Rapist Mukesh Singh Is Not Alone In Denigrating Women

Shamsul Islam

The memories of December 16, 2012 rape of a young girl, her brutalization with her male friend and her subsequent death continue haunting us. It is true that rapes are not uncommon in India. Generally, the victims are Dalit or poor women. According to RK Raghavan, ex-chief of the CBI data available on rapes in India “is a gross underestimation. A majority of rapes occurring in villages are suppressed by local bigwigs who run their parallel criminal justice system…Our Caste system and the role of money in the rural setting are principal contributors to this state of affairs.”But this rape in a busy area of the capital of India with clear visuals of terrible brutalization of the victims shook the conscience of Indians specially the middle classes of the capital. The anger of the people was assuaged by the fact that the culprits were tried by a fast track court and sentenced to death.

But these terrible memories have been resurrected with the appearance of a documentary film by the British filmmaker, Leslee Udwin titled ‘India’s Daughter’ which was to appear on BBC and NDTV on March 8; International Women’s Day. This film is based on the interviews of convicts, their families and victim’s parents. The director of the film who herself was victim of sexual assault when she was 18 years old claims that the object of the film is to expose de-humanized set of attitude towards women and through this film she has confronted her own monsters. But the most controversial part is the interview of one of the rapists, Mukesh Singh (sentenced to death). In this interview Mukesh blames the dead victim for attack by arguing that “girls are far more responsible for rape”.He criticizes the rape victim for resisting her attackers, saying that when being raped, she shouldn't have fought back. She should just have been silent and allowed the rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after doing her and only hit the boy. It is to be noted that Udwin’s film does not endorse Mukesh’s pervert ideas on the contrary questions his mindset through other interviews.

Mukesh Singh also claimsthat rape victim would not have died if she hadn't fought her attackers. In this interview Mukesh describes the rape as an accident and declares that a decent girl won't roam around at nine o'clock at night. He also declares that boys and girls are not equal and work assigned for girls is “Housework and housekeeping” is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes.
Two lawyers who defended the rapists in court also appear in the film and defend the treatment meted out to victim by the rapists. One of them A P Singh had previously declared that if his sister or daughter “disgraced herself” by being seen with a man, he would put petrol on her and set her alight.Another defence lawyer in the case, ML Sharma, said: “In our society, we never allow our girls to come out from the house after 6.30 or 7.30 or 8.30 in the evening with any unknown person…You are talking about man and woman as friends. Sorry, that doesn't have any place in our society. We have the best culture. In our culture, there is no place for a woman.”

The Government of India banned this film and Delhi Police registered a first information report against unknown persons in connection with the controversial interview in the film despite the fact that director of the film was present in Delhi. The FIR stated that the content of the documentary were intended to insult the modesty of women and fell under the category of criminal defamation. Minister of state for information and broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore said the documentary seems to incite violence against women and it “also creates a sense of fear in the women in our society.” The Home Minister, Rajnath Singh was too furious with the film and assured the nation that all necessary steps would be taken to stop this film from screening. In an identical statement to both houses of parliament he said: "Our government condemns the incident of December 16, 2012 in the strongest possible terms and will not allow any attempt by any individual, group or organisation to leverage such unfortunate incidents for commercial benefits".

It is true that Mukesh made reprehensible statements about women in general and rape victim in particular. It is debatable whether banning a film containing such statements is the solution but fact is that rapist Mukesh is not alone in holding male chauvinistic views denigrating women.India is flooded with popular religious literature denigrating women. Geeta Press based in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, is the largest supplier of this kind of literature. It publishes literature espousing the ‘Hindu’ way of life for women on a very large scale. The low-priced publications are available throughout the country, especially the Hindi belt, and are even sold through Government allotted stalls at railway stations and government roadways stands.

Geeta Press has published more than a dozen titles on the subject, the most prominent of which are: Nari Shiksha (Education of Women) by Hanuman Prasad Poddar, Grahsth Mein Kaise Rahen by Swami Ramsukhdas,Striyon ke Liye Kartawya Shiksha (Education of Duties for Women) and Nari Dharm (Religion of Woman) by Jai Dayal Goindka and a special issue of magazine Kalyanon women.

The authors extensively quote from ancient texts like Shiva Purana and Manusmriti. They borrow heavily from these and other ‘holy’ texts and uphold a subservient wife as the ideal Hindu woman. For instance in the book titled How to Lead a Household Life which is in question—answer format, when a question is posed, “What should the wife do if her husband beats her and troubles her?” Swami Ramsukhdas offers the following sagely advice to the battered wife and her parents. “The wife should think that she is paying her debt of her previous life and thus her sins are being destroyed and she is becoming pure. When her parents come to know this, they can take her to their own house because they have not given their daughter to face this sort of bad behaviour.” And if her parents do not take her to their house, learned Swamiji’s pious advice is: “Under such circumstances what can the helpless wife do? She should reap the fruit of her past actions. She should patiently bear the beatings of her husband with patience. By bearing them she will be free from her sins and it is possible that her husband may start loving her.”

And there is another piece of holy advice for a rape victim and her husband. “As far as possible, it is better for woman (rape victim) to keep mum. If her husband also comes to know of it, he too should keep mum. It is profitable for both of them to keep quiet.”

Is it proper for woman to demand equal rights? The sagely answer is very unambiguous: “No, it is not proper. In fact, a woman has not the right of equality with man…in fact it is ignorance or folly which impels a woman to have desire for the right of equality with man. A wise person is he/she who is satisfied with less rights and more duties.”

This literature about Hindu women openly preaches and glorifies the ghastly practice of Sati. To the question—“Is ‘Sati Partha’ (viz., the tradition of the wife being cremated with the dead body of the husband on the funeral pyre) proper or improper?”—the answer is: “A wife’s cremation with the dead body of her husband on the funeral pyre is not a tradition. She, in whose mind truth and enthusiasm come, burns even without fire and she does not suffer any pain while she burns. This is not a tradition that she should do so, but this is her truth, righteousness and faith in scriptural decorum…It means that it is not a tradition. It is her own religious enthusiasm. On this topic Prabhudatta Brahmachariji has written a book whose title is Cremation of a Wife with her Husband’s Dead Bodyis the Backbone of Hindu Religion, it should be studied.”

Apart from glorifying Sati, the Gita Press publications like Nari Dharmproduces dozens of shlokas from holy scriptures to establish that women are not capable of enjoying independence. This book begins with the chapter swatantarta ke liye striyon ki ayogeta (incapability of women for independence). Ironical as it may seem, the above publications of Geeta Press can be bought from government allotted rent-free stalls at more than 70 railway stations and book vendors or mobile vans that often sell their ware even in the premises of the Central Secretariat in New Delhi from where the Democratic India is governed.

The ideas of rapist Mukesh Singh and his lawyers are not aberrations or isolated ideas. As commented by Santosh Desai in the Times of India such ideas are not the preserve of a criminal few but “part of a much larger system of belief”. They are drops from the ocean of de-humanized anti-women popular religious literature freely available in India. They are the creation of an anti-women philosophical system which is allowed a free run. The Indian Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code which have been invoked to ban Leslee Udwin’s film are reduced as mere spectators in face of the onslaught by such literature on women. If characters like Mukesh Singh are to be controlled and contained then we will have to check sources from where such evil ideas originate.