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Patriarchal Revenge – Feudal Retribution
Nearly a month elapsed since
the ghastly rape and murder of yet
another young woman, Disha in
Hyderabad which led to widespread
outrage and anguish. The four
alleged suspects were shot down
by the police with their usual canard
of encounter in self defense. There
were stern condemnations of rape
and celebrations of instant justice
mainly by the political leaders.
However the important issues of
creating a safe environment for
women and of securing the rule of
law and due process still remain
unaddressed. And they are going
to remain unaddressed given the
record of the Indian polity for, at
least, one and half century.
On the TV screens we had
seen several MPs expressing their
anguish over the Disha case in the
parliament. It is shocking that they
could not think beyond death penalty.
Then it became not a surprising
thing when they said ‘justice’ was
done to the victims by way of
gunning down of suspects by the
police. This clearly shows that
democratic values and ethos have
not taken root in the society and it
still mired in feudal and patriarchal
practices and values.
Rape in feudal society used to
be enacted on the helpless women
of poorer sections as a part of feudal
oppression which often takes the
form of feudal retribution. The so-
called development designed by
the imperialism has changed the
parameters. Depicting women as
sex symbols and corrupting the
minds of young generation has
taken many forms. The new set up
kept the feudal male supremacy
unchanged adding consumerist
culture and this is leading to
heinous crimes on women.
Ending sexual violence is not
a political priority for the government
or the opposition. It makes a lot of
noise whenever such crime was
reported and takes certain steps to
January - 2020
assuage wounded feelings of the
kith and kin of the victim as well as
those of people at large. The unspent
Nirbhaya fund is one example. Set
up after the Nirbhaya case, it
accumulated Rs.3600 crore till
date, out of which Rs.3409 crore is
unused. The Supreme Court has
the following comment: “Post-
Nirbhaya, many amendments were
introduced in the criminal law
redefining the ambit of offences,
providing for effective and speedy
investigation and trial. Still statistics
could reveal the desired results
could not be achieved”. The
National Crime Records Bureau
reports that 32,559 cases of rape
were registered in 2017 and there
were 1,33,813 rape cases pending
before courts in 2016.
Today more and more women
go out of homes for education or
work or recreation. More and more
women, many of whom are sole
bread winners for their families
toiling in odd jobs at odd hours and
commute day and night. The State
after state governments issuing
notifications allowing the women to
work in night shifts in all registered
factories placating it as empowerment
of women. Under such a situation,
providing safety to women is primarily
the duty of the government. It is done
more in verbose talk than in action.
As the disha case again
showed, repeated failure of the
government to provide safety for
women coupled with delayed action
and apathy shown by law enforcement
agency leading to agitation and
unrest among the people. To cover
up the failure and assuage the
feeling of people, it became a
common recourse to enact fake
encounters with impunity. No one –
from the common man on the street
to the politicians and to the Chief
Justice of India to the first citizen of
India – has any doubt that the
encounter is fake. Many believed
that this extra judicial killing was
ordered by the Chief Minister himself.
All most all the representatives of
ruling class parties expressed their
satisfaction that the justice was
done to the victim and congratulated
the higher officials of police and
Chief Minister for this act of instant
justice. It is surprising to see that
entire media took for granted that
the four suspects are the real
perpetrators of the crime even
before the police filed the FIR. This
reminds one proverb that call a dog
as mad one before killing. There
remains forever one question
unanswered; why those four
suspects were silenced?
The entire episode reveal gain
that there is no democratic values
among the law makers as well as
the law enforcement agencies who
are supposed to function according
to the Constitution and uphold the
rule of law. That is why we have the
heading for this write up; both the
rape and murder of Disha and the
killing of four suspects are feudal
and patriarchal in natures which are
intertwined. The cries for instant
justice also smacks of feudal mind
set.
As a citizen of India one has to
think over and question our selves:
How and why we became insensitive
to incidents like slapping a child,
beating a ‘disobidient’ wife, sexual
violence by army men in North East
and Kashmir, scores of atrocities on
dalits, lynching of Muslims and
began to consider them as normal?
The sexual violence against
women will be stopped unless there
is a radical change in the present
society in all - economic, political
and cultural – its fronts. Yet one has
to demand for immediate safety
measures that have to be provided
by the government and its agencies.
Retributive actions in the name of
instant justice will not solve the
problems faced by women. Rather
it tends to strengthen the hands of
present oppressive rule.
21