Durga-Dynam ics of power, gender bias and a st ory of Widows in India

Sharmistha Dutta

This is a self-financed photography project that I took up as I wanted to address the immense apathy and gender inequality that exists against women, specially the widows in India. The project focuses specifically on the widows living in Vrindavan. I have been working on this subject since September 2012.There are two distinct parts in the story. One, which establishes Durga as the common woman, and the other, which focuses on the widows.For the initial build up of the story I have travelled and photographed in Delhi, Kolkata, Varanasi and for the hardcore research work I have shot mainly in Vrindavan. My objective is to create awareness about the violence faced by the widows of India. I want to generate public attention towards their vulnerability and thereby help raise their social acceptability. I believe it’s not just the people living in rural India who treat their widows and women badly, but it’s a practice that is also shockingly prevalent amongst the educated people living in big cities. It’s the mindset that we need to fight and change. The Sanskrit shloka above translates to this: The Omnipresent Goddess is the embodiment of Power. According to Indian Mythology, when the celestial gods could not control the menace of the demons, they convened with the powerful trinity of gods, Brahma, Vishnu & Maheshwar. Their collective wrath gave birth to this extraordinary woman and thus Durga, the goddess, came into being. She slaughtered the infamous Mahishasura (king of the demons) and saved the world from perishing. This is how Indians have celebrated Goddess Durga, the embodiment of Shakti (power). A woman born of man! Certainly a man’s perspective to the entity. Therefore, it is crucial to see how a woman in the present world finds her place in the increasingly patriarchal society of India. It is a society where her voice is deliberately muffled and she has to fight for an equal status – social, economic and even sexual – which the man takes for granted.