A demonstrator shouts slogans during a protest in front of India Gate in New Delhi. PHOTO: REUTERS
A 23-year-old paramedical student who boarded what she thought was a public bus on December 16 was brutally raped and beaten nearly to death by a group of men. Rape has become endemic in India but one must retain balance by keeping in mind that India has a large population and it boasts a liberal social system in which men and women enjoy equal rights with no restrictions applied to women in terms of dress and modesty of conduct. There are over 100,000 rape cases pending and that, too, is understandable because of the tortuous process of the burden of proof against offenders not considered guilty unless proved so.
Public outrage over such apolitical offences is natural but societies express it in measure to their development as a civilisation. In places where civic virtue and civic consciousness is highly developed, reactions are propelled by sympathy regardless of the identity of the victim: the feeling is clearly based on a universal solidarity among human beings. However, where states allow preferences based on identity, public outrage becomes modified by prejudice. If the victim belongs to a community that is marginalised for ideological reasons, he is bound to get a mixed or lukewarm response. In India, some communities, including the Muslims, might feel that they attract less collective sympathy; but the Hindus of Pakistan not only get minimal sympathy, they may be punished for being victims.
In more strictly pluralist societies like in the United States, public outrage is more genuine. The recent incident of a Christian killing Christian schoolchildren and teachers attracted universal outrage and grief. However, US outrage was not politicised; only the possible action against the proliferation of weapons was opposed by certain powerful lobbies now clearly under pressure from public opinion. Clearly, such demonstrations of collective emotion are reflective of the moral underpinning of the cohesion of the state in which people live by consent.
In states where identities are allowed to be separated without assurances of equality under law, public outrage is of a different quality based on discrimination and selective morality. Kidnappings of Hindu girls in Sindh and their forcible subsequent marriages do not attract the sort of universal outrage they should in a democratic state with constitutionally proclaimed equal rights. When a minority is collectively abominated, as the Ahmadis are, each incident of injustice may actually be greeted with mute satisfaction reminiscent of pogroms of the Middle Ages in Europe. As for the sectarian bias now rampant in Pakistan today, the atrocities committed against the inhabitants of Parachinar and Quetta do not move the Sunni majority the same way as the injustice done to Kashmiris and Palestinians.
Most of the outrage expressed in Pakistan over injustice is either false or mischievous measuring the brutal nature of society nurtured by a biased state or on pure hatred ill-concealed under insincere slogans. Absence of genuine outrage is also owed to the environment of fear created by al Qaeda and its Taliban affiliates. The attempt on the life of young Malala produced a shameful backlash against those who felt sympathy for her. More cruelly, the relatives of the victim are supposed to accept the misdiagnosis that it was not the Taliban who killed the victim but America in tandem with India and Israel. The lack of genuine moral outrage in Pakistan actually signals the decline of the capacity of the state to survive as a consensual entity.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 25th, 2012.
COMMENTS (16)
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It is a positive sign that the young who are the future of India are protesting against corruption, social injustices, rapes etc. However, one does not find such zeal in the youth of Pakistan who should have come to streets to protest against rampant corruption, sectarian violence and inaction against Taliban by their military. A people revolution is needed in Pakistan to bring changes in the country.
Here are some of the gem comments:
Gary TheAce: "Nakhoon se taraashe jo khoon ke dhabbe hain.....Khamosh cheekhen unnmein kai qaid padi hain" - That Guy
Mansi Jhingran: to all my women friends in Delhi - you should be out on the streets protesting not sitting at home in fear/ indifference/ armchair rage. infact women everywhere in India. sure you could say that "i only travel in a car" or "my husband/ driver/ brother/ boyfriend always accompanies me..." but the fact is that you're living in a cage. we all are forced to live in a cage. the size of our cages may be large but it's still a cage that restricts our movement, our freedom. i think the animals that are outside should be in a cage not us.
Rintu Thomas : Those of us who are lucky enough to survive our mothers' wombs, there is an entirely different battle awaiting us for the rest of our lives. This is a battle fought with safety pins and pepper sprays.
Why blame him when we as a society is responsible. God has always been a mute spectator. He is what we make of him. He is only a mirror of our perception.
I agree with Ruchis thought... equality should come from the root level.. Boy's School and Girls School is the root cause of this issue... Men and woman should socialize and understand each other as people and not as sexual objects... So the transformation should begin from the school level...
Rintu Thomas: You pay the price for being who you are. For simply being yourself. For being a Nobody, with a woman's genitalia.
Can any sane, right-thinking person really, really believe that most women deliberately incite rape or invent rape charges?
My problem is that I am a girl in an Indian society who is now scared for her dignity, honour, pride and life !
In India, some communities, including the Muslims, might feel that they attract less collective sympathy; but the Hindus of Pakistan not only get minimal sympathy, they may be punished for being victims. The emboldened text is due to religion entering politics and the culprits are muslims. Only when they get religion out of politics, such things will not be coloured by religious minority etc. Thanks ET for highlighting the difference
@harkol: Rural doesn't mean/make anyone uncivilized! That's such a sweeping generalization.
@Its (still) Econonmy Stupid:
It isn't behave better. It is just 'behave'.
