In India is there any
commonality between pisspitting[i]
and molestation/rape? Strangely ‘YES’; more than ninety percent of both
these ‘cheap’ acts are done by boys/men. Is it logical to say that in India where
men are spitting less, incidence of rapes are less? It may not be so worthwhile
a hypothesis to investigate. The argumentative correlation I am trying to draw
looks too far-fetched but it highlights the basic flaw in upbringing of boys
growing into men in Indian society. Are we telling the boys/men – ‘Do NOT spit on road’, and ‘Do NOT touch a girl inappropriately without
her consent’. The parents, teachers, elders, leaders and societal role
models have failed on both fronts in teaching basic good human traits and civic
sense to a large section of Indian men, since their young age and more so in
their youth.
Why do men rape? Simply said – for men - it is to deal with one’s
own acquired nature. The common conclusions are that it could be expression of
individual power over other human being, act of physical violence as a gratifying
source to vent out piped-in anger (Of
what?).
We would look at aggression, especially associated with rape, a bit later in this article. A rape could be to control women especially when men are feeling inferior, use as weapon of war or to make a political statement of domination of one communal group over other as seen in African/ Bosnian ethnic groups/clan wars or seen in Pakistan-India during partition 1947-48 and most recently a decade ago during Godhra 2002 riots where reportedly many girls from a Muslim community were brutally raped and murdered / burned alive[ii] and two decades ago during Babri Masjid demolition agitation of 1992-93, when Muslim community girls in Surat met the same fate – brutally raped, paraded naked and burnt alive[iii].
We would look at aggression, especially associated with rape, a bit later in this article. A rape could be to control women especially when men are feeling inferior, use as weapon of war or to make a political statement of domination of one communal group over other as seen in African/ Bosnian ethnic groups/clan wars or seen in Pakistan-India during partition 1947-48 and most recently a decade ago during Godhra 2002 riots where reportedly many girls from a Muslim community were brutally raped and murdered / burned alive[ii] and two decades ago during Babri Masjid demolition agitation of 1992-93, when Muslim community girls in Surat met the same fate – brutally raped, paraded naked and burnt alive[iii].
The 16/12 Delhi gut-wrenching heinous rape and murder of a 23 year old girl in India has generated much talk, debate and media attention to galvanize middle class India. Nothing wrong in getting together and coming to the streets to bring about change in the society we live in. But I find it so uneasy to accept such over-enthused response to one such crime while everyone knows that many more atrocious crimes of rapes and murders occur - were and are committed in India since decades, and that too especially in rural India. Agreed that – ‘Der Aaye Durast Aaye[iv]’ but what slumber capsules or sleeping tablets had/has everyone taken to wake up one morning like this? Or is it ‘Short-term-memory-loss’? I hope no one wears those ‘blinding’ glasses again – EVER! - to suddenly feel seeking justice, humane and Indian only when incited by media propaganda.
It seems and looks like a new urban youth fad - ‘to protest’. Some justify the youth aggressiveness as a natural reaction - forgetting that it is such natural reaction of an individual /mob aggression that results in brutal crimes against innocent people and passer-by. The aggression, I personally saw amongst young boys protesting against such crimes was very disturbing to say the least.
My question is ‘Why educated people of India have forgotten – rapes to dalit girls and women since a millennium or even a decade old gang-rapes and murders of Godhra 2002[v] and Babri Masjid 1992-93 Surat victims?’ Does it take a few state election wins[vi] and a decade or two to forget and ‘MOVE ON’ as one eminent English media anchor proclaimed in one of the popular evening weekend debate program?
More troublesome is - the types of solutions/ recommendations
that we read in written media and/or see on live media – the way “so called
experts” discuss is pathetic in terms of suggesting long term solution for this
terrible crime. We have seen only a few people talking and making sense.
