'Kaali' Poster Row: Why Should Society Decide How Women Perceive Goddesses?

When you remember a deity in your prayers, do you focus on their appearance or their significance in your life?  One thing that has stuck with me since childhood is that we befriend the deities we worship. We imagine them as a part of ourselves or as someone who is similar to us. It is this freedom to relate ourselves to this universal power that makes us worship deities irrespective of their gender, caste or taste. But why don’t women have this freedom?

Since the poster of Kaali has released, the filmmaker Leena Manimekalai has been facing huge criticism for representing Goddess Kaali with cigarettes and a pride flag. Moreover, when MP Mahua Moitra backed Manimekalai by saying that she perceives Goddess Kali as a “meat-eating, alcohol-accepting goddess"; she was also roped into the backlash against anti-Hindus who shame Hindu Gods and Goddesses.

Why is society monopolising Gods and Goddesses? Why are people restrained from their freedom of perceiving their deity as a part of themselves? When society is okay with Gods who consume intoxicants and flirt around with women, then why not with goddesses?

Why must the goddesses always be portrayed as moral mothers who can either nurture or destroy? Why can’t they be portrayed as common women who have the right to love, pleasure and fun?

When I first came across the poster of Kaali, I was both confused and amused by seeing a new image of Goddess Kaali. Since childhood, the sight of Goddess Kaali made my heart skip a beat because of her bloodthirsty, eerie and vengeful identity. She certainly represented a woman that we rarely see in our society and that is what made her stand out.

But after seeing Goddess Kaali smoking and upholding the pride flag, her significance gained a new chapter. She became even more relatable to women around me. The poster showed us that Goddess Kaali is not an eerie and bloodthirsty woman that we should be probably afraid of. She is a common dark-skinned woman who seeks pleasure and stands for her rights.

In fact, for the first time, there was nothing eerie about Goddess Kaali as scriptures made us believe because of her skin tone, appearance and rebellious behaviour. She was like me and other women who want to live on our own terms.

So isn’t this interpretation of a female deity better than what scriptures made us believe? Why the backlash especially against women who are trying to revamp the identity and personality of the female deities? Aren’t female deities meant to represent womanhood? And is there only one definition of womanhood?

I am not trying to criticise the first image of Goddess Kaali that our scriptures sold to us. But I am just trying to say that it should not be the only image of the deity. If worshipers of goddess Kaali, especially women, are able to relate to her identity, won’t they feel more validated and powerful? Won’t they feel that they too deserve the respect and honour that the deity gets?

The hypocrisy of worshipping women in temples and harassing them outside is not unknown. In fact, nowadays, women are harassed inside the premises of temples. If women in our society aren’t safe despite worshipping the female goddesses, then what is the purpose of deifying certain women? If female deities represent only the high caste sanskari women upheld by scriptures, who is the goddess of the marginalised section of women?

If we see the poster of Kaali, it shows a woman who smokes, has dark skin tone and is probably a part of the ">LGBTQIA+ community. And if we try to place this woman in our society, her identity will certainly be under the marginalised section that is targeted by patriarchal criticisms. But when such a group of women identify themselves with Goddess Kali, they will not settle for anything less than the respect and acceptance that the deity gets in society.

Moreover, when Godmen interpret deities' acts as justification for their questionable and even criminal deeds, why isn’t this question of shaming the deity raised? We have come across ample cases against Godmen who have harassed women in the name of God’s will. When their perception of deities which is outright wrong is permissible and openly practised, why are women being called out for innocent revamping of the looks of the female goddesses? Do men alone have the right to perceive and remodel deity, religion and traditions? If women are given this freedom, won't the harassment and discrimination of women despite the presence of religion stop?

An example of this is how female priests in our country are rewriting religious traditions. Nandini Bhowmik, the first Hindu female priest in West Bengal, refused to perform Kanyadaan at a wedding because she perceived it as a regressive ritual. Moreover, Mandira Bedi performed the last rites of her husband even though our traditions do not allow it. In a short story, Draupadi, writer Mahasweta Devi interpreted Mahabharat's Draupadi as a tribal woman named Dropdi who is raped by policemen and yet refuses to submit herself. Examples are many. But are we ready to hand over this freedom to women?

The views expressed are the author's own.

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