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The renowned lawgiver Manu once observed Indian culture: "Where women are honoured, the Gods reside" [1]. The role of women in society is crucial. And yet isn't it hypocritical of this society to glorify women as "Ghar Ki Laxmi" on one hand while using the same women as weapons in conflicts by raping them violently or using profanity against them on the other? When it comes to women, the majority of our nation's mentality lacks the fundamental respect that every living being deserves, and this lack of regard for other people's dignity is a key contributing factor to crime against women. In a society that still preys on the innocence of women, we must recognize the unjust treatment they endure. It's disheartening to witness women being reduced to mere possessions, confined to traditional roles, and exploited by those in power. This power dynamic flows from ideology perceived by an individual which is instilled in him/her through surroundings and these specific surroundings consisting of several social taboos. As a result of the dominant ideology, those in power use a variety of tactics, or one might say the carrot and the stick, to control women. An article in the Deccan Herald about ‘Witch-hunting’ highlights that for many years superstition played a significant role in the branding of witches. The peasants would look for someone almost often a woman to blame for a tragedy whose source they did not understand when a harvest failed, a well ran empty, or a family member became ill. But victims' advocates claim that charges of witchcraft are increasingly frequently used as a means of oppressing women. [2]
Say A is fighting with B and B raped C to take revenge, sounds absurd right? However, this has long been the case in India. Unfortunately, rape as a means of war and oppression during riots, pogroms, and genocides is not new, and it is not exclusive to certain countries or regions. Mass rape of women in a particular community was and is still often used as a weapon against the entire community. Starting from Draupadi Cheer Haran in Mahabharat to women paraded naked in Manipur, nothing has changed in these thousands of years, and still, a woman's dignity is infused with community pride and dishonoured as when required.
Chain of Events
Every time a community has engaged in violence, women from that community or another community have borne the brunt of it. The horrible acts of gang rape, sexual assault, etc. display the passion of retaliation in this brutality. Not only that, but other people treat these conflicts as an opportunity to rape or sexually assault innocent women. The sequence of events illuminating the same is as follows:
1947 - Partition of India
During the partition of India and Pakistan, there was a lot of displacement and disturbance, during the same there were crimes that were committed against women. Jisha Menon wrote in her book ‘The Performance of Nationalism: India, Pakistan and the Memory of Partition’ that dramatic acts of violence were exchanged using the woman's body as a platform. Women were thus placed between symbolic abstraction and embodiment by the gender violence of Partition. Their bodies and genitalia were tattooed with pro-victory or religious motifs, and their breasts were marked. [3]
1984 – Anti-Sikh Riots
In ‘India's Guilty Secret’, a book by Pav Singh sheds light on mass rapes, during the Anti Sikh riots, carried out by organized assassins with the intention of demeaning and demoralizing, which were either disregarded because of the social stigma linked to them or effectively suppressed by governmental apparatus because of widespread shame. [4]
1990 – Kashmir Riots
During the Kashmir conflict, Since the government's campaign of repression against Kashmiri militants got underway in earnest in January 1990, there have been increased allegations of rape by security forces. Rape most frequently happens during cordon-and-search operations, such as crackdowns, when males are detained for identification in public places like parks or schoolyards while security personnel search their residences. Security forces frequently use collective punishment against the civilian population in these circumstances, most frequently by beating or otherwise attacking citizens and setting their homes on fire. The security forces employ rape as a method of targeting women they suspect of having sympathies with militant groups to punish and degrade the entire community. [5]
1992 – 93 - Bombay Riots
In the Bombay Riots, 900 people died as a result of police shootings and mob violence, 2,036 people were wounded, and others were forced to leave their homes. Reports and registrations of three rapes were made. [6]
2002 – Gujarat Riots
According to the "Concerned Citizens Tribunal - Gujarat 2002", women experienced the most vicious acts of sexual abuse, such as rape, gang rape, object insertion into their bodies, stripping, and molestation. Most of the victims of this abuse were women who were later burned alive. Many survivors have talked about the assaults, but many have remained silent out of concern for additional attacks as well as out of concern for backlash from their own families and communities. [7]
2013 – Muzaffarnagar Riots
One of the worst blemishes in Uttar Pradesh's and India's history is the Muzaffarnagar Riots of 2013. Unknown as to what exactly sparked these riots, they began on August 21, 2013, when Muslims and Hindus clashed. In some cases of sexual violence like gang rape, the riots also played a part in it. Throughout the rioting, thirteen of these incidents happened. Recently Two males were found guilty by a trial court in Muzaffarnagar of gang-raping a Muslim woman in September 2013 during the sectarian unrest that rocked Western Uttar Pradesh. Three males sexually assaulted the woman whose home was broken into and set on fire on September 8 of the same year. [8]
2023 – Manipur clashes
Amid the ethnic cleansing in Manipur, a shocking video went viral showing two Kuki women being paraded naked by a mob of hundreds of men. The incident took place in B-Phainom village in Kangpok district on May 4, and no action was taken till 19th July i.e. the day on which the video went viral. [9]
Conclusion
"Murderer destroys the physical body of the victim, but rapist degrades soul of helpless female" Allahabad High Court. The most recent episode in Manipur is a stain on the world's largest democracy. The viral video shows not 1 or 2 but a crowd of almost a hundred men committing the heinous crime. And let's be clear that the sin committed by those groups of men does not have any justification, this is inherently wrong.
