Effects of Caste on Modern India – Women’s Rapes!

Latest Update as of 12/28 – Woman Dies After a Gang Rape That Galvanized India

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I know I am yet to finish my Bollywood post, but I was hoping I can get more participation on the survey I had included in it so I am going to leave it for another day. However I wanted to discuss in this post the latest issue being followed by Indian media and also Western media like BBC, NPR which is the gang rape of a 23 year student in a bus in the capital New Delhi.

Please listen here to two girls who are sharing their view with a BBC reporter about what their reaction was to the incident itself and their assessment of why this happens and if they feel safe in India or not BBC Interview about Gang Rape in New Delhi.

It is just a two minute video so do watch it as it gives us some important points to discuss.

In summary though they share that

1. They are not surprised at a gang rape has happened in a big city like New Delhi
2. They state that women in general are not safe, either in a village or in a City
3. Finally, they attribute the callousness of the society, men and the country to the culture – they specifically use the phrase “men and boys are raised with values” – which enables this apathy and aggression towards women and that given all this a gang rape is expected, not shocking at all

And if you are thinking as to how it will affect you as non-Indian, I have an American friend who loves India and has traveled in the North and recounted to me incidents where while traveling in a bus she would wake up to find the hand of the man sitting beside her feeling her up. But being a sucker for travel, she actually shaved her head, wore white Indian clothes to discourage men from harassing her and also had a board in her lap written in Hindi which read something like “Would you do this to me if I was an Indian girl?”. Well by the accounts that we are hearing that seems like a strategy that won’t work because the girls being raped are Indian.

 

Coming back to this particular interview though, the points one and two are more matter of fact, they are just stating the problem. The answer as to why this happens, why the country is unable to shake this off, or curb this problem, lies in the statement that the girls made while using the phrase – boys are raised with these values that enable this behavior, values that give scope to degradation of women or rather begin with a state of worthlessness to women after which  rape, assault, violence come naturally.

 

However the questions the girls have not asked, nor did the reporter for that matter ask are:

1. What are these values?
2. Where did these values come from?
3. Why has the society as a whole accepted these values?

Answer to the first question is simple, these are the values which demean women and give not just superiority to men, but rather authority and a society that accepts it.

 

Answers to the second and third questions (where do these values come from and why does the society accept them) are simple too, if we start answering them in a non-Indian context first and then bring them into India and support it with some evidence. So let me ask you a question, when encountering a good Samaritan, a fellow church goer or a friendly neighbor, have you heard something on the lines of , he/she is of good character, brought up with middle class Family Values, and great Christian Values. Of course you have, I am just teasing you guys, we have all heard these phrases again and again, we have just come out of a US Presidential election for crying out loud. Any who, getting back to the point I was making, when encountering character of a person or group  we take it back to where their origins are, and from there substantiate the values that they exhibit. And then at the level of the society we appreciate them. And this would be the same if you are speaking to a Muslim community where they would praise an individual for having great Islamic values and so on and so forth.

 

So the answer to the question “Where did these values come from?”, in general becomes: These values, good, bad and/or ugly are acquired by the individual from their Family, Society and the Religion they grow up with. And where family is religious and the society is religious the values effectively are nothing but the religious values.

 

And the answer to the question “Why has the society as a whole accepted these values?” would be:

If the whole society is structured of similar family units, have accepted the same social norms and more or less follow the same religion and accept the teachings.then as a whole they will accept those values and will not appreciate any change that is proposed.

And yes, these values will have both good and bad in them. So in case where we say someone is a person of Christian values they are both good and bad, we can easily assume that the person will help his neighbor, cares for a family, respects elders and on the other hand could also be a person who may not approve same sex marriage or may show strong opposition to abortion etc. I am not supporting or denouncing a value here, just stating that when we say values, society has an understanding of them and knows what a person of those values stands for or opposes.

 

So lets take this learning to the Indian context and answer the questions:

Q1. What are these values?

In an Indian context, for this post, we are talking about values that demean women and give men authority and mechanism to get away unscathed ‘IF’  the girl complains.

 

Q2. Where did these values come from?

As is common in any society these values have come from Family, Society and Religion. And in case of India, it being a very religious country, Family and Society values are nothing but religious values. And the religion here is Hinduism so they are Hindu values. And in a bit we will see what Hindu religion teaches and can verify if the religious values match and enable the behavior (rape, assault, violence of women) or if these men and others have worked outside these values.

 

Q3. Why has the society as a whole accepted these values?

80% of Indians are Hindus, so if Hinduism teaches these values and gives only a second class status to its women then effectively every man is treating women the same way, so they (men) will never bond and fight for women’s rights, because that would go against their religious values. And the important thing to note would be that women in India are also practicing the same religion, so they too are growing with and instilling the same religious values of oppressing women, and if they bond and fight for a fundamental change then they will be going against religious values too. So in essence both men and women can fight against incidents and raise a huge outcry depending on where the incident happens and how media projects it but they can’t fight against the system.