In all the rage against the govt. the point that is missed is that India is still dominated by Rural folks(where women are rarely seen roaming in night, or don't wear modern dresses), and when such rural MEN with their rural mores , move to urban centers, they perceive women wearing western attire or women moving in night as 'fair' target for rape!!
What is needed is civilizing these brutes and to make them behave.
Its not a Hindu-Muslim thing in India as the editorial suggests it is. Its more of a class thing.
An adivasi's rape will attract less attention than a urbanite in Delhi. Its sad, but thats how it is.
Even if in the US, were it to be pointed out that a few Drones blew up a school by mistake, they would not care, since they can relate to the shootings its a big deal for them.
Its the human tendency to show sympathy when you feel closest to the victim. The kind of sympathy Pakistanis feel for Palestinians against Israel, but absent when Palestinians lob rockets at Israel. This sympathy is due to the fact that many Pakistanis feel Israel is too out to get it(as if Pakistan is some great power) and the fact that Palestinians are Muslims.
This is where laws come into a society. When you create a system which is sympathetic to the victim and puts the onus on the perpetrator, rather than the victim, to prove the crime, you have made sure everyone is treated the same and justice prevails. System matters.
When you apply Sharia, you put the onus on the victim to produce 4 male witnesses, as if rapes happen in the middle of the street. That is why Islamic societies can never be gender neutral.
@Feroz: I totally agree with you. Looks like our institutions and leaders are struggling to keep up with the change...
The actual identity of the gangrape victim has not been published by the media. The name 'Amanat' is a pseudonym used by the sections of the media for her. The background of the victim has never been an issue. The identities of the gangrape accused has also not been made public by the police. This has nothing to do with such matters. It's a collective outrage against the brutal nature of what happened and the ineptitude of the law and order administration in handling such things.
" ... If the victim belongs to a community that is marginalised for ideological reasons, he is bound to get a mixed or lukewarm response. In India, some communities, including the Muslims, might feel that they attract less collective sympathy; but the Hindus of Pakistan not only get minimal sympathy, they may be punished for being victims. ... "
What has happened is that the brutalization of the indigenous civilization during the Muslim era has left deep imprints into the sub-conscious of the non-Muslim people in India. Most of us have not seen the Muslim era but we see the treatment of Hindus in Pakistan as what must have been the norm during the Muslim era.
I wish and can only pray that pakistani civil society unites & registers its protest against taliban, target killings, political games played by establishment & obvious bias of the judiciary in providing justice.
"In India, some communities, including the Muslims, might feel that they attract less collective sympathy"
This can be easily proved as false by just looking at something which happened a month back after bal thackerays death. The girl shaheen who made a Facebook post for which she was arrested was Muslim. She got a very wide support and the government was ridiculed in public and they were forced to release her and drop the charges. But if the editor is talking about issues like Kashmir, it would not obviously generate sympathy with the Indian public in general because of the religious color of that conflict and no society in the world would support secessionists including Pakistan.
Indian society is going through a process of churning and change. With higher educational and aspirational levels they are demanding greater accountability from their representatives, not a bad idea in itself. The Anna Hazare anti corruption movement brought hundreds of thousands onto the streets of the country. Now there is a similar reaction to a gruesome rape. These eruptions of spontaneous nature is definitely causing some unease in the Political class. Add to this the rapid pace of urbanization which brings millions of migrants to cities, raising social tensions considerably. Any process of transformation can take different forms and in India a country with very strong roots in the Civil Disobedience movement change is initiated through mass agitations that hit the streets. Those who underestimate the angst of the electorate and yearning for social change do so at their own peril. As and when lumpen elements join the fray during these agitations the situation can turn dangerous.
One of the placard said it all: Don’t tell your daughters not to step out, tell your sons to behave better
World has changed, welcome to global community. Social media has brought unexpected results. Old ways of doing things are gone. Lesson for governments is you better provide the basic services such as law and order (Delhi rape), no police brutality (Rodney King and LA rites), no corruption (Anna Hazare), Flogging of woman by Taliban, lavish living by the ruler (Iraq, Libya) etc. For Pakistan Wani, Wadera culture and political killings, Forced conversions are the trigger point for future social change. If these social reforms are not brought in time get ready for regime change. Look at Modi, Nitish Kumar and CM of Odissa where progressive CM have been reelected more than once based on good economy and delivery of basic services. Voters are willing to look over some transgression if economy is good.
"If the victim belongs to a community that is marginalised for ideological reasons, he is bound to get a mixed or lukewarm response. In India, some communities, including the Muslims, might feel that they attract less collective sympathy;"
I see is that why the Indian media continues to harp on Gujarat riots where more Muslims died compared to Hindus while deliberately not highlighting the actual trigger for the riots i.e. 60 Hindu pilgrims were burnt alive by Muslims? Who talks about 50 devotees killed by Muslims in Akshardham Oct 2002 (8 months after Gujarat riots? Why? The devotees were Hindus. SO yes there is politicking in terms of when solidarity for crime is expressed and when it is not, but at least in India there is no basis to claim that crimes against minority particularly Muslims are less likely to draw support. Just the reverse in fact is true.
Ofcourse there are some crimes where the whole nation unites : 26/11, Jessical Lall murder case (Jessica was a Christian by the way) case and this Delhi gang rape case are some examples. Same was true about Anna's apolitical movement against corruption which is also a huge crime.