The Stupidity of Hindi Translation For A Female President (राष्ट्रपत्नि) (राष्ट्रपत्नि) Suggestion
The elevation of Ms Draupadi Murmu as the head of state should have been a routine exercise, witnessed by India every 5 years like a clockwork. And it was, till some lawmakers floated the puerile and prima-facie sexist comment of calling her राष्ट्रपत्नि. The only mitigating argument which can be made for making the senseless suggestion is that these lawmakers are illiterate. Though, even literacy is no guarantee for presence of common sense.
They blindly followed the gender correspondence of पति-पत्नि in terms of husband-wife to make this suggestion; certainly not expected from legislators, who are expected to conduct due-diligence and have rigour in their arguments. They forgot that a word may have multiple meanings, and fell into the trap of seeing only the most common usage to make this vacuous suggestion.
The following definition, taken from Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary
should lay to rest any confusion regarding why the using राष्ट्रपत्नि for a female president is inappropriate.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| पति | 1. husband2. a master, owner, possessor, lord, ruler, sovereign |
| पत्नि | 1. A female possessor, mistress2. wife |
The definitions make it amply clear that only the word पति can be used with the word राष्ट्र (nation) for denoting a sovereign of a nation. More examples where the word पति is used in similar meaning (i.e. master, lord) are
- सभापति (lord of the council)
- कुलपति (chancellor, lord/titular head of a university)
I was able to get these definitions by five minutes of searching on the internet. The members of parliament could have avoided the controversy and subsequent embarrassment if only they had done the same.