WHAT ARE WE OUTRAGEOUS ABOUT - THE VICTIM, RAPE OR THE RELIGION SHE BELONGS TO?

“72 year old nun gang raped in WB & Mamata Banerjee cries foul over Gharvaapasi! Are you a woman? And what kind of a nation are we?‪ #‎Shameless” was my post on Facebook, to which a friend replies that I’m blind to atrocities happening to Hindus…” He could have been right if I had said, a Christian nun is gang raped and no Hindu is outraging enough, which I didn’t. And why should I? It surprises me, in fact makes me feel pathetic to even think of saying something as such. If only one goes through a week’s news, he or she will know at what disastrous stage India has reached. Rape is the fourth most crime in India. If 2013 figures of National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) are any indicator then 92 women were raped daily in India. And yes, it comprises of all religion, class, creed and other ethnicities. Rapist as such doesn’t ask the girl if she belongs to this or that particular religion. He is a beast who commits crime without giving damn to the land of the law or any other pretentions. And again the rapist too is from all classes and religion. It’s a collective shame in India of today that we are dividing the crime between brackets of religion and other dividers when we all must be on same page saying, stop this shame once and for all. I may come to know of a heinous crime from the newspaper I read or news channel I watch, I will talk about it, condemn it and if some authority fails to take action, I will express my anger publicly through social media which is my only door to the world that is open. You may come across some other crime, express it, talk about it but don’t come and complain that I’m not talking about what you know and only speaking about what I know. Let’s share our knowledge and not quibble. If recent events are any indicators then the more we talk, the more we outrage, the more swift the action of authorities will be. Do you think the Nirbhaya case was the first such that happened in Delhi? No, but the outrage was really the first of its kind which helped in swift action and more importantly to come up with new set of laws and definitions of crime.

Nun, saadhvi, women in hijaab, child, old lady, young girl, college girl, labourer, maid; just name any role the women plays in society and she is raped. None are spared from being at receiving end of the crime. Every day, every hour some woman somewhere is getting raped. And somewhere someone to hide his inability to stop it is trying to come out with some weird reason behind the heinous crime. Wearing jeans, using cell phones, eating chow Mein, working late, watching Hollywood movies are few of the many absurd reasons we get to hear when a woman is raped. Does this sort of covering up help in solving the crime? If you have watched the India’s Daughter documentary by Leslee Edwin, you might have heard the defence lawyers and rapist himself; their mentality is one which mustn’t surprise us for that is the mentality of most of us. May be not to that extent but most of us look at woman not as a fellow human being but as mere an object who helps them raise children who in turn will continue the family lineage. Most of us have friends who talk about women in a sad insulting tone, they make joke on her, pass comments on their body and worse. No, I’m not saying these are potential rapists or criminals, most of these men are just those who crack jokes, satirists. But among this lies that someone who thinks to have such a viewpoint, to objectify women is all okay, he who thinks it’s an everyday affair which everyone does. Do you think every friend of a rapist is a rapist, potential criminal? I believe not. There are good among the rotten tomatoes. The problem is that they don’t speak, they don’t get offended so easily, that they believe in silence is golden way too seriously, that they keep quite. Like Albert Einstein once said,

“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”

The buck doesn’t stop here. The rot doesn’t stop with these men. They are no big threat to the society. The real threat to society are those people who try to divide the rape victims between the boxes labelled as Hindus, Muslims, Christians etc. Not just the rape victims but these are the real culprits at large who shift the real focus where it should have been from every crime that occurs in India. Sample this – “why do cry and make a fuss when a Christian is raped when you don’t question when a Hindu is raped”, “You always talk about 2002 riots but not 1992”, and if you cry over 1992 the others will replace the years and will again start bashing you. Between all this we forget the crime is a crime, terrorist attack is a terrorist attack, the bomb that explodes doesn’t kill only a Hindu or Musalman, it kills all who are in its vicinity. The rapist won’t stop committing crime if you belong to his religion or he won’t stop if she calls him ‘bhayya’ as advised by Asaram. By invoking religion we aren’t stopping the crime or even helping in curbing it but knowingly or unknowingly we are igniting the communal flames which will engulf all of us sooner or later. Let’s see crime as a crime, victim as a victim, terrorist as a terrorist. The criminal doesn’t become any saner or holier if he happens to follow Hinduism or Islam or Christianity. He is and will always be the damn criminal and nothing less.