Like a fairness cream – treatment of expert’s talks are so superfluous and cosmetic. A few sane voices heard in between are too gentle and sober to be part of this frenzy band-wagon of/ like life-long allopathic tablets. People forget that it is deviants of such aggressive, assertive and violent fight-back behaviors / attitudes that we see on news channels – is just a microscopic reflection of various forms of violence we witness in our society. The focus is on blame game and mainly is directed to the government in power, police, laws and legislation, systems and processes and implementation of speedy justice rather than individual and parental or societal responsibilities.
The news that did not fetch much needed media attention and coverage was that more than fifty women’s collective and human rights groups had opposed death penalty for rapist as "neither a deterrent nor an effective or ethical response to these acts of sexual violence.[vii]"
Sadly the spoken word by anyone is considered with so much importance that I wonder – “Please make humans voiceless in all forms of communications – verbal, non-verbal and written forms” because now a days in the quest to become speakers, leaders, motivators, marketers humans tend to speak nonsense, under the disguise of “freedom of speech” and get away smilingly – shifting their base from one opinion to another. More pitiful is to see that there is ready audience to consume all such debase garbage.
The official figures from Ministry of Home on rapes in India are 23582 for year 2011[viii]. We know that there is very high underreporting of such cases in India, but the point I am trying to make is that laws – policies, systems, justice etc. play only a marginal role when the crime is committed but render a not that significant role in preventing and controlling such crimes. There are other core contributing factors (CCF) one needs to look into.
Any sane person would agree that a good society cannot be run ONLY on laws, regulation or legislation alone. The fiber of society is woven by individual initiatives and responsibilities. Until and unless individuals, families, communities and society at large would not take it upon themselves to find cure of the ills of the society within/near them, things won’t change for better. Rather than blaming state/government for everything - taking ownership of individual accountability is key to bringing lasting change.
Those who do not agree with the above conjecture, might change their viewpoint after knowing that US and Europe that holds most stringent state/ government run machinery in terms of policies, systems, laws, legislation, rules, and policing against crimes in the whole world – especially against molestation and rapes have not been able to bring down crime rate of molestation and rapes simply by bringing stringent laws and speedy implementation of justice.
As per recent statistics France, Germany, Russia, Sweden tops for highest rape cases in the world[ix]. New Zealand reports highest per capita rapes in the world – around one in every 3000 persons. And there are 1.3 women (that too above 18 years) raped every minute – meaning one rape every 46 seconds – in USA[x].
It would be very wrong to comparatively estimate such numbers
or high per capita rapes scenario for India. If attempted - for a union
territory like Delhi – it would exceed a figure of 10,000 per year in Delhi
alone and about 400,000 rapes in the whole of India (currently India does not
even figure in the top 50 list of per capita rapes).
There are many studies done around the world showing various types correlations in factors leading to molestation and rapes. It is not only one factor (as pointed out by experts in India – hinted as – failure of law, police and justice) that leads to / or has led to such violent act. It is combinations of parts of the factors listed below that go into what is happening in our society. Though I do not consider this list exhaustive or listed in priority of rape-burden, yet it surely highlights the core elements from those researches done worldwide.
· Inhumanity – if a person is not human enough to feel the pain of fellow creatures, he/they may indulge in joys from the sufferings and pains
·
Male
dominated society – social climate conducive to male dominance
· Media projection of women as a commodity – as shown in movies, advertisement, ramp-walks, ‘beauty-competitions’
· Perceived casualness around sex – because of the way it is projected by modern society
· Easy access to Pornography – where women are shown ‘happy and cool’ and enjoying while being subjected to brutal inhuman sexual bestiality. Video and animated games among youths arousing rapes as a mental fantasy.
· Vented violence – where males direct their inert anger of their short-comings (financial, social, material, psychological) in form of degenerated violence towards others – any weak member of society is the first subject of such abuse.
· Upbringing – Elders losing control over directing their own children’s wellbeing. Today, we have a society where elders think twice before scolding their children and children do not obey and respect elders.
