Elucidating a new paradigm of feminine voice

March 30, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 07:27 am IST - PUDUCHERRY:

Participants take part in a discussion following the launch of Rashna Imhasly-Gandhy’s new book ‘The Emerging Feminine’ in Puducherry on Saturday. Photo: S.S. Kumar

Participants take part in a discussion following the launch of Rashna Imhasly-Gandhy’s new book ‘The Emerging Feminine’ in Puducherry on Saturday. Photo: S.S. Kumar

To what extent do values embodied by characters of popular mythology get imprinted on what Carl Jung would call the collective unconscious?

Would gender relations in India have been any different if the roles of characters such as Sita or Draupadi were etched out differently, or would the very concept of heroism in today’s world be something else if the protagonist in any myth was a heroine?

These were some of the questions raised by women from various walks of life at a discussion following the launch of Rashna Imhasly-Gandhy’s new book ‘The Emerging Feminine’ at the Hotel La Maison Rose.

The author, who works as a transpersonal psychologist out of Mumbai, is trekking along the familiar ground of Indian mythology that inspired her earlier book the ‘Psychology of Love-Wisdom of Indian Mythology’ (Roli Books 2001), though the direction has now changed.

‘The Emerging Feminine’ (Yatra Books), Ms. Imhasly essentially argues that entrenched behaviour patterns as well as value systems are neither invented overnight nor handed down by any single work or poet.

“They evolve through the slow crystallisation of personalities, real or mythical, who act in certain ways, and who are then scripted into mythologies. Thus the individual actions of a hero’s or heroine’s journey are scripted in story form as a collective ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ action.”

For Ms. Imhasly, myths reveal the archetypal nature of man repeating patterns outside time, place, history, describing fundamental truths of nature and human life.

As a Jungian psychologist, she propounds the suggestion that perhaps heroism in today’s world would be different if the hero in any myth was a heroine. “Are we able to question such behaviour or do we blindly pass down such family heirlooms from one generation to another…,” is the vexing question.

According to the author, a new gendered worldview of women is not designed as a generalised criticism of the dominant masculine method of understanding the world rather it is more a confrontation with set and unconscious patterns embedded throughout male-dominated heritage and mythical narratives.

The book, she says, attempts to re-examine whether present cultural values that our dominant stories propagate are still relevant, or whether they suppress issues of gender, caste, race or other human potentials.

Many women scarcely realise their conditioning and end up internalising parental and cultural edicts, which become a virtually unchallenged social norm passed on from one generation to the next.

“Such internalised oppression weakens the inner voice, and the sense of self remains underdeveloped,” says Ms. Imhasly.

Pointing out that Jung theory was highly influenced by Patanjali sutras and the Chakra concept of male and female energies within, Ms. Imhasly felt that to be able to break from the archetypal mould of social behaviour patterns, the suppressed feminine voice needed to be freed. If the ‘feminine’ energy is suppressed in a woman, then how can it develop within a man? she wondered.

Maurice Shukla, author and teacher, said it was important to not perceive emerging feminism as a men versus women argument or a political battle, but appreciate it as an effort to restore “the balance of two energies that are present in all of us.”

Rajakala Partha, who runs the NGO Sharana, wondered whether rural women who were mostly undereducated were ever influenced by mythological figures. They tended to look up to real-life women achievers for inspiration, she said.

Moghan, Auroville-based psychotherapist, was of the view that mythology could be a powerful empowering experience for women in a society where religion was powerful.

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