With molestations and rapes continuing with impunity, we will have to face more India-bashing before we can once again lift our heads.
The brutal sexual assault and murder of the 23-year-old paramedical student has anguished and angered India in many ways, jolting our collective consciousness to stop brushing under the carpet the harsh and brutal reality of how 21st century India treats its women.
She held out a mirror to show us the ugly side of our face, and her 13-day valiant fight was symbolic of the Indian woman’s indomitable spirit against all odds. Her trauma has triggered an unprecedented demand for a safe environment for women.
But at the other end of the spectrum, the seething anger expressed on Delhi’s streets by the young, articulate women, accompanied by men, has darkened India’s image in the world.
The world media has picked up and debated this story threadbare. Editorials and analyses in The New York Times, commentaries and in-depth features in The Guardian, have discussed how India treats not only its own women, but also female tourists.
In response to my earlier column “Rape is about power, not lust”, Michelle Young, a writer from New York, wrote to appreciate the “powerful and simultaneously gut-wrenching commentary”, but went on to add how this tragic event and “the spate of articles on other horrific abuse of women and girls throughout India has given me some unexpected fears.”
She’d been saving money to visit India in 2013, but now wondered “how safe I’ll be.
To hear some speak, you’d think I would have no issues. That’s not what I’m hearing in these articles.
I tend to believe the articles and what I'm hearing in them and sense I’ll need someone travelling with me when I come over.”
Of course, I assured her she must come, but should take some precautions, as she would in most parts of the world.
Worse than Iran, Afghanistan?
Now, reading a series of articles in the western media, and scanning readers’ comments, one shudders to think of the colossal damage a section of India’s twisted and misogynist males have inflicted on the image of their motherland. Worse, people are now questioning their governments for being “soft” towards India in the “international PR stakes”, despite its horrific record on abusing its women.
In one article in The Guardian titled “Delhi bus gang rape: ‘What is going wrong with our society?’”, comments from the readers were scathing about not only how unsafe India is for women travellers, but also on why the West was not as harsh on India, as it was on Iran or Afghanistan, for its abysmal record on women’s rights.
A reader calling herself KrustytheKlown had a very perceptive comment. “India seems to be a horrible place to be a woman. Infanticide and neglect of baby girls is extremely high, and ‘dowry killings’, as well as appalling incidents like the one described above seem to happen with great regularity. And yet, India gets off pretty lightly in the international PR stakes. If India were a Muslim-majority country with a government hostile to the West, Hillary Clinton would have called for an invasion to ‘save the women of India’ long ago.”
Responding to a sanctimonious comment from an Indian, male of course, she explained that she wasn’t advocating any “invasion” on India, and added: “I think one of the reasons India gets off lightly is that a) it’s not Muslim, b) its governments are mostly Western friendly and c) many people in Western countries harbour a fondness for Indian culture — or a sanitised, romanticised version thereof. I blame The Beatles, personally.”
I would have smiled at the last sentence, had her comment not made me hang down my head in shame. While one woman said India was ‘famous’ among backpackers for being an unsafe place for single women, “only place worse is Egypt!”, another, calling herself Zedhed said that, as a frequent Western traveller to India, she found the harassment and violence “I’m subjected to there has increased significantly in the last ten years, to the point where I was nearly gang raped in a small village in Haryana last year (while searching for a toilet).”
Her boyfriend was waiting in an adjacent street and she was so petrified that she has “decided not to go back… I dread to think what Indian women’s experience is.” And all this despite dressing “modestly” while in India, she adds.
Medieval attitude
Many other women confessed to being “groped and grabbed” while in India. What is most disturbing is that women said, 10-12 years ago, it wasn’t so bad, and the north apparently, is much worse than the south.
One said that over 10 years back, on her first visit to India at 18, all she had to face were marriage proposals, but over the years she’s found “sexual aggression much more pronounced”.
The rape of a Norwegian woman in Himachal Pradesh, about 18 months ago, was recalled and the “friendly hotel owner” responded to a query with “Yes, this happens everywhere”, with “a shrug and a level of casual indifference”.
A comment, with an apology, went thus: “I’m sorry to say this, but Indian men have an appalling reputation in the rest of Asia.”
The temptation is too brush off such comments as exaggerated generalisations, but surely we can’t shrug off the serious question marks being raised on India’s status in the international community, particularly when we pride ourselves on being an emerging economic giant. For instance, what answer do we have to Icarusty’s question, “What baffles me is why, despite this sort of medieval attitude being prevalent in India all this time, the western press in particular are (sic) so eager to look at India with such rose tinted glasses.”
