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Mainstream, VOL LVI No 1 New Delhi December 23, 2017 - Annual Number
The Battle Must Go On!
Sunday 24 December 2017
#socialtagsby Aishwarya Bhuta
Padmavati says—It does not matterWhether I was a queenOr a figment of someone’s imagination.They did not let me live.Neither in dreamsNor in reality.Hadiya says—But I am alive!I voluntarily adopted another religionAnd loved someone who followed it too.They did not listen to me.They labelled me as emotionally unstableAnd imprisoned me.Padmavati says—Yes, you are imprisonedAnd so am I.The only difference isYou are in a houseWhile I was in a palace.I was meant to be veiled.Hadiya screams—I want justice!I want to go with my husband!I want to studyI want to live as per my own choice!The court annulled my marriageAnd my father locked me up in my own house!Padmavati sadly replies—You can at least fight your battle!For the world, I was a queenBut I was a slave indeed...Always veiled; a princess and then a queenI had no identity.Jauhar1was my ultimate fate.But you must not sacrifice yourself for your honour.Do not back off; no matter how much they threaten you.Mighty warrior! Keep the flames burning!You are living for yourself; do not die for them!
Footnote
1. Jauhar— self-immolation performed by Rajput women in order to protect their honour; to avoid being captured or raped, when it was certain that their husbands would be defeated by invaders.
Aishwarya Bhuta is a recent graduate in the social sciences. This is a translation of her own poem ‘Ladaai jaari rakhna’ originally written in Hindi.