Raksha-bandhan : Needs Redefinition

Raksha-bandhan is celebrated in most parts of India as bonding of love between brother & sister. Another festival which is similar to Raksha-bandhan is Bhai-Dooj.    In spite of such a pious festival being celebrated, how can there be so many incidents of sexual harassment, rape, murders etc.  In the context of increased violence against women and violence in general, this festival needs serious redefinition.

Quoting Wikipedia: "It is an ancient Hindu festival that ritually celebrates the love and duty between brothers and their sisters. The sister performs a Rakhi ceremony, then sister prays to express her love and her wish for the well being of her brother; in return, the brother ritually pledges to protect and take care of his sister under all circumstances." 

We mostly agree with the above definition. There is one thing, we can observe in above definition, that it seems to be relationship between one brother with one sister. This seems to be bottleneck, that is why, the fragrance of the festival is not able to flourish in society.

Sister worry about them and their brother, while brother worry about them and their sister. It just does not take into account of the others. It seems individualistic. The 'society' (or 'sansar' or 'world') component is missing from the festival. One of my senior colleague mentioned, that whey you pray, you should pray for others and not for yourself. Then only, your prayer will be listened too.  It also reminds of Vivekananda Chicago speech. He began his speech with salutation, "Sisters and brothers of America!".

In the light of above discussion, this festival needs to be re-looked and redefined such that it includes all. A sister should pray for the well being of all other brothers as well, while at the same time a brother should pledges to protect all other sisters as well. In this model, one sister worries for rest (n-1) sisters as well, and will be protected by rest (n-1) brothers as well.  At the same time, one brother will get the wishes of rest (n-1) sisters as well, and need to protect rest (n-1) sisters as well.

All brothers and sisters, if they abide to this model, and insist to their sisters/brothers to do the same during the festival, then there will no scope of violence against women.    

Thanks for reading. Your comments are most welcome.