· Urbanization – the process of urbanism, social inequality, rich-poor divide, unemployment leading to piped up and resented hostility breeding within individuals
· Personality / Mental health - Psychological and Pathological disorders – with no direct supervision/ monitoring, a person who is not identified early with abnormal behavior traits – is slowly de-generated to neurologically sick human being, most likely to burst to violent behaviors when triggered with non-conducive and self-defeating environment and situations
· Child exposures – Children subjected to or witness of sexually abused, physically punishment, emotional neglect, intimate family parental violence, early sexual initiations
· Alcohol/ Drug consumption – Throughout the world many research have shown a high level of correlation between drug/ alcohol consumption and sexual crimes
· Infrastructure and Facilities – The urban or rural security infrastructure and facilities – police presence - are not conducive to prevent incidence of rape
· Lack in adaptability to Modernity/ Globalization – the changes India has seen in past 20 years since Liberalization process of 1992 is that - a whole new generation has emerged who is heavily influenced by superficial and shallow ‘joy&fun’ Global culture vis-à-vis rich family oriented traditional outlook – leading them to a much confused state of responsiveness to it.
· Immoral and In-civic sense – Learning of morals and civic sense is lacking in the way families and schools are imparting education to children
· Age Group related rapes – Ninety percent of rape cases around the world are committed by men between the age group of twenty and forty.
· Ideology of being tough and aggressive – the debauched traditional Indian culture and modern capitalist American life-style pervade and permeate pervasive sense of ideology among youth since childhood about showcasing violent aggressive / assertive behavioral patterns are means to show confidence and be successful
· Skewed sex ratio – reportedly in India there are 914 girls for 1000 boys, and until there is change in the mindset that gap would surely increase in coming years
· Sex starved nation – when someone’s natural body urges something (food, water) life sources readily provides with necessary doses of supplements within hours, otherwise a person slowly starts dying – physically and mentally. The time since the sex hormones becomes active (age group of 9-15 years) humans are deprived of sex or sex supplement and/or education of any form. Surely there are negative impacts of this on mental health of an individual till they gratify their sexual needs through means of sex - through social sanction - marriage, payment - sex worker and force – molestation or rape.
· Indian rich blind and tolerant to hunger/ poverty/ difficult rural life – One might not see a natural relationship between the rich-poor divide in India and the recent crimes, but there is a sure neglect by the rich and neo-rich class towards poor and rural India. Poverty, materialistic aspirations and frustrations - resulting from not getting what one sees others around them flaunting without remorse - among poor and rural youth who are migrant and floating population sometimes leads to such burst of violence in forms of rape, murders, tortures etc.
Each point mentioned above is a component of a problem we are facing. Every one of us needs to take accountability and responsibility by prioritizing each component and converting them into tangible Result Oriented Objectives (ROO) in the environment we live in, starting with oneself and extending to our close fraternity of family and friends. Until we would not start doing that – we would be aggressively marketing and propagating whitening cream (laws, policing) on Indian wheatish complexion with a hope that world would recognize how ‘FAIR” India is in tackling such gruesome crimes of molestation and rape.
In 2011, I had come across an American video on a very
popular online website “Jesus rapes Mother Mary”. I just could not understand
who on earth would find pleasure in investing time and expertise to make a song
and video out of Jesus raping Mother Mary?
What was the intention and pleasure in doing such a thing? What would the
makers of such videos achieve out of making it available online for people to
watch, and be joyful and be happy about? But I also understand that there are
lots of spirited free souls who find such disgusted humor – funny, lively and way to go! I am just trying to emphasize
an overall point of degradation of moral values in our society and especially
the influence of such liberal values, and aping rights to freedom for joy, fun
and happiness – sadly on costs of being obnoxiously vulgar.
Quoting from the Voice of Russia[xi] – a reflection of the international press seeing Indian rape incident:
“The Indian society is undergoing a deep civilization crisis, according to the Russian expert. The old norms reflected by the traditional religions fall apart, while the new ones imposed by the Western lifestyle come through in such a twisted form, which inevitably leads to such horrible incidents. Bollywood also contributes to the problem by creating false impressions of the norms of conduct and by depicting women as easily accessible objects of sexual harassment.”
Does this mean that even the most severe punishment to the six rapists will not solve the problem? Its roots are a lot deeper, and it will take many decades if not centuries to resolve this. It is not that heinous rapes have started occurring now, but we need to take a deeper look into the root causes and reasons of the causes of such crimes.
In October 2012 some leaders of a Khap Panchayat[xii] in Haryana and later in January 2013, the new President of Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS) claimed at the 65th annual national conference at NIMHANS Bangalore[xiii] stated that early marriages is one of the solutions to curb violence against women. They unperturbedly defended their statement when the whole world – especially the so called intelligentsia and media lashed their statements being - "provocative" and "disgusting".
In today’s time and age – when India is blindly aping the western culture - propagating and suggesting early marriages is a big ‘NO-NO’. Due to the culture, tradition and their own misgiving with respect to discussing sex and sexuality - both parties – Leaders of Khan Panchayat and President of IPS were dumbstruck and hesitant in saying that when body hormones are produced in young people between the age group of 9 to 16 years, adolescent require validated, accepted and ethical avenues for sexual release in some way or the other as early as their body needs rather than remaining curbed and digressed inside the body as a negative energy in form of pathos, aggression and violence.
A similar study done in 1946 by psychological scientist Ms.Aase G. Skard revealed that – quoting over here – “Sexual appetite when not satisfied to the usual degree at the relevant time [during adolescent age] tends to increase, so that the deficit [of unused sexual energy] is compensated for by increased sexual activity at the next best opportunity available to them in any form.[xiv]”
Now it is fair to say that any form of release of tied-up sexual energy of people may result in sexual crimes like rapes - on children, young people – both boys and girls - and within and outside the realms of marriages – as marital rapes or extramarital sex and though not illegal - finding pleasure in choosing same-sex-partners in name of ‘LOVE relationship’. Added to this complexity, all acts of sex outside the institution in most societies are seen down as sin and constitutionally too are unlawful, illegal and liable of prosecution and punishment.
For a minute let us understand – two major forces that drive humans- Hunger and sex. Hunger is a natural biological process. When one is hungry of food, we humans eat food; a baby is fed food, and a child is provided with food.
Sexual need is also another natural biological process. But when girls and boys changes physiologically and psychologically while growing - from a child to an adolescent - with Luteinizing hormones - testosterone (boys) and estrogen (girls) hormones surging during puberty it drives libido increasing the sexual drive experiencing hyper-sexuality making youth hungry for outlets of sex as a natural biologically need – but today there is no accepted outlet to feed that need.
In today’s times - most Indian families (rural as well as urban) are still culturally and traditionally tied up in not allowing their children to have liberal values of exploring sexually at a young age like that in contemporary and modern western societies, where parents hesitate a bit to control their children’s behavior – a trend quickly grasped and adapted by Indian parents too! The Indian families are also not inclined to or even interested or permitted by Indian / International law to have early marriages of their children – so that children’s sexual needs are immediately met at an appropriate age when nature and biological hormones demand.
I understand that one cannot equate hunger of food and sex as the same phenomenon, but both are primary two driving forces of every organism. What would happen if one is kept starving for years on end without food when a person is hungry?
The most authentic behavioral psychological scientific research done in 1948 by scientist David Katz[xv] postulates that when humans are hungry their sex drive is almost passive; priority is given to hunger first. But if hunger needs are fulfilled the next most natural need in (adolescent plus age group) human mind is to venture out to propagate one’s own species’ lineage by having sex[xvi] some-way or the other with opposite sex (that is why societies have institutionalized and sanctified union of two sexes through marriage). When institution of marriage is not fulfilling sexual need – evolved society is tolerant to members seeking and meeting their natural sexual needs with mutual consent outside the realm of marriage – as courtship/ or as a trade – evidently the birth of prostitution!
