The Rape Of India

 Outside the locked door of the room in which she is incarcerated, her care-givers posed for happy-happy photos, giving cheerful quotes about their daily devotion to her brittle bones, and how their reward is her grateful smile.

Such sanitised stories don’t matter to the woman. She doesn’t even know these people. She hasn’t known anybody, or anything, after the night of 27 November, 1973, when parts of her brain died and locked-in her broken body to its most basic functions: eat, evacuate. And so she isn’t even aware that her next birthday, 1 June, 2013, will break its own bizarre record.

When Aruna Shanbaug turns 65, she will have been locked in that room for 40 years.

After being sodomised while being strangled with a dog-chain a little after her 25th birthday, largely brain-dead, cortically blind, unable to speak or walk or have control over body movements, Aruna Shanbaug is incurable.

I remember the day well .I had just returned back from a cricket match and had read about the scanty coverage the incident received in the press and the “green horn” Delhi Doordarshan .We were all very agitated but those days it was not “fashionable” to light candle marches .Or to come out into the streets and cause the movement to be hijacked by a group of “lumpen proletariat” in which a constable was beaten to death .What a same –we come out to raise a voice against a animal act and fall prey to the same thing –kill a man who was the only bread winner for his family .And fall into the murderous hands of fake godmen and power hungry “to be politicians”.And this a recurring theme that is happening in India –our movements are being easily hijacked .I wish and pray for Nirbhaya (she is from my hometown Dehradun).And I have been preying for Aruna for the last 40 years .She was engaged to be married –and the man who raped and sodomised has got away with imprisonment and is now married happily .And we have just watched silently .We just move on to the latest that hits a society that is almost sick to death .I hope some of you wont be praying after 40 years .I hope Nirbhaya gets justice .

The problem is in the society we live in and the judicial system .I was watching a young boy being interviewed by –who else but  by Times Now !!-as to what he wanted now that  the government had ordered fast track courts and suspended  some police officers . “I want justice”,he said with anger in his voice .Justice how ,I wondered .Stone the culprits to death ?Like it happens in some theocratic states ?Are we willing to adopt the “Shariat”?Will our women feel more liberated ?Or do we want justice not based on any set laws and trail systems as happens in some dictatorships ?Are we willing to live in a country like that ?Do we want a system like the one we have in America ?But there is no capital punishment there .!!What is it that we want ?Are we clear on it ?

I am quite clear on it .I am sure the anger will die down .It lacks leadership that can sustain it .There are no Moa Tse Tungs and Lenins among the people that gather in India gate .There are these wonderful kids from JNU and Delhi University  some kids from schools .Its a good way to be politically socialized .But I don’t think any change can be be brought about by just gathering ,

When it comes to this specific incident,I don’t think the police did a bad job.There are thousands of buses that ply on the congested and polluted roads of Delhi. A bus that shows no sign of trouble at a reasonable hour at night has no reason to be stopped or inspected; without reasonable suspicion or any hint of trouble. The police cannot be expected to anticipate an incident of this kind given the number of busses plying .And even if for a moment we presume that because the “power” people live in Delhi and we can spend huge amount of taxpayers money on them ,and have as many policemen as the people who have to be protected ,what will happen to lesser mortals who stay in smaller towns and worse still in villagers ?.Do not such cases there merit the same kind of outrage ?Or do the women there belong to some other planet ?. The problem , is a much larger one, and resides in a much more complex social and economic system .

 The problem cannot be defined through the filter of rape alone.Last week’s protests on the streets of Delhi against the despicable gang rape of a young 23-year-old girl were, no doubt, impressive but they missed the point. Rape doesn’t happen because the police permit it or are absent and unable to prevent it. Rape doesn’t happen because politicians don’t want to legislate to make  the law and are insensitive to the victims. Rape doesn’t happen because the courts are slow in meting out justice or the legal process humiliates the victims.  Rape happens because men rape.That’s the key point the protests forgot.Rape happens because Indian men don’t respect women and treat them as play-things. And come on - let’s be educated enough to  face it, it  is a culmination  of the way we bring up our boys  and the way we encourage them to think of women. The fault begins at home. It begins with our mums and dads. In fact, hurtful as it may sound, it begins with Mum!! .

. It further gets cemented  in  the way in which women are viewed and responded to while we go to college and our workplaces . It is the way men look at women .Women are considered as “maal”,and get their bottoms pinched everyday in buses . The apparent harmlessness of 'eve-teasing' that gets taken in one's stride opens the door for an escalating spiral of violence.It is the way women are treated at home –drunk husbands coming late at night demanding sex from their wives .And predictably being refused (how can anyone like to have sex with a drunk man ?),get beaten up .And then being raped by their husbands.(Rape by definition is forcible sex) .As also the way women are displayed in our adds !!You spray “Axe”,and you will have women falling over you .And just look at the women heaving and gyrating their bosoms in item numbers or in songs such as "chunri ke peeche kya hai" .!!And now with the availability of 24 hours porn –women have been reduced to commodities .And that is where the problem lies .Women are viewed as outlets of pleasure .What a tragedy –because women are something so, so much more than that .They represent such wonderful identities –they are a idea behind a form .

Of course there is a issue of policing and the justice system .A majority of the police force is corrupt .And they act like a private army of the rich and powerful .I read a account of a rape victim who was asked horribly embarrassing questions .How many times did he penetrate you ,what was the size ,why were you not wearing underpants ? .And all the time looking at the victim with lewd eyes . “The visual and mental rape in the police station was in no way less than the physical rape” she recounts .The police have to be more educated and refined .

The judicial system is a pain .The quality of public prosecuters is not only pathetic but they  also lack integrity .How can you ever expect to win cases when defaulters  are being defended by lawyers as brilliant as Ram Jethmalani ,Arun Jaitley ,Kapil Sibal etc .?The cases just drag on and on.The rate of conviction is so pathetically low

The expression of anger in cities across is not Nirbhaya specific .It is a bottled up feeling against the politicians ,bureaucrats ,the police ,and the judiciary.It is a culmination of anger against the non resolution of conflicts that are eating into the Indian State.About injustice being done not only to the backwards –but also upper castes in India .About the safety of not only  women in India ,but also the men who walk with them (don’t forget that Nirbhayas friend was brutally beaten and is psychologically being treated because he feels that he could not defend the honour of his friend).It is about parents waiting for their child to come back from college or school safely and not become a victim of a bomb blast .Its about us and them –we who obey passively ,those who lead us into war ,those to whom we pay taxes regularly ,those who manage our foreign policy .Is it worth it ?Is having candle light marches enough ?Are stricter laws and chemical castration enough?Have we not reached a stage when men and women should have easy access to arms so that you can shoot down the damn barbarian ?(I can hear so many howls on that one –I know you all are going to quote America !!)Just think before you answer the question .

The solution lies in your response to it .