Plunging Into Darkness

Since some time now, the mind is filled with fear and there is little reason to hold your head high. Tagore’s ideals for a country have been rubbed into dust already. India’s “moral slide” didn’t begin after the Kathua crime nor is it likely to be arrested after that. We have been plunging headlong into darkness unmindful of what comes next.  And each story is more brutal   than the last. Communalism and sectarianism dominate our public space and thinking, and the clear identification of who is the “other” is more evident than ever. The formula of violence and barbarism, showing minorities and backward communities their place, has been tested and honed with impunity over the years. The cult of majoritarianism reigns and the rape and murder of a little girl caps numerous instances of violence, mob lynching, sexual assault from all parts of the country, spreading like an ink stain on a blotter, creating ghettos of minds and people.   

The perpetrators of the Kathua incident are not only those arrested and named in the case but all of us who have watched, condoned and elected forces who allowed this to come to a pass. The silence from the Centre  at first, followed by platitudes promising justice ring hollow as the fell intent of an ideology based on hate and division creeps upon us. Rape has been a political weapon of subjugating women and centred on the premise that it’s perfectly kosher to violate women in general and more so of a particular community. And so during the post Godhra pogrom we witnessed barbaric violence against women, pregnant women and young children. The terror of those days when rampaging mobs perpetrated their so- called revenge for the train burning at  Godhra, is etched in memory.

The violence epitomises cleansing and creating a pure Hindustan free of tainted blood. This utopia is also fed on a lack of empathy witnessed often during violence against Muslims,  backward communities and scheduled castes. Land and economic growth also form a basis for violence and hatred and in the Kathua case,  the rape was meant to demonstrate the power of the majority and to create fear and terror for a nomadic community,  which ironically enjoys state protection.

This is something that has been practised over several decades ... a divisiveness provoked by bloodshed that caused more ghettos to be formed in Mumbai, people huddling for safety with their own community and seeking refuge in numbers. In Gujarat,  Muslims fled from their native villages, never to return, and during a visit to some of these villages, people said proudly they will never be allowed to return. The lack of empathy was obvious after instances of violence and predictably after Kathua  too, there were dismissive remarks about the fuss over a “rape”.  Also predictable are the attempts to discredit the case by trolls and some dubious sections siding with the ruling dispensation that it was not a case of rape.

A lot of discussion has taken place on why India --read New Delhi reacted so late to the horrific crime. Better late than never, even small towns, shaken by the crime,   are holding candle light protests for the little girl.  While Kathua will rank as a barbaric crime,  the country is rife with violent incidents and promises to  punish the guilty, though an important step,  may not be enough. The bestiality in the air will in no way be diminished by convictions of the guilty alone.

Every violent act against Muslims or minorities is immediately justified by the standard legion of whatabouters.  To have an army of trolls, a bit like Tolkien’s  robotic and vicious  Urukhai,  comes to the rescue repeatedly.  When a labourer was burnt alive and the video was shared... we had already reached the nadir of empathy. What followed was even worse... when Muslims protested,  those videos also went viral and were used to fuel further apprehension falsely that angry mobs were now going to hound Hindus. It didn’t matter that a man was brutally kiĺled and the videos showed Muslims shouting for justice for him.

A lack of empathy and justification of violence as a spontaneous reaction cuts across the  political parties in some cases.  The Congress also is tarred and has the distinction of both justifying and perpetrating amongst the worst post- partition carnages in 1984, with survivors still battling for justice. In Gujarat post 2002, cases were transferred from the state as  it was difficult to try them there,  just as there is a demand for the Kathua case to be tried in Chandigarh. Lawyers have sunk below reproach in defending the suspects even before the trial, one of the many publicised irrational attitudes of our legal community.

The current government while it does make noises about justice and has ambitious beti bachao slogans which have been lampooned quite justifiably, is not going to improve the situation. If Uttar Pradesh is anything to go by, the state of lawlessness is only going to intensify. Impunity always existed. With general elections next year and with much of the promise of achche din unkept, any guesses what this government will bank on as it fights to retain power?

Equally disturbing since long is the naming of rape victims and sharing videos and images of such violence. It is welcome news that the Delhi high court has  fined media houses guilty of  this lapse to pay Rs ten lakh each as penalty.  Nothing of course can stop social media from sharing such images and videos and naming victims.  We seem to have lost all sensitivity towards the privacy  of victims of violence and have clearly forgotten the law which prohibits even naming victims. The court has warned of a six- month jail sentence for naming victims of rape.

The mind is fraught with more such prospects of the promised good times!

(Meena Menon is Independent journalist and can be reached at @meenamo)

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick.