The death of the Delhi gang rape victim in Singapore (Dec 28, 2012) has created
a massive wave of anger and protest. As such after this ghastly act, which took
place nearly two weeks ago, the anger and protest of the people came to the streets
and one witnessed the unfortunate police action. This gang rape was so horrific
that the attention of the people from all the sectors of society was drawn to
it, and the rage amongst people was limitless. One cannot describe enough the
brutality of this act, which took place in the moving bus in Delhi. The first
object of people’s wrath was the Government and the police for their failure to
prevent such acts, their inability to prevent such acts and lack of strong laws
and for inability to put in place the mechanism for early punishment of the guilty,
which can act as the deterrent to such heinous crimes in future. The first demand
of protesters was that the guilty should be hanged.
Surely this massive unrest will force the authorities and society to initiate
moves which should lead to the better and stronger laws and better norms for policing.
One hopes this alone will not be the end of the social and political response
to the protest of the people. One has to recognize that punishing the guilty,
making stronger laws will merely be addressing the symptoms. The better path will
be that in due course the grief of the event should be channelized to look at
the phenomenon of rape and sexual violence against women at deeper level. In turn
this should lead to efforts to create better social values and atmosphere where
women can enjoy equal status and overcome the present chains of patriarchy. It
is this prevalent patriarchy which is at the root of looking at women as subordinate
secondary beings, who should submit to the wishes of stronger sex. The patriarchal
mind set is at the root violence against women.
Today the whole response to the violence against women has to face the obstacle
of biased processes, starting from the attitude society, apathetic and sometimes
hostile response of the police and the attitude of a large section of judiciary.
It goes without saying that all those who have to deal with the crimes against
women need to be gender sensitized. Rape as such is a part of the attitude which
regards women as secondary beings or worse the property of men. This is what was
structural in feudal society. The transition from feudal society to the democratic
society is half way arrested in India and during last three decades or so this
transition for equality of both sexes has taken a beating with the rise of politics
in the name of religion. This ascendance of politics in the name of religion has
an all out impact on our system, the culture, the values and social thinking.
This ascendance of ideology which, treats women as secondary beings has many negative
aspects inbuilt into it.
At global level Islam has been demonized by US for the goals of control on oil
wells, America’s promotion of obscurantist versions of Islam and ultraconservatism
in Islam, its propping up of Al Qaeda and coining of the word ‘Islamic terrorism’
has boosted the retrograde forces in Muslim societies. The arrested secularization
process supplemented by this political process has promoted patriarchy in many
Islamic societies.
On similar grounds the bringing in of religion in political space in India, the
coming up Ram temple movement and consequent politics in the name of Hindu religion
has also triggered the pushing back of struggles related to gender justice and
equality of sexes. As such in India, the rape of Mathura, an Adivasi girl in police
custody in late 1970s gave an impetus to the women’s movement which came up as
a strong phenomenon raising the issues related to women’s equality, their yearning
for half the sky, their aspirations for a world where they are not just confined
to Kitchen, Church and Children but are also a part of the full social space in
its entirety, the arena of production and creativity. Later women’s movement also
engaged itself with the issue of rape of Manorama by army personnel.
In the transition phase from feudal set up to struggle for democratic society
many an ideologues who were opposed to this transition did put forward their ideas
which regarded women as the property of men. While those for democratic values
encouraged women’s equality, those stuck to feudal values, presented their norms
under the wrap of religion and opposed the values of gender equality in various
forms. The communal politics which developed in India had a great appreciation
of norms from Manusmriti or for those Islamic traditions which gave a secondary
status to women. One of the ideologues of Hindutva, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar went
on to criticize Shivaji’s act of benevolence in which he shows respect for the
daughter in law of Subhedar of Kalyan. Shivaji and returns her back to her home
with full honors. His army had brought her to him as a part of plunder and as
a ‘gift’ for him. The Taliban mindset is not hidden from us, the types of dictates
they gave, which led to girls like Malala to stand up against them. The BJP MP
B.L.Sharma Prem expressed his ideology when he termed the act of rape of nuns
in Jhabua as an act of Nationalism. One recalls George Fernandez, the BJP ally
in later part of his life, had gone on to infamously state that ‘what is new about
rape’ and refused to take this crime seriously. This he stated in the context
of Gujarat carnage where unthinkable sexual crimes took place against Muslim women.
Communal violence is again a site of contestation which also takes place on women’s
bodies. Not only are the bodies of minority women targeted, the rumors regarding
cutting of the breasts of ‘our women’ by the others has been a standard rumor
used to instigate the people to attack the others. The matters have gone to such
horrific extent that women themselves have helped ‘their’ men folk to commit such
atrocities on the women from other religion. This has been the experience of Mumbai
1992-93 Mumbai violence and 2002 Gujarat carnage. Rape has also been used as a
weapon against the weaker sections of society where Dalit or Adivasi women are
subjected to this ignominy to punish that community; Khairlanji will always be
etched in memory as an example of this.
The association of rape with clothes of women has been propped up by various police
officials and communalists at times. The Khap psychology of controlling the lives
of women in the name of Gotra is another aspect which we need to eradicate from
our society. Many of these things have become stronger during last few decades
and some contribution to patriarchal thinking has been promoted by the serials
like the Saas bhi Kabhi… or films belonging to this genre of values. The cultural
and religious space is also dominated various expressions, which promote the same.
This is an outcome of retrograde politics and in turn further corrupts the political-cultural
space to promote the obscurantist gender equations.
All this emerges from the patriarchal value system, which is an accompaniment
of sectarian politics. While demanding for strong punishment against the criminals,
one hopes the issues raised by this upsurge will be channelized to go to the deeper
causes of this phenomenon and will also come to challenge the politics which is
based on caste and gender hierarchy, the communal politics. This politics, which
can come in the garb of any religion, is detrimental to the rights and status
of women. The need is not to look at women as someone who need protection and
respect as the subordinate being, but to work towards a society where women have
control over their lives, where women are not the weaker sex, but one amongst
the two equal sexes. One wishes the infinite pain and anguish of this upsurge
will come to challenge the deep set norms of patriarchy in our society. Lets hope
we don’t have to hang our head in shame again.