You'd be surprised at the sheer amount of idiotic and degrading customs in Indian culture. Parts of it are beautiful and the culture as a whole is steeped in tradition, but the majority of the social customs are absolutely despicable.
Like other people have said, in a billion people you can find anything you want to, but the described custom is extremly unusual. I am an Indian, raised in semi-rural area, and I have never heard of this happening. NYT is just pushing its narrative.
And yet it's a common occurrence to read in the news of women who were assaulted and not infrequently killed for e.g. wrinkling their husband's clothes. Of course I don't purport that everyone in a country of over a billion people behaves this way but it's far more common than it should be.
This can't be said without noting that in many parts of India (at least today) these types of customs are unheard of. It's a far more diverse country than I think you give it credit for.
That being said, these practices should certainly be condemned everywhere.
No I not surprised anymore. But this? This seems weird even to my how deadened senses. Enough to pass the activation threshold to ask other people if they've seen this.
It's odhisa, so it's not necessarily going to be hard to find someone from there who has experience with it.
Every religion has got traditions and customs, all of them based on myths that have been followed for ages and we call them by different names - traditions & customs are a couple of them.
We, humans, have a unique ability to create myths and imagine so that there is an ever-growing sect of people that keeps on growing. The more the people following a particular belief(myth), the larger territory it acquires on the planet. The larger territory is a representation of the power of the leader of the sect.
