LAC1000C+-+PROJECT+2015+Rape+Rooted+in+Culture



Sukhvir Kaur LAC1000C PROJECT 2015 Professor Yajnik

In the Indian subcontinent, a façade is being enforced by a few symbols that strive to admire the virtues of a woman and her role in the society. For instance, it places women on a platform and goes to the limit of referring to the world as “mother Earth”, and “mother India” (Hundal). In addition, during the annual festival of Rakhi, the sisters in the household are celebrated as the brothers vow to protect them for life. Since the establishment of India, Hindu mythology has been a very significant part of the culture, in which several goddesses are still worshiped today. But unfortunately, the ugly truth is hidden behind all these symbols. In reality, the fact is that women are treated as creatures, with very minimal to almost no value in India, as rape becomes a prevalent ongoing issue.

In traditional Indian society, women were considered subordinate to men. From ancient times, the role of a female was to obey her parents, have an arranged marriage with a boy of her family’s choice, give birth to children and ultimately look after her family and household (Bhattacharjee). Even today, females are thought of as burdens, as is apparent in India’s female-to-male population ratio, which, in turn, is caused by sex-selective abortions and female feticide (Khazan, Lakshmi). While males were encouraged to go out into the real world, get an education and build a career, a female had restricted freedom as she was expected to learn how to cook, clean and receive very minimal education. However, we see these roles in society are evolving as India is becoming more modern. Females are now starting to be considered equal to males and they are able to pursue a good education and build a career, as well.

India’s conservative culture is rapidly transforming to the western culture. As more bars and dance clubs are opening in India, females are using the newly gained freedom and equality to males, to dress very exposing, drink, and stay out until late. The causes of rape are rooted in Indian culture because a girl is objectified and viewed as an “item” rather than a human being. This is evident in numerous Bollywood movies, which are incomplete without an “item number” song. For example, the song “Chikni Chameli” features Katrina Kaif dancing half naked, swinging from chandeliers above a room full of drunken guys, claiming she has arrived drunk. (YouTube). Even in the past, Hindi cinema produced frequent movies that contained rape scenes involving a rich man who has his eyes set on a specific girl. The take home message for the young boys who go to watch the movie is: “that if you harass a woman enough, no matter how often she says no, she’ll ultimately say yes” (Hundal). In addition, it needs to be taken into consideration that rape cases are more common among the poor and lower castes because, according to the India’s caste system, their lives are of no value. The middle and higher classes are more educated and therefore more consensual.

There are many reasons that may propel men towards the culture of rape, lust being one of them. A statement given by a police officer in a rape case stated, “If sweets are left on the streets, dogs will eat them”, exemplifies this (Turner). Perhaps, the fact that these males grew up in a conservative society makes them want to break those rules and go beyond that. The fact that girls are accelerating in studies and building better careers than boys may make them jealous and want to hurt them. Some gang rapists claim that they are trying to teach modern girls a lesson by raping them and showing them that they should not be out late at night for any reason (Turner). They may fear girls getting so much freedom and education that they “feel the need to commit these rapes to feel secure of their masculinity” (Kumbhare). Most importantly, India’s poor justice system gives way to many rape cases going unreported because corruption and bribery gets the best of them.

In order to get a grip on rapists and decrease the victims, the judicial system needs to tighten up and not let the culprit get by. The availability of female police, and police in general, needs to increase significantly so that victims can openly express the crime circumstances without holding anything back (Turner). Perhaps, a hotline can be set-up to provide comfort and support to rape victims. Rapists should be publicly shamed and justice should not be denied nor delayed. Death penalty should be implemented but cutting of their raping tool (penis) should be utilized, as well. The lack of moral values needs to be fixed by educating the people and altering their mindset (Kumar). Awareness about committing a crime like this and what its consequences can be, needs to be spread with the featuring of rape cases on shows like Crime Patrol, Code Red, and Satyamev Jayate. The society should be taught not to blame the girl - as PM Modi supported teaching the sons how to behave. Perception of woman in Bollywood movies and songs needs to alter. Females need to be respected as fellow human beings and not be objectified. Gender inequality needs to be debunked so that people can treat girls equally to boys. India’s westernization granted freedom to girls, but they need to learn to use it to their advantage by being responsible of their actions and possible consequences. Few measures of this include not traveling alone, or traveling late at night, or wearing provocative clothing. Girls should not feel ashamed or helpless after being a victim of rape, but instead they should make this incident the driving force to catch and punish their culprit.

It is written in the Sikh Holy Book that, “From her, Kings are born;” so it is important that everyone learns to respect, love, protect, and care about women who take on the role of magnificent daughters, sisters, wives, and mothers.