In India As many as 4,28,278 cases of crime against women were registered during 2021—an increase of 15.3 percent over 2020 (3,71,503 cases ).and on the other side the conviction rate for crimes against women dropped from 29.8% in 2020 to pitiful 26.5 % in 2021. An astonishing 95% of cases were still pending. This indicates that just 5% of cases are successfully resolved by courts. These statistics are pertinent to reported cases; this data will go to another level if those unreported cases come into the picture. [10] The idea of fast-track courts for crime against women appears to be a solution to this, but a report on special fast-track courts for sexual assault and child sexual abuse cases in Karnataka by the Centre for Law and Policy Research has highlighted that these courts lack special legislation that is necessary for their proper operation; otherwise, these courts will operate similarly to other courts. [11]
Sohaila Abdulali, a rape victim, recounts her experience which took place 32 years ago in Mumbai: "Rape is horrible. But it is not horrible for all the reasons that have been drilled into the heads of Indian women. It is horrible because you are violated, you are scared, and someone else takes control of your body and hurts you most intimately. It is not horrible because you lose your "virtue”. [12] A single rape not only destroys the very soul of the victim but impacts the safety of all other women around the nation. We as women are pleased to be citizens of this nation, but we are also terrified to be women since, in society's eyes, "my honour" and "their so-called pride" are located in "my vagina." As a result, it is now clear why rape is used as retaliation in cases of community violence. If this is the status quo of our nation then every woman should be thankful to god that they were not rapped today.
This type of disdain, concerning women, has been ingrained in people's thoughts from generation to generation, and the cycle of exploitation keeps repeating itself. Strict laws and punishments might not be enough to stop the rise in crime against women. To respect women and promote gender justice in our custom-bound culture, some attitude and mindset changes are required. It is a must to Empower minds through education: promoting respect, understanding consent, and unveiling equality. Gender equality and respect need to be instilled in children from a young age, and this teaching should be ongoing and non-competitive. This implies that such knowledge should be instilled in a child in every class by escalating the level of subject complexity in accordance with the class, for instance, by teaching Good touch and Bad touch in small classes and gradually and methodically teaching about consent, among other things. Along with this, the understanding of respect and other gender equality issues should not be subjected to scoring marks but to gaining an understanding without pressure. The study of gender equality should be taught from classrooms to lecture halls in college, as it's important to foster a safer, equitable place for all.
Reference:
- Apeksha Srivastava, Status of Women: From the Past into the Future, Medium (Nov. 4, 2019),
Deccan Herald, India struggles to eradicate an old scourge: Witch-hunting, (May 14, 2023),
Jisha Menon, The Performance of Nationalism: India, Pakistan and the Memory of Partition (2013).
Pav Singh, India's Guilty Secret (2017).
Human Rights Watch: Asia Watch & Physicians for Human Rights, Rape in Kashmir – A crime of war (Vol. 5, Issue 9)
Teesta Setalvad, Gory Winter: Bombay Riots of 1992-93 (Feb. 2, 2018),
Citizens for Justice and Peace, Concerned Citizens Tribunal - Gujarat 2002, An inquiry into the carnage in Gujarat, Vol.2 (2002).
Jayna Kothar, The dissenting judgment versus the razing of equality, The Hindu
Sohaila Abdulali, Consent and Power, The Wheeler Centre (March. 7, 2019),