Dear Editor,
Those who support the Miss Diwali Pageant believe that its opponents want to remove glamour and elegance from the lives of the women who participate in pageantry.
Our society is dominated by pageants in many forms, all of which, it seems, have a goal to ‘show’ women under all sorts of guises − culture, heritage, tourism, and now religion. We must ask ourselves why only women seem to be put through these shows, and not men. Don’t men have an equal role in promoting the culture, the heritage, the tourism, the religion which the pageants claim to be promoting?
While it may be true that Miss Diwali pageants have been held by a prominent Hindu religious organisation and that the winners have gone on to other platforms, many of us have recognised the sexism behind these and other pageants. Many pageants have been characterised by claims of sexual harassment of the contestants. We now openly talk about domestic violence and rape in all settings and places. We recognise that it is sexism which drives gender-based violence. The pageants have not reduced sexism in our society, despite their claims to promote respect and equality of womanhood.
Some pageants have openly degenerated into tragic discussions as to the worthiness of the losers. But this issue of ‘worth’ underlies pageants even when the discussion is not open. The Miss Diwali Pageant as promoted , like others, is about exclusion of those who are deemed not fit (pretty enough, tall enough, slim enough, shapely enough, even intelligent enough) to participate − and that exclusion is a complete opposite of the Diwali festival and Hindu principles which are open to all who recognise the search for truth evident in the prayer ‘Asato Ma Sat Gamaya, Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya… Lead us from unreal to real, lead us from darkness to light…’
Aishwarya Rai, Indian actress and former Miss World, when asked in her 2005 ‘60 Minutes’ interview about being called the most beautiful woman in the world, said, “All this is transient… it fades, it is the external.” Diwali reminds us that even as the physical is transient, that the light which we call the soul, is eternal. Many persons who have promoted Diwali and Phagwah events − bashments, barbecues, fêtes, pageants of all natures − have, on the first request from Hindu organisations and even individual Hindus − respectfully removed the references to the festivals. It is sad that the Guyana National Diwali Committee and its supporters, named on September 27 as the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T), Banks DIH, Polar Commodities, King’s Jewellery, Steve’s Jewellery, Gizmos and Gadgets and the New GPC, seem intent on ignoring the requests of Hindus for respect for a sacred festival. Banks DIH and Polar Commodities bring the spectre of alcohol, which many Hindu families have had to combat as poison in their lives. This adds to the insult to those who strive to combat the effects of alcohol use, especially in the Hindu community.
Many people assume that the Hindu enjoyment and merriment which accompany the festivals − singing, art, dancing, theatre − mean that anything goes where Hindu festivals are concerned. In opposing this promotion by the Guyana National Diwali Committee, we have an opportunity to re-assert the values which are important to us and which will lead us forward as a society.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
