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Judging
from media reports, India has a BIG problem with rape. No other country seems
to come even close. All over the globe “another rape in India” is reported
ever so often. On my last visit to Germany, I jolted when on 27 December
2013 the most popular TV news ended with “another gang rape in India”. It was
one of only five topics of the 15 minutes broadcast.
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Even my sister wondered how a gang rape in India made it
to the main news in Germany. That same day in a conservative estimate, over a
thousand rapes would have been committed all over the world; in the USA some
200, in South Africa some 170. In western cities, statistics show a high
percentage, much higher than in India. Many of those rapes would have been gang
rapes. In many cases, the girl or woman would have been killed. Behind each of
these statistical figures are painful, heartrending stories. If we knew what is
happening at this very moment on this earth – how much pain humans inflict on
other humans and on animals – we could not bear it. With so much crime
happening everywhere, why is India being singled out and shamed with “another
gang rape”, when it actually has only a fraction of the crimes other countries
have in relative numbers?
The deluge of rape reports on India started with the shameful
gang rape of a young woman in a bus in Delhi on December 16, 2012. She died and
the six culprits were convicted. One committed suicide (official version) or
was killed by prison inmates. Four were sentenced to death; the sixth was a
minor, six months short of his 18th birthday; he got away with 3 years in a
reprimand home. As he was allegedly the most brutal of all, efforts are on to
try him as an adult.
This gang rape received unprecedented publicity. It
reached national and local news all over the globe. It reached even a friend in
Slovenia, who is usually oblivious of what is happening. Why was it broadcast
with such intensity? Was it because Indians protested in a big way and demanded
harsh punishment? Those protests should have gone in favour of India, as they
made clear that Indians consider rape as completely against their culture. But
the opposite happened.
Ever since that December 2012, news on India have
centered almost exclusively on “another rape” and even on the “rape culture of
India”. One year later, the tragic story was splashed over half a page in a
local Nuremberg newspaper, and in its year-end-review, the Spiegel magazine
did not feature anything about India, not even the Uttarakhand disaster with
over 7000 dead, but a group of victims of sexual abuse learning martial arts in
Lucknow, ready to take on anyone who molests women. Obviously it was implied
that such molesters are lurking at every corner.
India does have a problem with rape. Other countries also
have this problem. The exclusive focus by the world media on “rapes in India’
raises suspicion of an agenda behind it. Articles appear, by Indians with Hindu
names, that Indian (read Hindu) culture is to be blamed for the rapes because
it does not consider women as ‘autonomous entities’ (which probably means that
they can’t do what they want). The Washington Postproclaimed that
sexual violence was endemic in India. The Reuters Trust Law group named India
one of the worst countries in the world for women. A Harvard committee crafted
strategies for ‘adolescent education’ to change the Indian mindset about
gender. It was getting a bit much. Don’t westerners look at their own record –
past and present – and compare it with that of India? Are they not ashamed?
Anyone who cares to find out will easily discover that
rape is not in the culture of India, and women have a good, even respected
position compared to other cultures or countries. This position may not be in
tune with the view of feminists, but are feminists the measure of all things?
Do those feminists believe that village women in India want to be like them? In
my view, those feminists look pitiable in the eyes of those often very strong
village women who see Sita as their ideal. The main anguish of those women is
poverty, not gender roles.
To blame Hindu culture is preposterous to say the least.
In fact, if Hindu culture would have prevailed and Christianity and Islam had
never appeared on the scene, the world would be a better place. Christians and
Muslims have traditionally used rape as a tool of war. For them, the ‘other’
was never worthy of any consideration and could be brutally raped and killed,
never mind if they were civilians. The Geneva Convention’s purpose is to stop
this barbaric behaviour. Hindus never needed a Geneva Convention. They also
fought wars, but they did not brutalize women or the civilian population.
The campaign to paint India blacker than it is, has
worked. It is now a ‘fact’ for most foreigners (and for convinced Indians) that
Indian women have to live terrible lives, more terrible than anywhere else. No
disagreement is possible. Everyone will shout you down with horrific examples.
Yes, there are plenty of horrific examples and one needs to find out the
reasons and find remedies. But individual criminals do not define a country,
even less if other countries have more of them. So why is India beaten with
“another gang rape” again and again? Is the purpose to spoil the image of
India? And if so, why?
In recent times, Indians have clearly made a mark. There
is tremendous talent in the country. It is acknowledged that Indians have
brains. This expresses itself in a new found confidence. ‘Western values’ are
more likely to be scrutinized now and the ancient Hindu tradition is seeing a
renaissance. The ‘established opinion’ that Christianity and Islam are any time
better than Hinduism is being challenged. Modern western values are also more
likely to be scrutinized and the west does not like it. The established
opinions have power and this power seems to be used to malign India in a most
unfair manner.
Rape is a delicate subject and whoever tries to place it
in perspective is likely to get slaps from all sides, not least from the
women’s groups. Not many will dare to state that India has a problem, but not a
bigger one than other countries, and does not need interference from the west
in handling it. In fact, India has a great advantage. The family system is
generally still strong, especially among the masses who have escaped English
education. Celibacy before marriage is still valued and not ridiculed. Romantic
love is still seen for what it is – a temporary emotion and not a solid basis
for lifelong companionship. Compromise among family members and even sacrifice
are not yet condemned as restricting individual freedom. Sita is still an ideal
for most Hindu women. Bhakti, love for God, can still be expressed.
The fact that these values are still strong is not
appreciated by western opinion makers. Those values are considered out of sync
with the Zeitgeist. They pose a challenge to the western lifestyle which is
being pushed into India. ‘Modern, western values’ mean for example (I learned
this from an article in Focus, a German magazine) to live in
rainbow or patchwork families, Those families will either have gays as
‘parents’ or children from different partners as the parents would have had
several live-in relationships earlier. It is supposed to be a great learning
experience for everyone. A book will soon be out in Germany that examines
whether gays make better ’parents’ than the traditional man-woman combination.
It is overlooked that these ‘parents’ can’t produce children together. But
then, who needs children in the west?
Traditional Indian society is clearly out of sync with
this modern lifestyle and to portray it in a poor light, “another rape” makes
headlines every other day. Care is taken that only rapes committed by men with
Hindu names reach the limelight and are discussed on TV. India has some 200
million Muslims and some 50 million Christians and they also commit rapes and
very cruel ones, as well. But these do not make it to the mainstream media.
There seems to be communalism in regard to broadcasting crimes, and maybe even
in registering them.
This makes sense if the objective is to demean Hindu
culture and thereby propel it to reform and open up. It is expected to leave
those old fashioned family values behind, to have condom vending machines in
colleges, to consider free sex as normal. What better start than to talk of
rape? It prepares the ground for allowing westerners to prepare the syllabus
for ‘adolescent education’. And once the youth is convinced, the ‘backward’
Hindu society will be a thing of the past.
This prospect would
be a horror for the Indian masses from all religions. Hindu society is indeed
rigid in certain aspects and has much scope to improve, but its values are
still highly preferable to western, modern ‘values’. One just needs to look at
western societies to realise that the modern life style is a failed model and
already has a regrettable fallout: many youngsters are without direction
because of too much freedom. They long for clear rules and turn to
fundamentalist, evangelical churches. Hindu Dharma would be the better option.
But they are not likely to get to know about it in an unbiased manner.
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