It has been a year now. As public forgets fast, its not a hot topic anymore. Delhi gang rape case. Last year this time we saw lot of protests, anger, frustration, cynic comments, social networking involvement, talk shows...the list goes on. The incident was tragic, and I am sure no woman can explain the horror they feel while reading about such cruelty. But there are many things that I did not understand. Sexual assault against women is not something new in India. We read it almost on a daily basis and dismiss it as something happening in a different planet. But in this case the picture was completely different. Whole nation had gone under protest. Especially youth. Of course for a brief moment. Now I guess it’s forgotten. And all the rapes and molestation still continue as though nothing has happened. Is it the brutality of the case that gained it widespread support? Or is it the involvement of social networking sites that changed the picture? I don't know.
Just out of curiosity, I checked the previous "infamous" rape cases in India. Found some cases from Wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_India
But couldn't remember any of these.
The recent case that got international attention is the Goa case where a Russian teenager (Scarlett Keeling) was raped and murdered. Surprisingly the media acted a little different there. The media painted her sort of a scarlet woman who deserved what she got, and they accused her mother for raising her daughter so badly. I found the cheapness of media funny.
Coming back to the current case, here is a girl from a normal family brought up with Indian values and she got brutally killed by no fault of hers. So I guess the funda of "she deserves it" doesn't stand here. But then why was she killed? The protesters demanded death sentence or castration and Indian Judicial system also passed a death sentence on all 4 of the convicts (one being already dead in jail).
But then after all these protest's several rapes and killings happened in many places in India. Most horrible of the ones I recently read was the brutal rape of a 3 year old that happened in Kerala. If criminals did care about public protest or death sentence or castration, I don't think these would have happened. So are they effective medicine to prevent rape? Honest answer is I don't know. Because I don’t understand rape. Again went back to wiki for psychological reasons of rape. Here is what I found
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociobiological_theories_of_rape.
An excerpt from there states
Thornhill and Palmer write that
"In short, a man can have many children, with little inconvenience to himself; a woman can have only a few, and with great effort." Females therefore tend to be choosier with partners. Rape is seen as one potential strategy for males for achieving reproductive success. They point to several other factors indicating that rape may be a reproductive strategy. It is during the potentially childbearing years that women most often are rape victims. Rapists usually do not use more force than necessary to subdue their victims which is argued to be the case since physically injuring the victims would reduce the chance of reproduction.
But the funny part is it doesn't match anywhere in the current picture. The delhi girl was raped, tortured and as a result got killed. To assume that 3 year old girl was anywhere near “potential child bearing years” – Well no comments.
So what’s happening? Why do some of us turn to pathetic maniacs? I have been discussing this topic with one of my male friend. He told all men at some point or other see women in a sexual angle even though they don’t admit it at any point.
There I got a catch. “Even though they don’t admit it any point”. Why do we shun the sexuality within us? Why is it considered sin when it is a simple natural act? May be the answer to all these violence lies there. Our refusal to acknowledge sexuality as something natural. Our urge to brand it as sin. It’s like refusing food to people, branding eating as sin. Of course there is a difference between people who fast and people who are forced to fast. I think same way there is a difference between people who opt celibacy and people who are forced to celibacy due to “Morality”. It could be a stupid speculation. But somehow I am convinced when we dig in deep to find the deterioration in the current society in terms of how we treat women, this reason will pop up in many places, in many forms. I am not suggesting sexual anarchy as a solution. But we humans have moved away from natures law. It's high time we found our way back.
I can only speculate the reasons and be cautious of my own safety. The real solution should come from men. They are the only species who can decipher the real reason behind rape and if possible rectify it.
Delhi girl... I wish you died for a reason. I wish your death brought in lots of favorable changes towards how woman are viewed in our country. I do wish all that... But...!