The study goes further to state very clearly that momentary aggressiveness is a much more powerful stand-alone force. A human can get very aggressive and violent irrespective of they being or not being hungry or wanting or not wanting sex. The aggressive behavior stems from things that have happened to the person beyond the current urges of hunger or sex. And those violent behaviors are not necessarily related to sexual or hunger acts all together, but are triggered at a particular moment awakening the dormant violence. Aggression is related to the survival instinct and humiliating experiences a person has gone through in his/her life – of being helpless receiver of insults, slur, despite, taunts, outrages and indignities –that continuously destroys human dignity to meet hunger and sexual needs? Can we call it ‘mental rapes’?
I respect the only sane voice I read and heard during the unrelenting discussion of 16/12/12 rape case of India. It was from an unexpected quarter, by a very senior Hindi film industry’s movie star of yester-years. He meant that taking steps to curtail physical rapes is necessary but before that the society needs to take steps against mental rapes which are happening in millions all over the world every day [on every simple hearted person by liar, fraud, shrewd and greedy person].
Thus, may we remember? - Every hundred mental rapes that can never be proved in any court of law except the eyes of a humiliated beholder – may result in the course of time (after 1 year, 10 years or 30 years) into one physically violent act that we witness and have decided to fight back with such gutso!
Finally, the talk points on the historic perspective and genealogy of rape- in order to establish that Law as a matter of fact, is a matter only of social engineering, rather than a matter of 'change and cure'. We need to look into ever-lasting cure and change. We CAN, if we understand the root causes and work towards them.
[i] Pissing & spitting
[ii] http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2005-05-12/india/27852581_1_post-godhra-riots-anti-sikh-riots-gujarat-government
The incident was marked by a shocking toll of sexual
violence. While there are no statistics on the number of rapes and sexual
assaults, the report by a women's fact finding team (4) documents a large
number as indeed do most of the other reports.
[iv] ‘Der Aaye Durast Aaye’ – is an Indian
proverb closely translated as – ‘It is better
late than never’
[v] Godhra
2002:
o Muslim
girls and women were brutally raped.
o Eight
people, including a VHP leader and a member of the BJP, were convicted for the
murder of seven members of a family and the rape of two minor girls in the
village of Eral in Panchmahal district.[91][92]
o The
post-Godhra rioting,[d] which lasted over 10 hours had seen the mob looting,
stabbing, sexually assaulting, gang-raping and burning people individually and
in groups.
o Cases
of hacking, looting, stabbing and sexual assaults, including public gang-rapes
in which the victims were eventually burnt, were also reported.[16][7]
o Women
and girls were sexually assaulted, raped and killed either by burning or by
stabbing.[14]
o XXX,
YYY and a few others supplied weapons to the crowd, while ZZZ and a few others
raped some women and eventually killed them.[17][18]
o Generally
the rapes of women and girls took place in public, and they were then killed
and burnt.[7][48][75]
o Among
the women surviving in relief camp, are many who have suffered the most bestial
forms of sexual violence – including rape, gang rape, mass rape, stripping,
insertion of objects into their body, molestation.
o Citizens'
initiative's report stated that "A majority of rape victims have been
burnt alive.
o VVV
witness sees that “four or five girls were raped, cut, and burned …; two
married women were also raped and cut. Some on the hand, some on the neck” …;
“Sixty-five to seventy people were killed.” Those rapes and hackings are said
to have started at 3:30 P.M. ... when the house was already on fire.
[vi]
In this case the reference is Gujarat state – where both historical documented atrocities
took place.
[xii] Khap
panchayat is the union of a few villages, mainly in north India though it
exists in similar forms in the rest of the country
[xiv]
David Katz, Animals and Men, A
Pelican book, 1948, page 136
[xv]
David Katz, Animals and Men, A
Pelican book, 1948
[xvi]
Here the term sex is referred with
very positive connotations and a natural means of survival of its own species.
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