote that women cannot be treated as anybody’s property: “A man can present or sell an object that he owns or has a right over. Such a law was applicable only to the gift of land, house, garden, or cattle. But a man cannot own his daughter in an absolute manner, like a piece of land or a cow.”
