July 03, 2017

Violent Misogyny: India's enduring shame

editor:	Gurmeet Singh

A while back, I was sitting on a train from London to Birmingham, doing what people normally do on these kinds of journeys; looking out the window, doing a crossword, reading a book, not reading it, looking out the window again. The carriage was quiet, about half-full, with the train just chugging through the countryside. The silence was suddenly broken: "Fucking Indians!" Shocked, I turned to see a white man, absolutely livid - he looked at me, and said "oh mate, not you, not you mate - this". This - this was the newspaper. A story of a woman gang-raped in India, and then as she recovered in hospital, had acid thrown on her by one of her assailants.

OK, aside from the fact of the racism, the outburst, the friendly 'not you' stuff, and that whole complex 'but am I British or Asian or whatever', and all the obvious stuff that we don't need to go over, there is a kernel of absolute right that the man on the train had. Not to legitimise that kind of outburst, obviously, but I do, in a sense sympathise with the overwhelming rage at seeing how India deals with misogyny, particularly when it comes to rape victims.

Over the weekend, a woman (who cannot be named for legal reasons), was attacked with acid; she was in a women's hostel in Uttar Pradesh, when her assailant climbed the walls to the hostel, broke in and poured acid over her. She was a victim of a previous gang-rape, it is alleged; the suspect is thought to be linked to the crime in some way.

Obviously misogyny is not an exclusively Indian issue. Nor is violence against women. But there is a system of beliefs, which incorporate caste, purity, male-right and the innate inferiority of women, which provide a fertile ground for violent misogynistic beliefs to grow.

How many times must we hear about violence against victims of sexual and domestic abuse in India? Why aren't the courts doing more to protect women and women's rights? Why is acid still easy to obtain despite nationwide bans? Why are men who have been charged with violent and sexual crimes given 'the benefit of the doubt'? Why is religion used a pretext to justify male superiority?

Indians have a problem. As the son of indian immigrants, I have witnessed the manifestation of these beliefs on an everyday level; nothing extreme, but I have seen how women are thought of as naturally inferior. I know there is a problem over there.

If you want to help support victims of acid attacks, and help stop violence against women, check out: http://www.stopacidattacks.org/ One of the activists, Laxmi, is pictured above.