Is the Indian Woman Different?
The incidence of cheating on husbands is no different in India than in other countries. Given the opportunity and the assurance of secrecy, Indian women are as amenable to illicit liaisons as any other.
Many years back I got an invitation to write a 5000-word article on ‘The Indian Woman’. As my readers are aware I enjoy a certain measure of undeserved notoriety of being an expert on the subject, I had to live up to my image. ‘I should be able to write it with my left hand – baaen haath ka khel (Incidentally, I am right handed), I thought and accepted the invitation with alacrity. I got out my writing pad and my ball-point pen. I wrote in capital letters the heading ‘The Indian Woman’ by Khushwant Singh. And that is where the 5000-word article ended: in six words.
Is there such a thing as an Indian woman distinct from other women of the world? Does a woman look like a Pakistani, Kashmiri or Punjabi? (some Kashmiris even look like Europeans). Our Garhwalis, Nepalese and Bhutias look like their kinsmen across the borders; some even look like Tibetans or Chinese. Our Bengalis look like Bangladeshis, our South Indians like Sri Lankans. No, there is no such thing as a distinct Indian look. What distinguishes an Indian woman from another is her sari, bindi and sindoor – all three habitually worn by Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans and available to others. Does an Indian woman smell different from others? I haven’t sufficient experience to expound on it but I do know that since most women massage themselves with oils it is likely they smell of coconut, sesame, almond – or whatever. Have they distinctly different temperaments? Are they quicker to anger or more placid than other women? Proportions of quick tempered to the placid are about the same in all nationalities.
Are Indian women more sexy, less sexy, more forthcoming or more inhibited than others? Indian males have cherished some illusions about their women-folk being more chaste and more loyal to their husbands than women of other nationalities. They were conceived as Sitas, steadfastly spurning other suitors and taking their own lives on the mere suspicion that their husband’s suspected their fidelity. It is the image of the Pativrata Sita that has been imposed on Hindu women – curiosity is extended to Muslim, Christian and Sikh women as well. Unfortunately it doesn’t fit any of them. The truth is stated bluntly in one of the Panchtantra Tales which says: ‘Wise men have said that nothing is gained by searching for the source of a river, the origin of the family of a hero or sage, or looking into the fidelity of a wayward woman. A woman is born good or bad, and nothing can make the wicked virtuous. Fire may perhaps turn cold to the touch, and moonbeams warm, but a wayward wench can never turn chaste.’ One of the Jataka Tales (pre-Christian) records: ‘Wise men have said of yore, the ocean can never be satisfied with rivers, a fool with sins, a babbler with loose talk, a learned man with scriptures, fire with fuel and a woman with men.’
The theme most popular with them was of ascetics performing austerities in mountain caverns and acquiring enormous siddhu (occult) powers by virtue of their celibacy. Their rivals sent apsaras to seduce them. Without exception women succeed in their missions.
The Kama Sutra by Vatsayana is generally accepted as the definitive work on sex and Indian women. I have always regarded it as comic rubbish. Any modern sexologist will tell you that there is no basis of dividing women (or men) accordingly to the size of their genitals, that there is no difference in sexual appetites of women according to religion, caste or region – a healthy male or female has more desire for sex than the undernourished or sickly.
The more I read on the subject the more I am confirmed in my opinion that all said and done the one thing that distinguishes an Indian woman from another is her passport.