 

So we (or at least I) agree with the comment made by the girls that the problem is the value system. So lets get to what the Hindu religion teaches with respect to women and treating women:

 

The most convoluted of these laws is the one below which makes it a minor offense for a Bahmin to have intercourse with a drunk woman or even slaying them.

• Stealing grain, base metals, or cattle, intercourse with women who drink spirituous liquor, slaying women, Sudras, Vaisyas, or Kshatriyas, and atheism, (are all) minor offences, causing loss of caste (Upapataka) – Manusmriti (Laws of Manu), Chapter XI – 67

As a woman, if you really want to understand its gravity, then just for a moment imagine that this law has been passed in the county where you live in, effective immediately. If so, a Brahmin guy at a bar can wait till you take a sip of your drink and then carry you home or rape you right there and because you consumed a drink he gets off with a slap on his wrist and you are blamed for it all. On top of it if you don’t cooperate or it so suits his fancy he may kill you and he just get his other wrist slapped for it. And if you were not drinking in the first place, he could still rape you, kill you and later force a drink down your throat and prove that you were drunk to begin with.

 

Now I am not saying Indian society follows the above law or that it has made it way into the Indian penal code, but what I am trying to highlight is the value given to a woman in the religious book based on which Indian society is shaped.

 

Other laws that give Men control over women are:

• Day and night woman must be kept in dependence by the males (of) their (families), and, if they attach themselves to sensual enjoyments, they must be kept under one’s control – Manusmriti (Laws of Manu), Chapter IX – 2
• Him to whom her father may give her, or her brother with the father’s permission, she shall obey as long as he lives, and when he is dead, she must not insult his memory – Manusmriti (Laws of Manu), Chapter V – 151
• But a woman who from a desire to have offspring violates her duty towards her deceased husband brings on herself disgrace in this world and loses her place with her husband in heaven – Manusmriti (Laws of Manu), Chapter V – 161
• It is declared that a Sudra woman alone can be the wife of a Sudra, she and one of his own caste the wives of a Vaisya, those two and one of his own caste the wives of a Kshatriya, those three and one of his own caste the wives of a Brahmin – Manusmriti (Laws of Manu), Chapter III – 12-15

So effectively by the above laws women of the family are dependent on the men, they have to oblige and get married to a person of their parent’s choice and as sad as it may be even if they were to become a widow, they are not free to go seek another spouse or a life of their own and the last law gives authority to parents to kill their girl if she marries into a lower caste.

 

I am sure by now some of you are thinking that some of the other religions also state something like this and also that in this very book(Manusmriti) there are statements like the one below which ask for respect for women. But what I would like you to think about is, the way these other societies have been able to separate state and religion and also as to what values have prevailed and what laws have perished (owing to application of common sense) and if the value has not perished completely, at least it has become archaic.

• Women must be honored and adorned by their fathers, brothers, husbands, and brothers-in-law, who desire their own welfare – Manusmriti (Laws of Manu), Chapter III – 55

Sadly, in the case of India, women have not been so fortunate, the values that Hindus have retained have not been the liberating kinds but the kind that have been detrimental to women’s progress and in fact threaten their very existence. As can be seen by the rapes, practice of female feoticide, arranged marriages, dowry deaths, forced widowhood and in general societies inability to come to their support.

 

If you are still wondering how this is all tied to caste system then here is your answer:

In order for the caste system to be maintained, the process of birth needs to be controlled, society needs to be able to dictate where its daughters get married. And the only way a society can have this control is by enforcing laws which will always keep the girl dependent on the man. But the flip side of this arrangement is that girls will always be in a vulnerable position.

In each of the countries where women have gained an equal footing with men, it has been so because women have got themselves educated, self reliant and financially independent. But giving women in India such independence, where they can have a real say in the society and more importantly their own life, will also give them the control of to whom and when they get married and therefore such independence will threaten the existence of caste system. Because when an individual is given the choice to pick a spouse, Caste or any such artificial means of selection cease to become a priority, for more please read my post on Arranged Marriages.

So in the interest of maintaining caste system which is the heart and soul of Hindu religion such real progress by women can never be made. There will be flare ups like this whenever an incident occurs which the media can’t ignore but on the whole as long as India stays a Hindu society these atrocities on Indian women will not subside. And while the number of rapes committed on Dalit and lower caste women is far higher, all women in general are vulnerable to such violence as was mentioned by the girls in the video.

 

And I leave you with this Hindu law that disenfranchises women (irrespective of their caste)and some other links to other atrocities on women

• By a girl, by a young woman, or even an aged one, nothing must be done independently, even in her own house – Manusmriti (Laws of Manu), Chapter V – 147

Additional Links:

Rape in Bihar, on the heels of the gang rape in Delhi

One bride is burnt every hour

Where a baby girl is a mother’s awful shame

The Fate of the Widows of Vrindavan, India

High prevalence of child marriage in India

Hindu Honor Killings!