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The Henna Artist


The Henna Artist opens a door into a world that is at once lush and fascinating,...
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Given what you know about India now, has the status of Indian women changed much since 1955, do you think? On what are you basing your assumptions?

Created: 03/27/20

Replies: 8

Posted Mar. 27, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
davinamw

Join Date: 10/15/10

Posts: 3442

Given what you know about India now, has the status of Indian women changed much since 1955, do you think? On what are you basing your assumptions?

Given what you know about India now, has the status of Indian women changed much since 1955, do you think? On what are you basing your assumptions?


Posted Apr. 04, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
melanieb

Join Date: 08/30/14

Posts: 265

RE: Given what you know about India now, has the status of Indian women changed much since 1955, do you think? On what are you basing your assumptions?

I think the status of women in Indianis probably where it has been since 1955. I’m basing my opinion on images I see portrayed in the media, film industry, and in contemporary literature. I see pockets of change, much like Lakshmi’s character in this novel, but for the most part I don’t see radical change.


Posted Apr. 04, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
evelyng

Join Date: 02/07/18

Posts: 49

RE: Given what you know about India now, has the status of Indian women changed much since 1955, do you think? On what are you basing your assumptions?

I believe that inroads have been made in the small elevation of women's status in India, but that basically women are considered only as a satellite of their husbands and are ultimately subservient to them. I base this on the experience of working with Indian men and women. An Indian male professional told me that his wife had 24 kt gold bracelets in the bank deposit and if she displeased him that would be her passage back to India and he would be done with her. Women fear being sent back for good reason as women are valued as nothing but a burden to their families.


Posted Apr. 04, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
christine

Join Date: 05/30/11

Posts: 41

RE: Given what you know about India now, has the status of Indian women changed much since 1955, do you think? On what are you basing your assumptions?

I don’t think that it has. An Indian man came to USA for an engineering job close to my office. He brought his new wife. The marriage was arranged and he controlled everything. She was educated and strong willed. As soon as they arrived, he took total control over everything and left her alone in their apartment with no food. She fled to my office one day and I ended up taking her home with me. I set up some local family services for her and we kept intouch. She did end up leaving him because of the physical and mental abuse and went back to India. Her family shunned her and she knew that her world would be forever changed. She is strong and it’s been about ten years since she was here, but she is now devoting her life to helping other women become empowered. We still keep tabs on each other


Posted Apr. 05, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
darylb

Join Date: 06/23/13

Posts: 142

RE: Given what you know about India now, has the status of Indian women changed much since 1955, do you think? On what are you basing your assumptions?

I think there are many old traditions from India that live on in spite of education and socio economic status. I have a friend that moved to the US from India as a child. She is an engineer married to an Indian man by an arranged marriage. She is very happy in her marriage and plans for her children to have arranged marriages , too. Another Indian friend has a daughter that is an anesthesiologist. Her daughter married an American man, going against her parents choice of a partner. After three children and an obviously solid marriage, her parents have finally conceded that the daughter made a good decision. There were many tears and months of not speaking to each other.


Posted Apr. 05, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
TaraM

Join Date: 07/17/19

Posts: 54

RE: Given what you know about India now, has the status of Indian women changed much since 1955, do you think? On what are you basing your assumptions?

Wow darylb, that is so interesting about your friends and how they struggled with those decisions and family relationships. I definitely think that some things have changed for the better, but there are still quite a few hurdles women in India still face.


Posted Apr. 06, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
acstrine

Join Date: 02/06/17

Posts: 438

RE: Given what you know about India now, has the status of Indian women changed much since 1955, do you think? On what are you basing your assumptions?

The Henna Artist was definitely a contrast to other BookBrowse books I have read about women in India, like Girls Burn Brighter and America for Beginner's. In some ways it seems Lakshmi's life was better in 1955 than the lives of the characters in the other books I mentioned, which take place in the present. Lakshmi was able to leave her abusive husband, create a thriving business, buy her own home, and provide for her younger sister and her young assistant. I certainly do not mean to imply that all was perfect and Indian men were better behaved in 1955.

It seems to me that there are some improvements in the treatment of women in India. I think in some ways it depends on where one lives, education and income levels, and the willingness of the media to highlight more of the injustices. Women seem to voicing their opinions and not accepting the bad behavior of men, but there is still a lack of justice. A rape is reported in India every 16 minutes. The 2012 New Delhi rape of a 23 year old women on a bus forced India to change its rape laws. India did not, however, address the societal problems or implement a program of prevention. And some fear that rapists are now more willing to kill their victims so they can avoid the death penalty themselves.


Posted Apr. 07, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
scgirl

Join Date: 06/05/18

Posts: 245

RE: Given what you know about India now, has the status of Indian women changed much since 1955, do you think? On what are you basing your assumptions?

Not being an Indian woman, I cannot truly answer that question but as acstrine indicates above, there are enough books and newspaper articles about the plight of Indian women that it would seem things have not changed drastically. I think of The Space Between Us as well as some other Thrity Umgar books and, of course, the ones mentioned above.


Posted Apr. 12, 2020 Go to Top | Go to bottom | link | alert
dorothyh

Join Date: 01/23/15

Posts: 225

RE: Given what you know about India now, has the status of Indian women changed much since 1955, do you think? On what are you basing your assumptions?

I do not know all that much about how women are treated in India. I would think better with the advent of the internet, TV and movies.


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