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India has earned the moniker, 'rape capital', at least at prima facie.
While infant and child rape happens worldwide, it is not as prevalent at it is in India. Daily reports of infants being raped in India show how problematic the Indian society is as opposed to being highly conservative.
Each time brutal a rape happens, shame and anger run high but are soon forgotten until the next rape happens. Rape in India is seemingly not hopping aboard stoppage by harsh penalties. Something sinister is at the bottom of this and it is not addressed at all.
Patriarchal society and culture which imbibes the submission of women has taken the blame for such violence against women but the cause run deeper if one inspects on what religion, namely Hindu mythologies which are recounted to generation after generation.
The Indian society rely heavily on Hindu epics to derive values that drive one's life. The values the divinity expound are considered noble and holy and it should be the mission of one to emulate the conduct of such gods and goddesses. They draw the line on how women and men interrelate in the form of gods and goddesses and are taught from a tender age that men SHOULD behave in a certain way and women MUST behave in a certain way.
In the epic Mahabaratha, Queen Gandhari ties a cloth on her eyes because her husband, King Dhrithirashtra is blind. That deed is considered righteous because when her better half can't see, she doesn't want to see what her husband can't see. Only women are expected to do these kinds of sacrifice.
Disfiguring women by splashing acid on their faces or cutting off their ear lobes and noses go back to an exemplar in Ramayana where Lakshman severs the nose of Shurpanakha for professing her love for him.
What is symbolized here is that men should teach a lesson for outspoken women. Alas, the deed by Lakshman is seen as a symbol of high dudgeon, loyalty and sacrifice.
When Lord Krishna was a child, he stole ghee and when he grew up, he stole the clothes of women who were bathing in the Yamuna river for the voyeuristic pleasure of checking out their naked bodies. And, we dub both deeds as Krishna Leela and hang paintings of such acts in our homes and prayers altar. The subtle message given to young men who grow up listening to such stories told in an jocular tone and seeing such images is that such acts are not an abomination but righteous rather.
And then, there is Lord Shiva who persisted on entering the bathing chamber of goddess Parvati and slayed a child who was guarding the open door. Lord Ganesha is said to be exhumed at such an impatient and intolerant event. What kind of lesson does this tale preaches? I will leave you to deduce.
Madri, the wife of Pandu joined her husband in his funeral pyre when the cursed prince attempts to make love to her, forgetting the malediction by the sage Kindama who was killed together with his wife while making love by Pandu's arrow, that Pandu would drop dead if he attempts to make love to any woman. Madri, as a dutiful wife performs the sati. It is like a woman is as good as dead once she becomes a widow and doesn't deserve the right to live on earth anymore. She is burnt to death together with her dead husband so that she would continue to serve her husband in the after life.
In Shiva puran, the apsara Madura goes to greet Lord Shiva in his domain and in absence of Shiva's consort Parvati, Lord Shiva and Madura have clandestine coitus. When Parvati returns and sees the ash on Shiva body on on Madura's breasts, she curses Madura to become a frog and be trapped in a well for 12 years . Shiva, perhaps pleased by the fling with Madura atones the curse, that after 12 years, Madura would become a beautiful maiden and marry a great, valorous man. The maiden is none other than Mandodari, Raavan's wife.
See how males escape blame on their sexual endeavors? Similarly, a rape victim is blamed for the assault that happened to her.
Hindu mythologies always glorify men, that their will is greater than that of women's.
If a mythological hero is extolled for his acts of killing, drinking and fornicating with multiple women (like Indra did with Rambha, Urvashi, Menaka, Tilottama and so on, it is a glorification of prurience and perversion.
It is good if such stories of divinity be critically evaluated to keep up with times and evolved morality but it is not the case. Questioning such texts are considered irreverent and one is imposed to have admiration for such acts, which gives a tacit approval that women should always be under the thumb of several men for her entire life that dictate what she must do and how she must behave.
There is virtually no healthy man-woman relationship based on the concept of equality in the Indian society bar few. Indian women are depicted as weak in both body and mind. While Durga and Kali are worshiped as strong anthropomorphic women, real women are discouraged from being empowered and strong.
Eminent Indian men like Gandhi, got married young with girls much younger than them and went on to pursue higher education overseas, leaving their wives at home, deprived of an education.
It is a known fact that those men were all ardent devotees of the deities aforementioned.
Jyotirao Pulle who educated his wife since day one of his marriage is not considered an exemplar that should be emulated.
Lord Ram, spinelessly bent on comments that doubted the abstinent chastity of his wife Sita when she was imprisoned by Ravan and Sita, in order to prove her abstinence, stepped into a fire and came out of the conflagration unscathed and that is the benchmark for all Indian women. Marital trust is non existent in this excerpt in Ramayana when it is the most essential aspect in marriage. If ever an Indian woman's chastity becomes a subject of doubt, she must set herself on fire. That is the message the tale conveys and it is concerned an epitome in proving her celibacy.
Somehow, in Indian culture the chastity of men and the mistreatment of women are met with a yawn.
Later, when Ram returned to Ayodhya and resumes the throne, he overheard an outburst of a common man who said he is not Lord Ram to accept a wife who has been at the place of another man when Ram was doing his night kingdom observation.
So, Lord Ram banishes a heavily pregnant Sita in a jungle where she was taken under the wing of Valmiki's ashram where she gives birth to twin boys and raise them as a single mother.
Later when Sita's chastity was again cast doubt upon, she commits suicide, an act highly regarded by the Indian society, it being all round pious, commendable and something to exemplify.
Buddha committed a great wrong by leaving his wife and infant child in order to observe a life of asceticism. What happened to Gautama Buddha's wife and child is unknown. Questioning such biased establishments on the base of sexism is never gutted out in a public dialectic.
As an added note, just look at Indian cinema. Nowhere more in India are women objectified and seen as money churning machines but in Indian movies. The zoom shots on heroine's midriff and cleavage in the song and dance sequences is absolutely distasteful and how the hero handles the body of the heroine is nauseating. The romance in Indian film industry is not romance; it's salaciousness bordering on criminal. It is the complete sexual exploitation of women.
With all of the above said, is it any wonder why some men in India think that they can do whatever they want to women in all facets of life?
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