Women lighting the last rites in India is a taboo even in this modern world. Whereas the tradition of men lighting the funeral pyres is right according to the male authoritarian society we live in even today.
When a wife or a daughter changes this tradition, people talk ill about her rather than feel sorry for their loss. No one tries to understand the emotional trauma they are going to.
A girl or a wife can be attached to the person who died as much as a man. It is not only a physical loss but also an emotional loss too. Of late, things seem to change now. The foster daughter of Atal Bihari Vajpayee to the five daughters of Karulal Trivedi lit the funeral pyre of their father.
Traditions are made for people by people so that there is discipline in the society. But, surprisingly, traditions have always been tools used for moral policing.
Traditions are good as long as it doesn’t create troubles in other’s lives. On the contrary, tradition should not be used to discipline someone or be unempathetic to others.
One such incident happened recently, which shows that people have turned inhuman. They just do the moral policing and troll others even when in grief.
Mandira Bedi, the wife of the famous director, Raj kaushal broke gender stereotypes and performed the last rites of her husband. She bid farewell to her husband in her own way. But as always, women are disproportionally targeted and the same thing happened to her.
Ironically, people trolled her for this act. Furthermore, she was trolled heavily online for the inappropriate dress she was wearing while lighting the pyre of her husband. She was trolled for wearing a tee shirt and jeans.
People need to become more empathetic rather than trolling women for the wrong reasons.
