Social Taboos in Indian society

The Indian society has seen its revolutions and ages, it has seen its ups and downs and has come out to be a mixture of liberal and a conservative society. Sometimes a lot of people, like the youth, feel stuck because of the sheer contradiction that the Indian society has become over the time. It does give its people freedom, but also takes a huge chunk of it back the minute a new belief is formed without visiting logic.

Thus, because of all the additions, the Indian society is still plagued with a lot of taboos. Taboos which change the meaning of life for some and make some rebellious. Taboos that make India seem like a backward country which is just not willing to shed the extras it can easily do without.

Dressing up

The traditional Indian wear is no doubt the most beautiful way of dressing up and it suits one and all but something as small as what the other person is wearing shouldn’t be the basis to judge a person. We all bear the brunt of judgements being thrown our way, just because the society feels we don’t dress appropriately. The society should ideally give the freedom of choice to all its members. It should let people wear what they want and concentrate on the good and the bad in people.

Marriages

The hot topic of every era, this has been in the news for the longest time. Whether it is inter-cast, inter-religious, or same sex, people have something to say about it. Indian society still believes in a very set pattern of marriage and anything that deviates from that gets the bashing. Ideally, marriage is something that binds two people for the rest of their life and the society should give that space to those two people to decide how or when they get married.

Indulging

Indulging is a word that has lately been used in a negative connotation a lot. Indulging is often thought of as something done for the wrong purpose, like getting drunk, smoking, doing drugs. Indians often forget that more than half of the population is busy getting indulged, which makes it a majority and very common thing. What we need to realize is that it is an individual choice and it has absolutely nothing to do with what sort of an upbringing they’ve received or what sort of a person they’ve become.

Religion

Not following the religion and the traditions is seen as the worst thing an Indian can ever do. It has been spoken about, ridiculed and people have been shunned because of it. If India ever wants to become a liberal country, it should start accepting that it is the choice of the person to follow whatever they wish to, it doesn’t mean they are disrespecting your culture or religion, it simply means that they don’t like it for themselves.

Sex before marriage

The most looked down upon because we are just not ready to accept that people do have sex before marriage. As absurd as it may sound, there is more pressure from the society than the stress of being pregnant. We, as a nation, need to step out of our thought bubble and see what is actually happening around us. It is an inevitable truth that people sleep together and none of the safety measures are 100% safe, so this can happen to any of us.

To get rid of the taboos that make Indians intolerant, we just need to be a little more patient and open-minded when it comes to others. I agree that a mistake will always be a mistake, but declaring that something is wrong without even looking at its pros and cons will keep holding us back, now and forever. Let’s try to bring our country out of the idea that taboos are a part of our tradition and religion and do away with the beliefs that just leave India crippled.