‘Door to Hell’

Why So Many Rapes?
Bibekananda Ray

Rapes and other forms of sexual assaults on women make screaming headlines in the national media, these days; there is such a spate that soon perhaps they will be in small print and cease to shock and surprise. Rapes, or forcible coition, are as old as mankind; they figure in ancient texts. In pre-Aryan India, they might not have been so heinous, because women were then common property of herds and taboos on sex did not exist. In the Mahabharata and Hindu Puranas, many rapes and other indignities to women are narrated, but culprits always met their nemesis. In the former, second Pandava prince, Bhima tore open the chest of second Kaurava prince, Duhhsashana and drank his blood for having tried, years ago, to unrobe Draupadi in Dhritarashtra's court; Lord Krishna foiled his evil intent by releasing endless yards of saree. Modern police cannot emulate Krishna, because rapists give them no inkling of their intent. Many of them are brought to book, tried in courts and sentenced to jail, or death. The victims commit suicide in shame, or live socially disgraced, as depicted movingly in Tapan Sinha's Adalat O Ekti Meye (1981). Unwed victims' marriages are jeopardized; married victims' lives ahead mire in ignominy and disgrace

Is there a sudden increase in rapes, or in their media coverage? Rapes occur all the time in rural and urban India, but only a few are reported. In a Chhattisgarh city, last year, 57 women were raped in a million- the highest among Indian cities. In West Bengal, according to police records, the incidence of rape is going up since 2007; to 13 districts (including Kolkata). Howrah Commissionarate and Sealdah GRP, 1389 rapes were reported that year, 1420 in 2008 and 1565 next year; the number fell to 1539 in 2010, but rose to 1557, next year; this year, in the first six months, 989 have been reported. Surprisingly, the incidence is highest in Murshidabad—a Muslim majority district (2453 since 2007), than in other districts, followed by two 24-Parganas districts (total 2499) and Nadia (1003). Rapes are fewest in Howrah city (92). If Eve-teasing, sexual harassment in public transport and work places etc are taken into account, the number boggles the mind and gives an impression that society is unable to protect women from assault and ignominy by males. The number in first six months, this year, is proportionately higher; if it persists, 2012 will be a year of highest disgrace to women hitherto. This lends substance to Chief Minister's charge that some rapes were 'fabricated' to defame the police and her administration. Even without a signal from the top brass, CPI(M) cadres and supporters could be indulging in disgraces to malign her, knowing that they would be caught in police dragnet and the courts will punish them. Being out in the cold and impatient to return to power, the ousted party is engaged in a subtle propaganda blitz against her, accusing her of misdemeanors which it was guiltier of in 3½ decades of its continuous rule. India's politicians are power-hungry and can go to any length to remain in or return to power. Their cohorts also want them to return to power and spare no means to defame the ruling party or coalition to wean away its voters. A spurt in crime helps them politically; therefore, they resort to wanton rapes and molestation of women, which also appease their lust. Asexual cruelty and violence to women are also so widespread that Parliament had to legislate to reduce their occurrence and sue torturers under a new IPC section. In villages, adultery and rape are very common; the victims keep them under wraps, fearing persecution.

Surprisingly, these occur more among the Hindus and Muslims than in other religious communities. It could be due to the inferior status given to women in both the religions, in ancient Hindu texts like the Manusamhita, the Mahabharata in the Bhagvadgita and in lslamic texts like the Kuran and the Hadith. In the first, women (and the Shudras, i.e., untouchables) are as heinous as pigs, with no freedom, or inherent right; they are needed only for procreation (of male issues). Hindu males who rape or molest them are unconsciously driven by this hateful attitude, which is compounded by women's weaker bodies and vulnerability. The three Hindu texts were composed between 400 BC and 400 AD; pre-Aryans had more respect for women and did not treat them virtually as animals. Aryan dictates on women are so odious as to pass understanding. How could three such sensible and wise men, like Manu, Bhisma Pitamaha and Lord Krishna be so venomous against women who had conceived and given birth to them?

