Objectification of Women and Rape Culture in India: The R.G. Kar Conundrum

 

Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object—and most particularly an object of vision: a ‘sight’.

                     —John Berger (Ways of Seeing, 1972, p. 47)

The World Health Organization (WHO, 2011) defines sexual violence as ‘any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed, against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work’.

    After a decade long sojourn outside West Bengal, I returned to my home state in August this year. The event then that had engulfed the public attention and media coverage was the rape and murder of the 31-year-old postgraduate trainee doctor at the R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, a public hospital in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, on 09^th August 2024.

    The mass protest by doctors started on August 10 across West Bengal which gradually spread across the country. Though resident doctors started this protest, they got support from common people who took out the protest to streets, social media and societal avenues. This crime was no different than the other rape cases that occur in our country on daily basis. Remember the 16 December 2012 Delhi gang rape case in which the victim lost her life due to the brutality and violence of the perpetrators! Most unfortunate phenomenon is that every mass protest is followed by a mass dementia. We simply forget the ordeals of the victims and move on with the same intensity that promotes “rape culture”.

    Many of us are not aware of the term “rape culture” because we have internalized it just as the “objectification of women” is normalized in the Indian society and in every aspect of our lives. Women in our country, as well as globally, are the particular targets of sexual violence. Violence against women, sexual harassment and rape are the epidemics that take shape out of various patriarchal theories and practices.

    As per the latest government data [available on data.gov.in], the registered cases of rape in West Bengal were 1,128 in 2020. In 2018 and 2019, the number of cases registered were 1,069 and 1,068 respectively. The numbers are scary; and seeing the trend, the data must also be worrying in 2024 as well. But among the thousands of rape crimes only few gains public attention, such as the R.G. Kar rape case in Kolkata. Only when the people identified the victim as one of them – urban, middle class, educated woman – they came out on the streets, called out for candle marches, protest marches and even switching off the lights of their houses for few hours to symbolize the darkness in the institutions, system and the society at large.

  Why, despite such visibly vigorous awareness, do rape crimes not stop or, for that matter, decrease in our society? The answer is that this sudden outburst, whether in the Delhi Nirbhaya case of 2012 or the Kolkata Tilottama case of 2024, is felt at the visible/ audible level alone! Nothing is felt at the human/humane level at all. The root cause of such bestial violence against women lies with both men, and women. Yes, women are also responsible for increasing violence against their own gender. This is not an attempt to blame-shame the victims, but an attempt to make women accountable for their actions in accepting the rotten patriarchal and self-objectifying practices. Both men and women are blamable for sexual/gender-based violence against women due to the following THREE reasons –

1. Objectification of Women-

   From the most glamorous female celebrity to the burqa-clad, women are raised in the Indian society with the perception that their looks matter. Girls grow up realizing the social value of attractiveness. A woman learns at a very early age that physical appearance is probably the most significant factor to determine her worth. Right from the media advertisements to the eyes of the family/neighbours/peers, women are told to look fair, beautiful, charming and ‘hot’/ ‘sexy’. John Berger, an English art critic, stated in his book Ways of Seeing (1972):

“Men dream of women, women dream of themselves being dreamt of. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at” and that “Women constantly meet glances, which act like mirrors, reminding them how they look or how they should look. […] men act and women appear … the surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object—and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.

                      —John Berger (Ways of Seeing, 1972, p. 47)

Man’s social presence is overpowering which makes him treat women as ‘object’. To objectify means to treat something as an object or cause to have objective reality (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Thus, to be objectified means to be made into and treated as an object that can be used, manipulated, controlled, and recognized through its physical properties. In a society of institutionalized heterosexuality and patriarchy, woman compellingly makes herself ‘object and prey’ for the man. Woman lives her body as seen by another ‘man’. Objectifying women’s bodies contributes to an atmosphere within which a woman’s visual appearance becomes her key defining characteristic – all other accomplishments, achievements, skills and education are secondary. Then what happens when a woman is objectified? Objectifying a woman leads to -

• treatment of a woman without empathy and compassion
• victimization due to the failure to perceive women as humans
• envision women as bodies that exist for the use and pleasure of others.

It is important to understand that whenever a woman’s body, body parts, or sexual functions are dissociated from her ‘person’, she is reduced to a sexual object. Therefore, the objectification of women leads to sexual objectification which makes them vulnerable to various types of sexual violence. Sexual objectification is the most harmful manifestation of gender inequality, because under a sexually objectifying ‘gaze’, women’s bodies become — even if just for a moment — the property of the observer; and in criminal cases, the property of the molester or the rapist.

    Let us understand the objectification of women in popular culture of India through the following examples-

• Catcalling a girl/ woman – calling her a “maal”, “item”, “patakha”, “fuljhadi” etc.

• Commenting on women’s body parts – “what a piece of ass”, “what a pussy” etc.

