Anoushka Shankar with her late father Ravi Shankar. PHOTO: PUBLICITY
Anoushka Shankar, herself a famed sitar player who used to play with her late father, said she had decided to go public in support of the One Billion Rising campaign against violence against women.
She dedicated her message to an Indian medical student who was gang-raped in a bus by six drunken men on December 16 in New Delhi, and later died in hospital from horrific injuries.
The crime sparked violent protests and a round of soul-searching in India about the treatment of women.
"As child, I suffered sexual and emotional abuse for several years in the hands of a man my parents trusted implicitly," Shankar said in the message posted on YouTube from her home in London.
"Growing up like most women I know I suffered various forms of groping, touching, verbal abuse and other things like I didn't know how to deal with, I didn't know I could change," Shankar said.
"Enough is enough. I am rising. I am rising for... and women like her. I am rising with the women of my country," the US-born musician said.
Events marking the One Billion Rising campaign, timed to coincide with Saint Valentine's Day, are planned across the Indian capital on Thursday, said Kamla Bhasin, a prominent women's activist leading the campaign in South Asia.
"From 10am (0430 GMT) onwards our programmes have started in colleges and I am going with women taxi drivers to spread the word of equality because today's is the day of love," Bhasin told AFP.
She said activists would sing, stage street plays, light candles and shout anti-violence slogans.
In Mumbai the events include a flash dance, a seaside "open drum circle" at sunset, demonstrations of solidarity and a protest against atrocities against women.
Delhi police have charged five of the suspects with rape and murder. The sixth is a minor and is being tried in a juvenile court.
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@ManOfTomorrow: Yuri is being sarcastic.
@Rani: * Thousand years ago there was no Pakistan.* That's an improvement on history as taught in Pakistan according to which Pakistan was born the day the Arabs invaded Sindh in the 8th Century CE.
@Yuri Kondratyuk: so basically all the countries in the world that are shrouded by "the light of Islam" are the epitome of civilization ? stop using religion to define yourself and start embracing humanity for humanity's sake (or for "Gods's" sake, whichever you prefer).
**The daughter of legendary Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar said Thursday in a video released for a global women’s rights campaign that she had been sexually abused as a child by a family friend.**India has decided to provide every woman a commando for her protection. The commando will be provided after the girls reaches the age of 16. Appropriate government websites have the forms. Please fill and submit so that India can be safe!
pak is going through evolution stage .we shall rise and the history will repeat itself .we had ruled this land for hundreds of years and again shall do. no religion has given rights to women as islam has given .
@Rani: According to Jinnah Saab, Pakistan was born when first Muslim put his foot on the sub continent. I concur with TightJeans.
@TightJeans: Thousand years ago there was no Pakistan.
Sexually abused? In India? So what! NO matter how much pure, civilized they pretend to be.. they will always remain backward, pervy and barbaric. Every Indian girl has a story involving this topic.
@RAW is WAR Wherever there is violence, religion is not there. Throughout the world there are imposters, nothing but imposters. They claim to belong to the religion, their deeds do not prove to be so. For example Papa Urban called upon the Europeans to arm themselves and then march on to the very land where Jesus was born taking their sacrilege i.e violence deaths and destructions. This act alone was in total cntempt of everything Jesus preached and practised. So could Papa Urban's claim to be in the following of Jesus be true? So we must alwaya and always look at a persons deeds before making a judgement about that persons religion or conviction.
@The Khan:
One should only worry if falsehood out-numbers truth!
@RAW is WAR:
Dear brother, before advent of Islam, Arabs were living in jahiliyya - the uncivilized age of darkness. After advent of Islam, Arabs became highly civilized people. Even today, Arabs have most civilized and refined cultures of amongst all nations. Over the past 1500 years, the shariah driven Arab society has truly blossomed.
Just look at their achievements in law, sciences, fine arts, philosophy, sports and the list is unending. The present day modern civilization owes it's existence primarily to Islam.