He wonders why India gets a better press than China, despite its abysmal record on the gender front, and adds, “It’s the same with western tourists — ‘Oh, I was ill for all the trip because the food and water is contaminated, but it was worth it, such a romantic/culturally rich place etc. to be.’ Is it some sort of post colonial guilt, which gives India a free pass?”
Respect and envy on international platforms is got after long and arduous battles. From the way things are going, with molestations and rapes continuing with impunity, even while street protests continue, we will necessarily have to face more India-bashing before we can once again lift our heads.
How do we, as a nation, look in the eye a 19-year-old mother who admitted to doctors at Mumbai’s KEM hospital that her delivery was the result of her gang-rape in Mumbai “by three men in a black car” in April? They had picked her up while she was visiting her sick father in another hospital; only now she has filed a complaint.
Or the middle-aged woman, who as gang-raped and killed in West Bengal? Or the minor girl who attempted suicide after she was raped in Gujarat?
Response to rasheeda.bhagat@thehindu.co.in and blfeedback@thehindu.co.in
Keywords: India’s image and women, India and rape incident
Comments:
u r quite right. it's about time India got its act together. How often
have we seen highly educated Indian man treat their wives who are also
highly educated as if they were slaves n dirt. This is the problem
with Indian culture n it is a poor reflection on India's treatment of
its women folk. Wives ill-treated, husbands made rich on the dowry the
wives parents must pay. It's ridiculous. If I'm an Indian woman, I
definitely would not want to marry an Indian man, let alone stay in
India! And it is obvious, lots of well educated beautiful Indian women
would far prefer to marry a foreigner to escape this male kingdom in
which they will be treated like slaves!
These news/writings are making me so scared of being a women in india.. I feel like running away to some safe country
Hi - as an Indian man I am glad someone is writing this. Thank you Rasheeda for continuing to keep the focus on this story. Your efforts hopefully will keep us focused on ensuring more safety and security for our women.
The one thing that perturbed me about this article is the fact that the title appears to be focusing on the image of India.
I think we need to do the right thing in this case and for the women and girl child of the country. We need to focus on doing the right thing.
True, the treatment of women here is appalling. Unsuspecting women are 'groped and grabbed' by sex-starved, opportunistic wolves pretending to be innocent even in the city's public transport buses.
Unless the attitude towards the girl child and women in general changes, which will only be possible by tougher laws, increase in the literacy rate and a more liberal attitude toward sex, 20 years from now, India will collapse into an economic superpower that is also the rape capital of the world.
Even before this gang rape I had long wondered why India has always gotten off so lightly in the Western press. From what I knew even from the sanitized version, India is MUCH worse than Egypt, yet it never seemed to get the blanket condemnation that Egypt gets over much more minor incidents.
Well said, Mr Author. As an Indian in a different country, it is very difficult to remain proud of my country when I speak to people of other countries. To add to the sorry state of affairs in India, movies like slumdog millionaire add to the general perception that India is filthy, and by extension, Indians are too.
The comment on post-colonial effects is true. India is in such shambles in social sector due to the British and their disgusting policies. However, our politicians have not done a good job over the years either. All in all, the common man of India stands to lose, in every aspect.
Its high time the international community gets involved and UNHRC also
gets involved in unamiously condemning India..US and European countries
must put sanctions on India... until Indian women feel safe. The Indian
Govt will never opened its eyes to the social injustice meted out to
its women folks in the name of "Democracy".This rape crime will
continue throughout India because the Police are corrupted, so is the
judiciary and the Indian Govt (be it BJP led NDA or Congress led UPA)
has lost sanity, the Govt's only unofficial agenda is to earn as much
as money from the National Treasury with a string of scams. Indian govt
and political parties have time "TO ONLY LOOK" into domestic matters
only at the time of election but will never act on the domestic issues
after elections and all domestic issues go out of the parliament's
windows. As an Indian woman citizen,i appeal to international media and
the western countries..to help us fight with the Indian Govt for the
sake of Indian women!
In my collage days, one man was notorous among we collage girls on our bus route.
He used to put red bindi to look religious and pretend good, but misbehave in
crowded bus with girls. There are beggars who pretend to be brahmans. Officially
hindus are in majority, but many don't understand hinduism correctly now. Even in
many brahman families reading original scriptures is not done.
Parents think a son is needed to go to heaven, but thats not what the
vedas/upanishads says. A son is made a parent devotee to the extend that he forgets
his other duties and becomes a puppet of parents. In the north, parents want to marry
their sons to only girls who have brothers. There is lot of cultural confusion and
ignorence among Indians and politicians are happy about it.
