We are afraid of power, we prefer being told what to do, we take pride in our history and do not realise when we are played with. We are Indians. In today’s era, the youth stands against anything that dares to mar progress. We are in some way the ‘ignited minds’ that was hoped of us; we consume so much and are constantly looking for more. So a slight unrest always burns, sans regrets, sans prejudices and sans logic.
The recent Delhi rape incident brought to light the gory extent of madness, and also the power of a surge. The whole nation protested, particularly the capital. But was the protest really that prudent? Long after the government conceded that they’d speed up the trial and get a decision within a month, the protests continued. No one knew what they demanded exactly anymore. Fuelled by the opposition politics, there were demands for castration like in many Arab countries; the same countries where women are not ALLOWED by the law to move out after evening. In countries like the UAE, Iran, Afghanistan etc. where there is immediate death penalty, is just a stricter punishment that is consistent with any crime. It is not out of respect for women, they are the same people who come to India and take sixteen year olds to their Sheikhs as one of his ‘wives’.
People believe that the fear of penalty shall be enough to curb such gruesome cases. Well, does anyone ponder the reverse theory? The rape law in India is so female centric, that your girlfriend of eighteen year old can charge you for rape or the very hot girl you met at the bar needs just an alcohol test and a physical, to blackmail you for lifetime.
Another interesting aspect that surfaced was the situational sensitivity of the country. Suddenly people found Honey Singh to be vulgar. Where was this sensitivity, when the song C**** was composed and loved by the same Delhi youth. Even the famous band Zeest, had their song called Balatkari, which glorified rape. Nevertheless it was again on everyone’s tongue. We protest when others do, it makes us feel important, makes us believe that we are strong.
The main issue however is almost never addressed. We don’t see what’s right in front of us. It’s not the government or the chauvinistic men; it’s us, always us that are the problem. We have had a society that has always been male dominated. We have always seen women to be the house wife while men do the more ‘important’ task of getting the Lakshmi.
Until the psyche changes, we can’t move forward. This theory sounds futile unless we have concrete solution. We give the socially challenged people a more than fair chance at everything, why not women? Let them be at par with men at everything; be it sports, research, art or even politics. The women reservation is a step forward. One would claim that no one’s interested in watching women play; well make people watch. If you can give a below par student a right to sit in the best college in the country, you can very easily reserve a place for women sports on any TV channel. We don’t need to protect them, we need to liberate women. Why is it acceptable for a woman to marry at eighteen but for men at twenty one? Women should have an equal right to excel. They mature faster, think clearer and yet are discriminated against. We make unfair rules for the minority, women on the other hand are supposedly equal, let’s keep it that way.
Nothing changes overnight; when you need a change, amends have to be made at the base, and now is the high time for the same.
Credits for info: ASW and his Chuddy Buddy
These civil societies and assorted NGOs protesting on the street, bashing politicians, police, court, films, adverts and whatever is not going to change anything. Those who participate in these gatherings know that as well. But they are also under a compulsion to tell, more to them than to the world at large, that they are not a part of the problem, but if anything, a victim of the same. That’s self serving at the best and delusional at the worst. The problem is with us, and within us.
Just to give an idea of how deep it runs into the sub-continental male psyche, it is worth mentioning that quite a few female protesters were groped by some male participants in the crowd. The change has to begin at home. That’s where it comes from. A good starting point would be, if parents, specially mothers and grandmothers should stop pampering the male child since birth. Stop all sorts of subtle and obvious favouritism towards them at the expense of their female siblings. It will be of great help if children can be kept away from regressive and downright sexist text found in the scriptures of many a religion. But that would be asking for too much from most people in sub-continent. All of these instill among the male Childs, a false sense of superiority and empowerment, over the members of supposedly weaker sex and by extension over their body. He will carry this mindset throughout his life. If and when he feels an urge to do it and thinks that he can get away with it, he will overpower a woman physically or mentally each and every time. Of course there will be exceptions, but as the saying goes, ‘Exception proves the rule.’
Bottom line is, ***rape happens because men rape. *** Not because the politicians promote it or police and courts are indifferent. No one ever raped anyone on the strength of a permit issued by the authorities.
A very true point there.. It starts at home, the psyche, the belief that men are far superior has to change… Great point
not only justice should be severe but it should be efficient as you can see one out of 700 cases on this type of cases are solved. i think this issue should also be rised .
Well yeah, justice should be efficient and if proven severe, but the crowd should understand that rape cases can be misused a lot… The Delhi case is straight… Other cases may not be!!!
Thank you for the unique Credit. And its a well written piece, hope you get through a fair amount of people.
🙂 you are welcome…
Brilliant article. It truly brings out the actual problem. Solution is to fix the root cause for such mentality.
Thank you 🙂
Awesome stuff! loved how you pointed out the fact that indian people feel strong and united being a part of some kind of protest, without actually trying to find a solution to the damn problem. now that i think it’s been true with almost all the socio-economic problems the country has faced in the past decade. but how many of those problems have actually been fully been addressed?? take for example the 26/11 attacks in mumbai. the govt promised all sorts of safety measures liike nsg bases all around the country, well equipped police force blah blah but how many of them are actually fully functioning? if someone happened to look then i think most of them would still be on the drawing board! agreed that implementing such a thing in a country like ours will take time and even then it might have loopholes, but isn’t it govt’s responsibility to keep people updated on such things that in a way could directly affect their lives someday?? and god forbid that something happens tomorrow like that in the country and you will have people again taking to the streets like sheep as they did after the delhi incident without actually trying to sort stuff out.
Exactly and instead of seeing to the fact that the measures were taken during the 26/11 attacks, people just concentrated on the fact that Kasab be killed.. What good did that get us?
prannay the points you wrote about are the ones to be taken care of in d near future, like other cases this too shall b pushed under the wraps. The solution does not lie in the punishment meted out to the criminals. We have to look for self empowerment here.
u said well…..but u …wn’t achieve anything…just by writing all this…………if u really have balls than better prove it by doing somthing…………..there r almost 1000’s of people who do the same bt they never achieves somthing