Are the common citizens of this country the only reason why crimes are happening or are we the only one’s why issues are losing the real focus? No, we aren’t the only ones! Media which plays an important role in strengthening the democracy and helps in forming the public opinion is pathetically failing these days. It is creating issues out of no news, jumping to label one criminal so soon before law has come to any conclusion, it has started to take sides, talk what is its opinion, be at a side where popular perception or interest stands; in short it is pressing all the wrong buttons it shouldn’t press. The task of media isn’t to serve its judgement or opinion but report what is fact. Let’s not be paranoid. Every girl who marries a Hindu is not a case of ‘Love Jihaad’, every conversion that happens is not a forceful one entitled for ‘gharwapasi’, every clash that happens between a Hindu and Musalman is not a communal clash. I happen to live with a friend who follows Islam and we fight almost daily, should I now run crying and shout that he is fighting because I’m a Hindu? Or should he run because he is from minority religion and I’m part of a majority religion? It’s disgusting even to think something as absurd as that. Sometimes it is out of pure love that a Muslim girl marries a Hindu boy or otherwise, nobody is conspiring to convert them from one faction to another! Stop making fuss about everything when there are more important things to outrage about. If I happen to tell you about a crime through some medium and you know about the other from some other medium, tell the world about what you know and don’t start cribbing on why only people are talking about that crime and not this. Let us all pass the information what we have and not outrage on what someone missed to talk about. You start talking about what you know about and not what the other guy is failing to talk about; it just might be that the other person has no knowledge about what you have and not that he selectively picks what he outrages about.

Let’s not smell conspiracy in anything and everything. Let us outrage about the things which require our anger and not create new issues to outrage on. Remember India has its own set of problems; let’s not create a new one. Let’s be driven by reason and logic, not masala or trivia. Let’s fight the demons our nation is facing in unison unmindful of other person’s caste, creed, religion and social backgrounds. What way do you think this outrage based on religion will help us? How will this solve any miseries country of crores of people of diverse faiths, ethnicities, classes and castes is facing? In what way will it help the women across all divides of caste, creed and religion who are violated every day, in every context and conflict?

The lines of Faiz Ahmed Faiz talk about the same emotion:

“How will these mass killings be celebrated?Who will heed the moaning of my hurt body?There is hardly blood in my frail body —It can light no lamp, fill no gobletIt can quench no fire, slake no thirst.”

Let’s all unite at this very hour when our country needs us the most. Let’s talk about issues, discuss about crimes that corrode our nation and try to find the solutions that will help build a tomorrow that we all will be proud of. But be mindful that this aim can be achieved only if we stay in unison, if only we stay together. In a time like this when a nation against which Gandhi fought for three decades is unveiling his statue before their parliament and nation where he was born is disrespecting him, ignoring his teachings and talking about erecting the statues of his killers, his message to the world must be re-read. Gandhi says, "After long study and experience I have come to the conclusion that all religions are true, all religions have errors in them ... I do not believe in the exclusive divinity of the Vedas. I believe the Bible, the Quran, the Zend Avesta to be as much divinely inspired as the Vedas. My belief in the Hindu scriptures does not require me to accept each and every verse as divinely inspired." To Gandhiji Hindu-Muslim unity means unity not only between Hindu and Muslims but also between all those who believe India to be their home, no matter to what faith they belong. What is non-essential to a Hindu may be an essential to a Muslim. And in all non-essential matters a Hindu must yield for the asking. It is criminal to quarrel over trivialities. The unity we desire will last long if we cultivate a yielding and charitable disposition towards one another. The cow is as dear as life to a Hindu, the Muslim should, therefore, voluntarily accommodate his Hindu brother. Silence at his prayer is a precious thing for Muslim. Every Hindu voluntarily respects his Muslim brother's sentiment.

Harmony is where the real strength of this nation lies and not in quarrels. Let’s find reasons to smile and live together and not reasons to show our pettiness to throw muck at one another. I may be a Hindu and my friend may be a Musalman or Christian but we all are Indians – let’s not forget the gift our country has bestowed upon us.

Listen to My First Voice Blog in Hindi: What are we outrageous about - the victim, rape or the religion she belongs to?