DELHI RAPE AND THE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Delhi gang rape is in the news in every form of media in almost all parts of the country. Each and Every media is propagating that every citizen in India should wage struggle against this injustice. Delhi erupts in protests. Students and middle-classes hold demonstrations and rallies. Women in Amritsar, Chennai and almost every major city jumps into protest demanding immediate death penalty for the accused.  Sushma Swaraj orders to fast-track the case and hang the guilty within 30 days.

As the media is projecting and propagating the Delhi incident in a big way among the middle-class, the politicians were compelled to talk about this in the parliament. Such media coverage is not available for all those poor women and those who are being tortured by police, military and paramilitary forces. Women are being devastated in the name of love, for denying love, for lust, for salaciousness. All these crimes are being committed in the name of sex, which is considered as a human feeling softest in nature. So, are human beings going back in their evolution cycle? Are they turning into beast?   Several questions come to our mind-

·  In Haryana, around 40 rape cases were reported(there are unreported many) in October 2012 alone, and most of them were done by males of upper and middle castes against Dalit women, Can we ask why no such protests and bandhs were arranged then??

·  We also hear about Haryana and Punjab as ‘the advanced states” of India, but it is only in these states ‘female feticide phenomena’ went rampant, sex ratio is lowest in these states.

·  More than that it is in these states of North India where, girls are being “killed” in the name of “Honour”.

·  In Manipur women protested naked and asked “Indian Army Rape Us”, WHY???

·  Isn’t  this same the “Shining India” where patriarchal customs of Devdasi  & Sati were practiced and it continues till date and widows were not allowed to remarry??

·  Why in Delhi Girls from North Eastern Region are targeted??

·  LPG paradigm brought many “Miss Universes” and “Miss Worlds” to India, do we still don’t understand “commodification of woman” through these ‘fair & lovely’ and many products being sold today and neo-liberalism employs new ways of marketing where women are projected as mere objects of pleasure and NOT as fellow human beings who are alive and conscious.

The human beings, who have improved their standard of living with the help of scientific inventions of today, is still finding comfort in their age-old ‘inventions’ of religion, god, astrology, vaastu and such illusions. Confusions filled with puzzle and charm, dream and reality about ‘sexual pleasure’ is also one among such illusions. In the corporate world ‘any’ method can be adapted to sell a product – and it becomes a corporate tactics! In the process, a price is fixed for every natural human feeling and the highest price tag is set for feeling of sex. This, what we call as re-colonization process of Liberalisation- Privatisation Globalisation. It has a ‘noble’ ways of looking everything in terms of money. With this ‘noble’ cause in mind, it has evolved new ways to convert every human feeling into money – and it has not failed to seize this opportunity too! Thus comes Products are being marketed as if the ‘sole objective’ of men in this world is to attract and ‘consume’ women. Every movie, every television program, every magazine, every newspaper promotes this culture and impels the sexual rage in men. This is being done in a planned manner in order to promote the consumeristic rage and frenzy among people. In this world of consumerism, women are increasingly showcased as object of pleasure. It is these same media and movies which are spreading lasciviousness in the society in the name of liberty, sexual freedom, medical advice, sexual counseling etc. The increasing sexual offences in recent days should be looked at in this light. A sexual offender’s crime ends with the women against whom he committed the crime. But these corporate and media which are showcasing women as objects of pleasure, with a sole objective of making money, are the primary sexual offenders.

These very newspapers, which are propagating that every citizen should rise up and fight against injustice, are the biggest offenders. Look at the supplements these newspapers bring out every day (which sometimes have more number of pages than the main issue) with page full of semi-nude and half-naked pictures of women. Media, which has no spine to denounce such degenerating culture and keep up its values, are advising women about safety in male-chauvinistic style. They advice women to wear ‘proper’ outfits to protect themselves from such offences. Even those women living in a safe locality, wearing ‘proper’ outfits were also torn apart by their own relatives and known persons. Such safety guidelines cannot do anything to those scoundrels who are guided by degenerative value system. In fact, women should be organized and fight against this patriarchal system. Instead, advising women to behave like slaves is nothing but an utter male-chauvinism. It is this same male-chauvinistic view which is slightly in a higher degree among those scoundrels. These are just two sides of the same coin.

At the same time there is a problem in saying woman has freedom to choose what she wants to wear – it is her wish and freedom. Today’s women DO NOT have freedom to choose their style or costume or expression. It is the multinational fashion designing & cosmetics companies that impose these on women. The aim of these companies is not to secure freedom for women; but to convert women’s bodies as objects of pleasure for men. Thousands of products are being dumped into the world of cosmetics every day, with only aim of making women attractive to men. Thus, women are being raped every day in multiple ways by these corporate and these multinational companies. That is why we said women DO NOT have freedom to wear what suits them. If women really want to accomplish their freedom, they need to shun all the products that are dumped on them with the aim of presenting them as objects of pleasure. First and foremost condition for her freedom is to liberate herself from the idea of making herself attractive to men. That is how, in the society, egalitarian status of women can be redeemed. Only then women will be able to fight against male-chauvinistic sexual atrocities. None of those who are expressing their concerns and anguish over the cruel Delhi incident, including the media and politician, is ready to talk about this. Thus beyond the cruel Delhi gang-rape, it is the same media and cultural organizations of the ruling class that indirectly promote the sexual violence against women. Unless this is defeated, there is no safety for women in any part of the country.

But that FACT IS that the “rapes” are committed only because of sexual pleasure, RAPE IS JUST ANOTHER TOOL TO SUBJUGATE WOMEN AND IS THE EXPRESSION OF POWER, VIOLENCE, CASTE, RELIGION, COMMODIFICATION OF WOMEN, CONSUMERISM AND PATRIARCHAL SOCIETY. So decide who should we fight against? The recent Delhi gang rape is not an exception of the rapes happened in India every day. It is a day to day affairs for the dalits, the minority nationalities and the religious minorities. Giving death penalty or castration cannot be the solution for the rapes happened in India. Patriarchy and women suppression is there from the vedic times. The religious texts which preach patriarch should be banned - Ramayana, Mahbaratha, Manusmriti etc. The state machinery either police or army which were formed to suppress the anti colonial movements by colonizers cannot be the protectors. The entire state machinery should be dissoved, only possible through a New Democratic Revolution!! come out of the system and fight to destroy the system!!