According to one Biblical narration (Genesis 19:33, Lot and his
daughters, ZONDERVAN NIV Study Bible, pages – 35 – 36), “Lot and his two
daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in
Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. One day the older daughter said
to the younger, ‘our father is old, and there is no man around here to lie with
us, as is the custom all over the earth. Let’s get our father to drink wine and
then lie with him and preserve our family line through our father’.”
This shows that the incest was not a taboo during those days.
These days it is considered to be an abomination and disgraceful act demanding
exemplary punishment. Unfortunately, it is not as evanescent as it is
considered to be. Few believed in carrying this intolerable legacy, as in the
case of a Lucknow based ‘hakim’ who
has made several of his daughters pregnant until one of his daughter complained
the matter to the local police. He is now leading a shameful existence behind
bar. In another horrendous act, one father repeatedly raped for several months
his teenaged daughter after the death of his wife. He was a menial worker who
was staying in one of the shanties of this bursting metro. Leading a life full
of drudgery this mortal slog his guts out to support the family of eight kids.
Staying in a claustrophobic 10/8 cubicle where the sunrays dare not enter, the
family used to sleep on the bare floor. ‘I was not in my senses as it all
happened under the spell of drink,’ he confessed before the dumbstruck audience
in a packed courtroom. The city court pronounced relatively lighter
penalization, based on the fact that given the ‘claustrophobic’ living
condition such trespasses cannot be ruled out! In Jamshedpur, a vibrant
industrial hinterland housing few giant industries likes TISCO and TELCO
manufacturing steel and automobiles, a father killed his daughter after raping
her several times! He was lynched by the crowd outside the court premises. He
met his nemesis. In yet another similar incidence, a professor’s son in a
non-descript township of Sahebganj, in Jharkhand, had incestuous relation with
his own sister. It reached to such a pass that on one occasion she had even
became pregnant! The entire town buzzed with the tale of the affairs involving
the siblings.
From Nicaragua to New Zealand, from Ireland to Iceland, from
Afghanistan to Argentina there are virtually no lands that can claim to be
immune from this syndrome. Few years back, a news appeared in a popular US
tabloid which mentioned a lady in her mid-30s who seduced her teenaged son into
cohabiting with her!
These incidences show that this age old anomaly is still prevalent
in the society and manifesting its ugly head every now and then. The moot
question lies in how to detoxify our society from such beastly acts. According
to a psychologist such incestuous acts are the manifestation of sick mind and
depends mainly on the upbringing and socialization of an individual. In many
households, particularly in the metros, the living conditions are extremely
deplorable. In Mumbai alone, over 60% people are living in ghettos and
shantytowns with corrugated sheets as roofs and four walls. In many instances,
the situation is so grim that both the spouses sleep in the same small cubicles
along with their young siblings and offspring. This cast wrong impression on
the children’s nascent mind. Thus acts as the breeding ground for psychopaths
and junk culture. Our social mores and culture considers it out of sync with
human nature. Though there is no specific law to deal with such occasional
cracks that mar our culture. Presently they are dealt under the obsolete
adultery or rape acts.
There are many who believe that this is yet another cultural
assault by ‘west-laced’ mass media to reduce us into a ‘cultural wasteland’.
True, the sleaze that is catered by the incongruous channels – incompatible to
our culture, have infected the minds of our youths and like epidemics
contaminated their thinking. But how far is it related to the incestuous
behavior is debatable. Even in the ‘free-sex’ west, this is considered to be
detestable act and is taboo. The religious doctrines strictly warn us against
any flirtation with incest. At one place the holy Bible says, “Cursed is the
man who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of
his mother (Deuteronomy 27:22).” How could the west, which professes
Christianity, permit such infidelity? This is beyond one’s contemplation. Rather than accusing others, shouldn’t
we come out from such strait-laced thoughts by introspecting on our own
weaknesses?
No comments:
Post a Comment