Sherneen Lalloo

Sexuality is a social process involving both institutional and experiential dimensions of sexual relationships. It is an aspect of social and cultural behaviour that is often subject to state regulation and control. Sexuality refers to sexual practice, sexual preference, desire and pleasure, with whom and how one has sex. Sexuality is also the condition of being sensual which, I believe, involves the way we view our own bodies. Western science has defined the function of sexuality in terms of reproductive biology stressing the role of the penis in fertilisation and the uterus and vagina in pregnancy and lactation. However, these definitions do not deal with the fact that biological aspects of sexuality are experienced culturally. The bare biological facts of sexuality must necessarily be expressed socially. While sex may feel private, those feelings incorporate the rules, definitions and symbols in which they are constructed. Bodily experiences are socially constructed and are interpreted in culturally specific ways. Sex acts have varying social significance and subjective meanings in accordance with the cultural context in which they occur.

This article examines how bodily experiences such as sexuality are socially constructed and interpreted in culturally specific ways. Put differently, it examines how femininities and sexuality are mediated by religion and culture. In particular, I focus on notions of "pollution" during menstruation and childbirth among Hindu women. I chose to focus on sexuality and Hinduism since there is very little research on Hindu women in South Africa, and even less conducted by Hindu women themselves. The article is based on interviews conducted with six Hindu women and six Christian women as part of research towards an MA degree. The women interviewed were between the ages of 25 and 50, from similar socio-economic backgrounds and education levels and had a keen interest in religion.

Most Hindus in South Africa came to Durban as indentured labourers in 1867 to fulfill the labour needs of the sugar-cane industry. Indentured labourers were followed by "free" or "passenger" Indians. Gradually, Indians moved from Durban to other parts of South Africa. While Durban has one of the largest Indian populations outside India, Indians are a minority group in the Western Cape. People classified as Indian under apartheid were located in the Rylands/Athlone area of Cape Town which lies far from the central business district. It is in this area that I conducted my research.

According to various Hindu legal texts, a woman should be married. The Manusmriti, for instance, emphasises that a woman should be guided by her father in her childhood, her husband in her youth, and her son in her old age. In her youth, a woman's father prevents her from having sexual relations with men and in her adulthood, her sexuality is supposed to be confined to and expressed in the marital relationship. Marriage, for Hindu women, connotes auspiciousness and fertility. The vermillion that married women wear in the paths of their hair and the red dot or bindi that is displayed on the forehead connote this auspicious state. Unmarried women and widows do not wear these auspicious signs and are therefore "less auspicious" than married women. Usually widows do not re-marry and are thus not sexually active.

The idea that unmarried women are "dangerous" becomes especially clear when one examines the way Hindu Goddesses are worshipped. Shakti (literally meaning power or energy) or Devi (which are both generic names for the Goddess) is seen as the consort of the god Shiva. Shakti is regarded as the active, creative power of Shiva who is more passive. Although Shakti is basically One, she can manifest herself in a variety of forms. In her forms as a consort to a male god, her sexuality is controlled and she is gentle. However, when Shakti is worshipped on her own as the Kali or Durga, the Supreme Being independent of a male god, she is destructive and dangerous. The Goddess is benevolent, auspicious or gentle in her form as a consort (e.g. Lakshmi or Sarasvati) but in her independent forms such as Kali she is described as "virgin" because she is neither dominated nor answerable to male authority. In this form, she is fierce and destructive. Often, when the Goddess is represented alone, she is the recipient of blood sacrifice which is never the case when she is represented in her role as consort to a male god who is in a position of superiority. Similarly, a woman is regarded as "dangerous" if she is alone or unmarried and "auspicious" if she is married since a married woman's sexuality is confined to that relationship. In this way, religion is a way of "controlling" a woman's sexuality. When goddesses that are worshipped alone are regarded as "dangerous" and when a married woman is seen as "auspicious", a clear message is sent to women that female sexuality is best contained and explored within marriage.