Another rubbish editorial from the India-hating Rasheeda Bhagat. It's not Indians who get off lightly, it's the ruling Congress kleptocracy who get off lightly in the international media. They made a political decision to transfer this fragile helpless girl thousands of miles away, in the hopes of extinguishing the protests over her, and as a result they extinguished her life. There was no medical basis for transferring a patient fighting severe infection, whose condition had not stabilized and could not undergo any transplant operation. Then her funeral cremation was similarly rushed through, in hushed secrecy, again with an eye to keeping the public in the dark and protesters away. At every step, the corrupt rulers have been acting in their own self-interest first and foremost, without any concern for the welfare and dignity of others. Congress is the ISI of India.
''Appropriate punishment can be awarded to rapist, PROVIDED investigation is appropriate, charge sheet is full proof ,prosecution is professional. Sp before punishment, comes investigation, charge sheet & prosecution. witnesses statement be appropriately recorded & need of the hour is , witness should not become hostile just to favor accused.
Similarly it is duty of public too, to attempt to save victim in best possible way. Every one has to take due care for their safety & security. Offices which runs throughout night, it is duty of employer to take due care of safety of employees.
Girls should not ask for a lift or never accept lift.Avoid drink,drug parties
The monstrous crime against the young woman committed by 6 young men in Delhi makes one sad and speechless.
Quality newspapers in Germany like The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Welt and The Spiegel reported regularly on a daily basis about the raped young woman and her fight in hospitals in New Delhi and finally in Singapore.
The anger in India is growing by the day. The people take to the streets to show their outrage at what happened on a bus in New Delhi.
President Pranab Mukherjee said: "She is a true heroine and symbolizes the Indian youth and women for the best."
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sought after the death of the young woman, to appeal to the reason of his countrymen. "We have already seen, has drawn the emotions and energies to this incident," he said with regard to the mass protests on his website. This "understandable reaction" were a young country, the hope for change. At the same time, the Prime Minister called on the Indians to transform their emotions into "constructive" action. "It is now up to us to make sure that her death was not in vain," said Singh.
Singh is alleged to have been deaf to the protests and to proceed with a heavy hand against demonstrators. The government is now trying to demonstrate resolve: She wants to hold perpetrators to justice as soon as possible. Six men, including the bus driver, were arrested. It is expected that the process against them next week begins. They are, according to the news agency, Ian now accused of murder.
Many participants of the mass protests demanding the death penalty for the suspects. "A city is ashamed," the newspaper "Times of India" was titled after the attack. New Delhi is a "rape capital". According to official data, there was in the city last year to 572 rapes, this year there are already more than 600 Nationally, the numbers should be increased from 2,487 cases in 1971 to 24,206 in 2011. The figure is likely to be much higher. TV stations were following the rape of the 23-year-old reported around the clock from the "shock in India."
I doubt that there will be a quick resolve of the problems young Indian women face all over India.
There shall be continuous and not ending peaceful demonstrations and protests and more and more Indians should join NGOs to put pressure on the government to create a safe environment for women in India.
The editorial page article by Anup Surendranath in The Hindu is very interesting to read. Therefore I would like to quote: “ Any meaningful attempt to protect women against rape must engage with gendered notions of power entrenched in our families, our marriages, our workplaces, our educational institutions, our religions, our laws, our political parties and, perhaps, worst of all, in our minds. There are many violent manifestations of these entrenched patterns of power in our society and while rape is certainly one of them, it would be a great disservice to empowerment of women
I couldn't celebrate the new year just because of that innocent
girl,what blunder had she done that she got death for that blunder,make
her give justice please, I would like to see what step will be taken for
the security of girls in India now,and punish for rapists,if not then
sham on to be an Indian.
Thank you for the article. I am appalled as an Indian living abroad. I
was born and brought up in Delhi. Never felt safe as a child, young
woman. I feel this time government should implement tough law and set
an example by capital punishment. The rapist, if convicted should be
punished either by chemical castration or death penalty. My heart goes
out to all rape victims. This issue should be addressed globally.
I am a regular reader of the business line. And have been following
your views on many issues like one i the subject line in addition to
some on gujarat chief minister mr.narender modi.
I wish to tell you that one grass root level problem is in the
bringing up of our kids. While boys are right from begining been
taught that they are not to be worried about being naked in front of
family, the girls are taught about sharam. While the boys pee
anywhere the girls are taught about sharam. In the process we bring
up beasts who are not having any sharam and they grow up with notions
of being superior.
The laws of urinating in public are taught to boys by their parents.
We need to sensitise the parents about these values to be inculcated
in the psyche of kids so that they do not become insensitive to
feminine gender.
I am quite worried about the state of affairs in delhi. Being a
father of two daughters i can feel the pain of the family affected by
this inxcident. Please tell mehow I can contribute towards this cause.
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