@SaneVoice:
If sex ratio alone be the reason for gender abuse, please explain the Mukhtar Mai case or the acid attacks or kidnap cum marriages of hindu girls or tribal settlements by giving away daughter to debtors or the sexual abuse of children in madrassas in Pakistan. What's positive for India is that these cases are being openly reported to the law instead of being swept under the carpet.
@ The Khan True, trollers!!
Just shows the number of Indians there are on this site that they are outnumbering Pakistanis on every news article. Jeez
@SaneVoice
"America is the country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between."
I doubt if we can credit Oscar Wilde for the above quote, although thats the popular perception. The earliest evidence of this quote is found in early thirties, while Oscar Wilde died in 1900, a good thirty years before. Since then the same (with minor variations) has been credited to many other notables including George Bernard Shaw and Winston Chuchill. Most likely it came from a french politician named Georges Clemenceau.
@SaneVoice: Just because a crime doesnt get reported,doesnt mean that it didnt occur...
Why there are so many rape case recently in India compared to a decade ago?? Did some strange virus attack Indian men which made them into raping zombies??
The fact is that now rape victims are feeling more comfortable in reporting the crimes and they have less social stigma and more faith in judicial system...
In India,you dont need to bring 4 male witnesses to testify rape or forced to marry the rapist or serve jail term...Check out Sana Saleem's blogs on how rapes in Pakistan are underreported and suppressed....
BTW,Cant you spend a day without blaming India or US for even a slight reason???
@SaneVoice
In recent times, the Indian civil society has reached a stage of maturity where victims have garnered the courage to confront such issues without fearing repercussions. It is indicative of a society that is evolving. Such acts happen everywhere except some places they are usually swept under the rug.
You may think of this as "decadence". I think of it as the opposite of being in a morbid state of denial.
@Gratgy: @surtee: @Yuri Kondratyuk: @TightJeans:
Growing evidence suggests that in countries like India and China, where the ratio of men to women is unnaturally high due to the selective abortion of female fetuses and neglect of girl children, the rates of violence towards women increase
Read more: http://ideas.time.com/2013/01/04/rape-in-india-a-result-of-sex-selection...
50 million female fetuses have been selectively aborted by Indians and this seems the reason today India is the Rapist Nation.
@SaneVoice But now the India is on the footsteps of America by going from ignorance to decadence without touching civilization.
In 1947 we had barbarism on our west and ignorance within us. We pushed the ignorance towards the west and built a high fence so that the mix of ignorance and barbarism doesn't come back.
@ Yuri Kondratyuk
so what is the condition of Pakistan and Bangladesh which accepted Islam? Or for the matter- all other nations.
@TightJeans: there is no need to drag Pakistan on every issue concerning India.What ever was siad in in context of where India is heading ,not meant to demean it.This comment of your shows you perception,mindset and upbringing.Always degrade Pakistan. If you do not believe me just read the comments posted in your n/paper TIMES OF INDIA.
@Ali: Not stepsister but half-sister. A stepsister is one where there is no blood relationship. A half-sister is when the siblings have a common parent. In this case it is the father. To be more precise, as Anoushka Shankar and Norah Jones have the same father but different mothers, they are "agnate siblings", for which the legal term is "consanguine siblings".
she looks so much like American Singer Norah Jones her step sister
It is indeed a bold step to tell the people that she was sexually and eleberity will help the cause. This campaign is a noble one. All the women should follow her foot steps. She has done the right thing by joining the Rising March of millions. we must applaud her for coming out and rising against crime. Her status as a celeberoty would further this nob;e cause.
@SaneVoice:
True brother. Only if America and India saw the light of Islam, they would have been saved. Anyway, it's all lost now.
@SaneVoice: Pakistan didn't go anywhere. They stay exactly where they were - a thousand years ago.
Heartiest Respects!!
America is the country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between. by Oscar Wilde: But now the India is on the footsteps of America by going from ignorance to decadence without touching civilization.
Makes my heart sad......???