Jan-March 2006 - Institute of Sikh Studies

10ABSTRACTS OF SIKH STUDIES : JAN-MARCH 2006 / 537-38 NSWOMAN IN SIKHISM *PRINCIPAL TEJA SINGHThe civilization of a people can be judged from the position theygive to their women. For the most part, our civilization being manmade,woman is assigned a lower position than man, who is supposedto be her lord and master. The Bible says, ‘the head of every man isChrist, and the head of the woman is the man;’ ‘he is the image andthe glory of the God, but the woman is the glory of the man. For, theman is not of the woman, but the woman of man. Neither was theman created for the woman, but the woman for the man.’ This is theburden of the teaching in almost all religions. Woman’s touch issupposed somehow to defile the purity of man. St. Paul in his firstEpistle to the Corinthians is at great pains to emphasise the necessityof keeping celibate, and allows marriage only on sufferance, “Hebelieved that a man or a woman marrying would not care so much forGod as one who remained unmarried.” That has been the belief allover India too, where so much is made of celibacy, and nobody canclaim to lead a pure and saintly life if he lives with a wife and children:There is supposed to be something inherently wrong with woman’smake-up. That is ‘why she has been excluded from the domain ofreligion. Manu would not allow her – along with Sudras – even tolisten to the Vedas, although some of the Vedic hymns were composedby women themselves. St. Paul too would not extend the right ofpreaching to woman. In his first Epistle to Timothy, he expressly saysthat he would not suffer a woman to teach, nor to usurp authorityover the man, but to be in silence. For, Adam was not deceived butthe women being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstandingshe shall be saved in childbearing.’ That is, for her salvation the best* Reproduced from his book Essays in Sikhism, Languages Department, Punjab,1988