Hindu religion defines the terrain of sensuality for women further. During menstruation, a Hindu woman is considered "polluting", "dirty" or "impure" and the Manusmriti prescribes a ritual bath after menstruation ceases. Menstruating women do not attend temple services and a ritual bath is taken when bleeding ceases. Since menstruation is seen as "dirty", Hindu women do not even light the lamp in the shrines of their homes. The lighting of the lamp is an important part of ritual life. These religious restrictions cause women to feel "impure". The religious and cultural belief that menstruation is contaminating has serious implications for the way women view themselves and their bodies. In my study, over half the Hindu women described themselves as being "contaminated" and "dirty" during menstruation and consequently did not want to be part of certain religious and cultural events. They rarely questioned the cultural belief of impurity during menstruation.

Although menstruation is a natural process, it is not something that is spoken about easily. Aside from religious and cultural restrictions surrounding menstruation, the topic has always been a taboo one. In my study, menarche was described as a negative experience that was not spoken about easily. Consequently, half the Hindu women said that they told their sisters, rather than their mothers, about menarche. This could be due to beliefs surrounding "respect" which prescribe that sexual matters are not discussed with elders. Menarche also highlights the ambivalent position of women in society. For instance, one South Indian woman in my study described the rituals surrounding menarche as involving seclusion in her bedroom for seven days. During this period, no males were allowed to see her and food was brought to her room. She also received a lot of gifts. After the period of seclusion was over, everything in the room and the clothes she was wearing had to be destroyed because of the "contamination" surrounding menstruation. On the one hand, a woman's fertility is celebrated and she is given gifts and on the other, she is secluded and seen as contaminating. Arguably, this distorts the way a woman feels about her body and her sexuality. Sexual intercourse during menstruation was seen as taboo by both Hindu and Christian women. Most interviewees were disgusted at the idea of intercourse during menstruation and described it as "gross" and "disgusting".

Furthermore, it was found that half the Hindu women in my study did not think it necessary or appropriate to have sex during pregnancy. This is probably related to the cultural belief that in the early months of pregnancy additional sperm can contribute to the baby's growth. Later on in pregnancy, sex is frowned upon as it is said to generate excessive "heat" which would threaten the foetus' health. In contrast, there are no cultural or religious restrictions on sex during pregnancy in Christianity. In this way, we can see how religion and culture shape women's attitudes towards sexuality and the way they view their bodies. Religion also serves to perpetuate the ambivalent positions of women in society. For example, in Hinduism, women are seen as lakshmis (literally goddesses of wealth or fortune) who bring good fortune. They are revered for their roles as wives and mothers. On the other hand, women are seen as "dirty" because they are associated with menstruation and childbirth. Women are also seen as temptresses that prevent men from making spiritual advancement and bind them to the cycle of birth and death.

At the same time, however, it is interesting to observe that women are not passive victims of religion and culture. One of the ways that Hindu women contest and challenge popular notions of "impurity" during menstruation is by questioning whether they really are "impure". For example, one woman in my study stated that Hindu goddesses are female and must have experienced menstruation. How, then, could menstruation be unclean, she asked? Elsewhere, popular notions of "acceptable" sexuality have also been challenged by questioning heterosexual ideas about sexuality. The film Fire, released in India in 1998, brought the issue of lesbianism into the public domain for discussion. The film unleashed widespread controversy and protests. Yet the Censors Board of India passed the film without a single cut. This represented a great stride in challenging the norms of heterosexuality and marriage and ideas about female sexual passivity. Another way that Hindu women have resisted patriarchy is by choosing to remain single.

It is clear that religious ideas are capable of shaping a woman's sexuality and the way she views her body. Nevertheless, I argue that a woman should be free to define and explore her sexuality the way she chooses. The best way of preventing ourselves from becoming passive victims of the culture is by realising that we do have choices.