__ Bibliography __ : 1. Bhattacharjee, Swati. //A Unique Crime: Understanding Rape in India//. Kolkata: Gangchil, 2008. Print. 2. "Chikni Chameli." //YouTube//. YouTube, 8 Apr. 2013. Web. 3. Hundal, Sunny. "India's Bitter Culture of Rape and Violence." //The Guardian//. Guardian News and Media Limited, 3 Jan. 2103. Web. 4. "India's Struggle To Stop A Gang Rape Epidemic." //YouTube//. YouTube, 31 Mar. 2014. Web. 5. Khazan, Olga, and Rama Lakshmi. "10 Reasons Why India Has a Sexual Violence Problem." //Washington Post//. The Washington Post, 29 Dec. 2012. Web. 6. Kumar, Pramod. "Stopping Rape in India: It's Important to Fix Poverty, Inequality as Well - Firstpost." //Firstpost Stopping Rape in India Its Important to Fix Poverty Inequality as Well Comments//. Firstpost, 12 Sept. 2013. 7. Kumbhare, Arun R. //Women of India: Their Status since the Vedic times//. New York: IUniverse, 2009. Print. 8. Turner, Spencer. "India's Rape Problem." //The Huffington Post UK//. The Huffington Post, 10 Sept. 2013. Web.

Sean Reeder LAC1000C PROJECT 2015 Professor Yajnik


 * __ The forgotten problem in India __**


 * When speaking of India and Indian culture, we think of its richness and its effect on the world historically. However, like many other cultures and countries, this civilization has its fair share of demons. Among these negatives, is the sensitive topic, of rape of woman and children in there culture. **
 * Rape is forced sexual acts towards another individual without the persons consent. This has been an issue since the beginning of time, and for the most part has been ignored throughout history for the betterment of the country. **
 * In a recent poll taken by more.com, in 2010, Rape and violence were up 7.1 percent against Indian woman. “ **** Nearly one in three rape victims in India are under the age of 18”. “One in 10 are under 14”. “Every 20 minutes in India, a woman is raped”. (More.com) **
 * The question posed is, why isn’t anything being done about this? The answers vary, could it be that it is deemed as an embarrassment of the country, the men are feared and woman and children are powerless, or is it simply an irrelevant matter in the real world of India. **
 * We have heard many of cases of rape in America, however, in the western world, we seem to lend a blind eye to this growing problem. Media circuits haven’t done enough because they run with the stories they deem most relevant. **
 * For this problem to shrink in mathematical matters; we must use our voices, push petitions, use media sites positively, instead of for just our own individual purposes. **
 * Reeder 2 **
 * Overall, not be afraid to be different, just like the people of India, who took a bold stand in the case of Jyoti Singh. (Indiafacts.co.in) **
 * Jyoti Singh was an aspiring medical student, looking forward to a better life away from the poverty stricken area where she came from. **
 * On the night of December 12 of 2012 Jyoti Singh was walking with a male friend, when a bus with six men rode up beside them and offered them a ride, claiming to be heading in the same direction of Delhi, they accepted. What happened next was so sick and unthinkable to even describe, however for the informative nature of this project, I will elaborate. The men attack the gentlemen that Jyoti was with, knocking him out. Then began to brutally attack Jyoti one by one, beating her and taking turns raping her, while telling the driver of the bus to continue to drive. Finally one of the gentlemen as one of the six men on the bus that night reached into Jyoti and pulled her intestines out of her before dumping both her and her male friend out on the side of the rode to perish. ([]) **


 * Jyoti Singh died 13 days later from her injuries. The six men are now currently on death row. **
 * Another stand out incident in the culture of rape, is the case of Suzette Jordan. In February 2012, while attending a bar in Calcutta with friends, she met a male stranger who she deemed as being nice, they talked, and there were positive gestures between the two, so when offered a ride she accepted not knowing what was bound to take place next. When they left for other men jumped into the vehicle, one began **
 * Reeder 3 **
 * to grab onto her breast, she screamed, she attempted to get away, however it was too late. She was beaten and raped inside the car at gunpoint. When she tried to go to the authorities, she felt embarrassed as she proclaimed in the YouTube clip ([]). The police asked her questions like “You were in the nightclub drinking”? “Is beer your favorite drink”? “What is a 37 year old woman of two daughters, doing in a nightclub anyway”? So instead of showing consideration for her as the victim in the attack, it was seen in their eyes as being her fault. Even the chief minister of the West Bengal government used insensitive remarks when asked about Suzette’s case, deeming that it was false and a way to malign her government for her political competitors. However, it came out that Suzette was indeed telling the truth, as police used video from that night to capture the suspects, Suzette is now an activist against rape, using her voice as well as her experience to protest and educate rape victims and young ladies of West Bengal. **
 * The questions presented for this topic are ** “ ** What propels men towards the culture of rape? And **** do you think the causes are rooted in Culture? **
 * Could it be that it’s being taught to be okay for recreation, or could it be the fact that half of the rape cases presented are falsely reported? This creates a “boy who cried wolf” mentality for authorities. This explains the growing shift in judgment of rape victims and there cases. That’s why there is an increasing growing problem in gang rapes in India. These men believe that they can get away with it, it is common activity to take advantage of a woman, its fun to them, if you continue to give these **** men repetitive opportunity to use these rapes for sport, the problem will continue to expand. Rape is never funny; it’s nothing to joke about. The insensitive nature at hand is a slap in the face of real rape victims. One thing we must do as I have mentioned before is use our voices as Suzette Jordan has done and continue to do, not use rape as a joke, allow the facts to play out before we place judgment on victims or potential victims, and lastly use the technological tools that are with our reach to spread the word throughout the world. **


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