A city’s consciousness is like a fluid and a fragile animal.
It’s a paradox because on one hand it is defined by a certain sensitivity that
is aware of the minor changes taking place within its diverse milieu. Yet it’s also
simultaneously a thick skinned animal that is seldom roused to change and
question the existing definitions. But
like all animals, it’s also forced to evolve. To question what it thought was
‘normal’. And to challenge what it perceived to be ‘established.’
The horrific incident of six men brutalizing and raping a
young 23 year old woman on a private bus in the heart of the city proved to be
that loud knell that rouses a sleeping animal. The city was engulfed in
protests from all sections of the society. The young, and the not so young, the
rich and the poor, everyone came out on the streets to demand a safer city, not
only for themselves but also for their children. People were angry and their
anger was everywhere. But this time around, unlike other protests that have
defined the landscape of Delhi for some years, something was different. The
anger was accompanied by discussion, by arguments, by a relentless and
undeterred questioning of the norms.
Rape, a taboo word in the homes of middle class India, was
freely discussed and talked about. The definition and the contours of rape were
argued out and attempts were made to understand the mindset that gives birth to
such a concept. Attempts are still being made and a complete understanding has
not yet been reached. What is rape? Where does it come from? Who are these
rapists?
Rape as defined by the Oxford Dictionary is ‘the crime, typically committed by a man, of forcing
another person to have sexual intercourse with the offender against their will’.
The key in this definition is not ‘sexual intercourse’ as rape is not a sexual
act to satisfy one’s lust. The key words
here are ‘forcing another person…. against their will.’ The element of force
and control inherent in the act of rape is what defines the contours of rape
and consequently, also the rapist. As has been proven historically time and
again, rape has been used as an instrument of power in conflicts to establish
one’s control and supremacy. You turn the pages of any history book describing
a war and you realize that the raping of women of the enemy camp was not only a
fringe activity in the battle for control, but something that defined the very
battle.
But is this attempt for
control something that is inherent in our culture? That very same culture that
we protect from corrupting ‘foreign influences’? Is ‘Rape Culture’ a part of
our reality? Yes and no. It is a part of our reality in that as a subtle,
underlying ideology, it is prevalent everywhere. Whether we look at our
language wherein most of the insults are defined with respect to the women or
our movies where a Kareena Kapoor dances to lyrics that compare her to a
‘tandoori chicken’ to be gulped with alcohol, the objectification of a woman as
a property of the man exists everywhere. But scarier than this objectification
of a woman as a sexual object that tempts the man, is the thinking that
understands and defines the woman as the victim and the perpetrator of the
sexual crime.
Why do newspaper reports
describing a rape incident always extol or in some case defile the virtues of
the victim? Why are the words ‘she was a virtuous woman and she still got
raped’ used to justify the anger surrounding the incident? Why do supposedly
eminent and educated political leaders release statements blaming the victim’s
skirt for the rape? Why does a matrimonial advertisement praise the woman’s
virtuousness, her purity as if those qualities make her a more ‘marketable’
good?
The thinking that a woman is
asking for rape, that somehow it is her fault, that in a scenario where there
is danger of being assaulted, it is the woman’s responsibility to protect
herself is so deeply ingrained in the way we live, talk and think that we often
don’t stop to think about it. We just assume that it is the ‘normal’ thing to
blame a girl if she is crossing her ‘limits’ or if she is behaving in an
‘inappropriate’ manner. We are unable to question what defines normal, or who
sets these limits.
But maybe we are questioning
these things now. Maybe we are finding it within ourselves to isolate what we
thought was a part of our culture and to slowly remove it from our
consciousness. Maybe we are awakening. Maybe the sleeping giant has finally
been roused.
