When Paro Sharma’s husband died in a rickshaw accident 28
years ago, she became not just a grieving widow but a social outcast.
Blamed by her Hindu relatives for the bad “karma” that brought about his
demise, she was banished from home as an omen of bad luck and told to fend
for herself.

“After my husband died, my two sons and daughters-in-law
threw me out of my own house,” said Mrs Sharma, 50, from west Bengal.
“They said I didn’t earn, so why should they feed me.”

	Outcasts: Many women in Vrindavan, the City of Widows, have to rely on charity for food and shelter

On the dusty streets of Vrindavan, a Hindu holy town in
northern India, known as the City of Widows, countless sad-eyed women tell
similar stories after fleeing the harsh social stigma that comes with the
death of a husband.

Forced to shave their heads and dress in white, an
estimated 10,000 widows have sought sanctuary in Vrindavan, from
newly-weds and mothers in their prime to elderly women who can barely
walk, all living on handouts after being deemed socially untouchable.

It is one of the cruellest Hindu traditions to have
survived into the 21st century, and is an image that modern India would
rather the outside world did not see.

But to the fury of Hindu conservatives, that is about to
change. Water, a film by the Indian-born director Deepa Mehta, has been
nominated for an Oscar after she turned her lens on her country’s inhumane
treatment of widows.

Her entry for the coveted award, however, will come not
from India – where protesting mobs attacked the film set and where no
cinema dare show it – but her adopted homeland of Canada, which has put it
forward for best foreign language film.

The irony that the film’s only acclaim so far has come
from audiences thousands of miles from India has not been lost on Miss
Mehta, 56, who had to finish making the film abroad after receiving death
threats for “insulting” Hindu culture.

“A film about the widows of India in Hindi, which I had to
shoot in Sri Lanka because I wasn’t allowed to shoot in my home country,
is now going to the Oscars as Canada’s official entry,” she said.

Hindu nationalist groups are outraged that the film may
now achieve international prominence and accuse Miss Mehta, whose previous
films have broached other
taboo subjects such as lesbianism, of showing an unpatriotic obsession
with her country’s shortcomings.

“Every society has weak points,” said Omkar Bhabi, of the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad, or World Hindu Council. “It’s shameful that she
always makes films about India’s weak points for foreign countries. Why
doesn’t she show how the West dumps its old people in homes?”

The film is a “conspiracy to tarnish the image of India”,
said Prakash Sharma, the council’s national convenor. “Why is Canada
nominating an Indian film?” he asked. “We will not tolerate a screening
under any circumstances. We will attack cinemas if necessary.”

Although the film is set in the 1930s, during the rise of
the struggle against British colonial rule, the way in which many of
India’s

40 million widows are rejected by their families and
shunned by society has changed little since then. After her husband’s
death, a woman must swap saris for white gowns, stop wearing jewellery and
shave her head to prevent her looking attractive. She must refrain from
eating meat for fear it will arouse sexual desire and keep away from
weddings and births.

Many gravitate to Vrindavan, where donations by Hindu
pilgrims to the city’s 5,000 temples allow religious authorities to
provide the most destitute with lodgings and a modicum of food. Many end
up forced into prostitution or begging.

“In India, a woman is only revered as a mother, daughter
and wife,” said Mohini Giri, who runs a home for widows in Vrindavan.
“Without a man, women have no social status.”

Miss Giri, 57, and a widow herself, recalled how she was
humiliated at her great niece’s wedding. “At the most auspicious moment,
the bride’s sister turned to me and said: ‘Auntie, do you mind leaving the
room for a few minutes please?’ They thought I would bring bad luck!”

Indians may be able to judge the film later this year.
Mumbai film producer Ravi Chopra has announced that he is prepared to
brave the fury of Hindu fundamentalists by distributing it.

“I see nothing in it that should offend sensibilities,” he
said.

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