Is there a sudden rise in men's libido which for the unmarried or stay-away (from wives) whets their craving for rape, or brothel-going? As the latter is fraught with risk of HIV, they prefer raping vulnerable women and girls. Why this rise in libido-level? Is the present social ambience responsible for this? A cine actor, elected to the West Bengal Assembly, was chastised by the civil society for saying that scanty clothes of girls out of homes provoked rapists. Isn't there an iota of truths? In Muslim countries, like Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia, females cannot appear on TV, or walk in public, in scanty dresses. In the USA and European states, women expose much more than in India and although rapes occur in them, males do not react as they do in India. When, in India, men get accustomed to seeing women in scanty dresses, rapes may decline.

Rapists are not always single and away from homes. The police and Army personnel are no less. During the Second World War, the British administration in India created a 'Special Police' cadre to rescue fugitive women, which in 1964 became the CBI. Most of these missing women were raped at gun-point. US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan raped hordes of local women with impunity. Pakistani troops went berserk in Bangladesh during its Freedom Struggle (1970-1971) and violated bevies of Hindu women, Death of Manorama Devi in Imphal followed brutal rape and gunning by CRPF jawans on 19th July 2004. Indian troops in Kashmir are accused of wanton rapes of local women. Two senior most police officers- in Punjab and Jharkhand- were suspended as well as stripped of decorations and pension for raping two young girls. In a story by Shibram Chakrabarti, a village woman deposing in a court asks, if she has to give 'ezahar' ('evidence') once again, because while in custody police personnel gang-raped her on this pretext. Women of weaker races are more vulnerable, e.g. Santal women in Jungle Mahal and Birbhum.

Is punishment meted by courts to rapists in India appropriate? Rapists are tried under the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1983, under which a rapist can be imprisoned for seven years; if he is a police officer, or a jail or remand home staff, the term can extend to 10 years. This has not been a deterrent; across India in 2011, a total of 24206 rapes were reported, over two thousand more than in the previous year and nearly 3000 more than in 2009. In Delhi, which now tops in rapes, this year hitherto 635 rapes have been reported, against 572 in 2011, which justifies the anger and angst of youngsters, besieging India Gate before Christmas. Nearly one-fourth of victims, all over India, are muted owing to 'social stigma and shame' attaching to this misdemeanor and suffers in silence.

Only in Delhi, rape cases are tried in fast-track courts; elsewhere, in dilatory session's courts. West Bengal has only 555 of them, much less than in other states. West Bengal tops in pending rape cases, 13032 against 12798 in Maharashtra; Delhi has only 1439 cases pending. When they come up, courts take a lenient view. In one, the judge set free two accused on the plea that they had suffered long during protracted trial. Accused police personnel are not awarded maximum sentence for custodial rape. Of the culprits charge-sheeted, a large number are acquitted because of inept police investigation, or witnesses and victims refusing to depose, ambiguous forensic reports etc.

Rapists have no respect for women. Under the persisting influence of the Manusamhita, most men look upon women as 'filth' and 'door to hell'. When a spinster is raped, she loses her virginity and having been deflowered, becomes an easy target for lustful men. Girls and women from educated and well-off families are raped far less than poor and powerless females; the former have access to corridors of power, can pull strings and afford high fees of good lawyers. The inferior status of women in the Hinduism and the Islam is so embedded in the 'collective unconscious' of males that rapists have no qualm in not only violating them gruesomely, but fearing police, they often kill them and throw away their bodies on the road sides, jungles or canals, if their male escorts, or passers-by, protest, they are beaten up, or killed, as occurred in Imphal on 23rd Decernber'12.

Rapes often attract punishment by the public and courts, but cannot be prevented. Some rapists have been hanged for killing the victims too. For economic insecurity, many males do not marry; some live away from homes for exigencies of work. Hungry persons seldom rape; hunger blunts the libido. Desire for sex comes to men and women when they are well-fed; prostitutes and their clients are no exception. Consensual sex in adultery does not amount to rape, unless the man or the woman had betrayed the trust. English novelist D H Lawrence, dubbed 'Priest of Love', depicted the horror of sex without love in many of his novels and stories; this has to be embedded in the psyche of men and women. The anti-woman dictates or religious texts need to be uprooted from the 'collective unconscious' so that women of both communities-hindus and muslims are looked upon as equal with men and deserving of the same respect and concern in and out of homes.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 28, January 20-26, 2013

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