The ancient Hindu texts place a woman on a high pedestal. Thus umpteen goddesses in the form of Kali,Saraswati, Durga,Lakshmi etc abound. They are the pillars of Hinduism. But despite what I have written above, the lot of the woman in Hinduism is not what is desired. In particular the lot of widows ia a disgrace on the religion itself.
Nobody has been able to explain how this neferious practice of treating widows as the accursed of society took roots.Yet the fact is that the widows are treated like the living dead. A Hindu widow is not supposed to marry nor wear any gaudy clothes or make up.She is to keep her head shaved and spend her time reciting bhajans. In fact the greatest curse is to be a widow in Hinduism . Worse a lot many families who do not wish to take care of the widow send them to widow ashrams.Here they have to pander to sexual exploitation as well. The sad part is that sati having been outlawed,higer caste Hindus in particular palm of the widows as unwanted members of society.
Despite protestations from the Hindu leaders,the fact that there are 33 million widows cannot be explained. The Hindu religion is debased and needs to be cleansed.It is a pity that social reformers of Hinduism have not addressed the problems of widows. Among other things they are not to remarry and have to eat bland food.In fact in the widow ashram at Delhi a lot many widows have not enough to eat. When will Hinduism rid itself of this stigma? This is the million dollar question