India’s Daughter: A Voice

Everybody is aware of the December 16, 2012 Delhi gang rape, forever marked as the Black Day in Indian history.

A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy.

It is what Mukesh Singh, one of the main accused said in the BBC Documentary, ‘India’s Daughter’. What is her crime Mukesh? That she was out alone in the city at night? That she went to a movie with an unknown stranger? Well, then it’s a pity she didn’t have defending lawyer AP Singh, a well educated man, for a father. Because he’d have taught her the correct lesson by putting petrol on her and setting her alight in front of the entire family. I think that he should have done that to Jyoti’s pyre because, come on, going on a date with a stranger equates engaging in premarital activities.

Also, I thank heaven that Jyoti died, because as a woman, we have no place in the society according to the second defending lawyer ML Sharma.  Our culture is the best. In our culture there is no place for a woman. What about your mother, Mr. Sharma? Wasn’t she the one expelled you out of her vagina? Probably the reason you have that stupid mouth? She must be really ashamed of you. As for you Mukesh Singh, can you exactly tell me what Jyoti had done that day? Had she provoked you in some way of talked badly to you or did she step into hell the minute she entered your bus? The bus that you now allegedly drove. It’s not as if you were pulled into the news because you drove the bus. I don’t think that you’d have missed the chance of teaching her a lesson. But then, you didn’t expect people to create a mountain of a molehill. After all, it’s just a rape. They happen every day. So what if you pulled her entrails? So what if you raped her? You were teaching her a lesson only. She was a bad girl. She had to bear the consequences of her crime.

The thinking of these people disgusts me. I didn’t know that being a woman in India means I immediately put sex in his eyes. A man sees his mother, his sister, his friends, he is horny. What are women? Walking porn? Aren’t we human beings? Or are we just objects for men to put right? To have their way? To do what a man wants, to fulfill his needs?

Pity those who see women as a commodity. Praise those who see women as people who can make a difference in society.

I have the answer the question Jyoti’s father asked. What is the meaning of a woman? To think in patriarchal terms because that’s what people understand, a woman is a human being who doesn’t have a penis. But she has equal rights as a man. No man has any right to teach any woman any lesson. She’s the only one who has monopoly on her body. She’s a birth giver, the mother of the planet, of all human beings. She the backbone of the society. Jyoti died but what has come from her death? The juvenile comes out in December. The rest, instead of being bludgeoned to death have been kept alive for two years now, that too by a fast track court? Besides, what has the government done to increase the safety of millions of women like her? The documentary, that was a good chance identify the problem has been banned. Leslee Udwin had to leave India, because she gave the hope of a better future by presenting facts.

The question I ask is: Does this darkness have a name? This cruelty, this hatred, how did it find us? Did it steal into our lives or did we seek it out and embrace it? What happened to us that we now send our children into the world like we send young men to war, hoping for their safe return, but knowing that some would be lost along the way. How did people become monsters? That they show no remorse, no regret at what they did. Blaming her innocent soul for this. They’re not sorry. But the world is sorry for them. The devils they’ve become. And we hope they die.

I am truly ashamed of the country I live in today, along with thousands of others. And that’s sad.

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