• Presenting women in advertisements –  the ads of body-deodorants – they show women as the target of the stimulants which attract the female towards the male user of the deodorant; the condom ads show women having exaggerated desire for sex; the age old fair and lovely cream, which has now been renamed as ‘Glow and Lovely’ after a court judgement.

• Defining women as edible or consumable by using these words – “Coca-Cola”, “malai”, “honey”, “chaasni” etc.

• Projecting women as sexual objects in movie songs – the Bollywood ‘item songs’ present women in objectionable and objectifying manner. Note the following lyrics of such songs:

(i) “Laila mai laila, aisi mai laila/ har koi chahe mujhse milna akela”!

(ii) the ‘Chikni Chameli’ song where this line occurs “jangal me aaj mangal karungi/ bhukhe shero se khelungi mai”!

(iii) in the ‘Fevicol song’- “Main to tandoori murgi hoon yaar/ Gatkaale saiyaan alcohol se”!

(iv) “aaj ki raat maza husn ka/ ankho se lijiye”!

(v) “ami Kolkatar rasogolla”! (a Bangla song)

• Portrayal of women in fashion magazine images – in the images of a women’s magazine, body display is a trend in which women wear revealing/minimal/no clothes in the image; women have no other purpose within the image except being looked at, like an object.

• Dehumanization of women in video pornography as receiver of aggression – women are shown as responding either positively or neutrally to the acts of humiliation/brutality in pornographic content. This gives impression that women enjoy men abusing them, implying that ‘other’ woman would also be sexually compliant and could be treated as a sexual object.

• Design of clothes for little girls – the girl child is ‘trained to be a sexual object’ when encouraged to wear ‘sexy clothing’ with adultified design from a young age.

#A Google notification on my mobile – Read the caption to advertise a new model of Nokia phone. It objectifies the waist of women to refer to the thinness of an electronic product.

All the above instances define, treat and evaluate women as objects who are further seen as the instruments for the sexual pleasure of men. As a result, what girls and boys learn about women’s bodies is that it is normal for women’s bodies to be looked at, commented on, examined and sexually harassed. It is this day-to-day practice of sexualized gazing that women face in a variety of social contexts that traps girls and women into adopting this evaluative gaze on themselves, or to self-objectify. Hence, socialization of girls and women in a sexually objectifying culture leads to self-objectification. The second reason for blaming the Indian society is the concept of self-objectification.

2. Self-Objectification in Women-

    Here, I want to draw the attention of readers to the female accountability to sustain and support the culture of objectification. Constant external objectification results in women internalizing media and other perspectives in their pursuit to define themselves. Since, women objectify themselves in the cultural practices of sexual objectification, they end up being self-objectified. The following are the ways through which women, knowingly/ unknowingly or consciously/ unconsciously, objectify themselves-

• Preoccupations with appearance- the beauty and cosmetic industry has benefitted a lot out of women’s urge to look good.

• Undergoing repetitive and invasive cosmetic surgeries – e.g. ‘lip jobs’, ‘nose jobs’, ‘boob jobs’ etc.

• Obsession with body-size – in a fat-phobic society, women tend to view their bodies as failing to conform to socially acceptable norms of body size.

• Offering the body on show – DSLR cameras, mobile phone cameras, social media, and the cult of the “selfie” all contribute to a context in which one’s face and body can feel constantly on show.

• Becoming prey to the ‘reels’ mania - online pressure “to look pretty all the time” and “to have a picture-perfect life” to put on display for the public, predominantly male, on social media to garner attention and popularity.

• ‘Item song’ and portrayal of the body – it is a Woman who performs in item songs with objectionably objectifying lyrics. Also, they agree on being minimally clothed in those songs which further emphasizes the agenda to offer the female body as the object for sexual male gaze and male desire.
  
  
• Fascination with wearing revealing clothes- in our country, certain geographical locations are found to have women wearing body-displaying designer clothes in the name of fashion/ modernity. However, these girls/ women fail to understand the difference between Westernization and Modernization. What one should wear is a personal choice. But all genders have to respect the cultural atmosphere of a particular place, such as a small town or suburban locale, in India while dressing the scanty Western attires. Also, one has to dress according to the occasion, place, and context. Nonetheless, the impact of self-objectification is such that the Indian women have made even ethnic clothes revealing by their unique customization to cater to the internalized desire of ‘being looked at’. While this is a highly contested topic, those who choose minimal clothing in our country they usually escape sexual violence as they move from one place to another either in a personal/ hired vehicle or in a protected shield of family or friends. But they end up objectifying themselves in particular and ‘women’ in general. Women without the privilege of having such protected environment for movement become the victim of gender-based violence wherein the patriarch male finds an opportunity to express his supremacy by sexual objectification. Such is the streak of self-objectification in women that it is regarded as the psychological consequence of regular exposure to sexually objectifying experiences. Consequently, the women do what the men want them to do, even without asking for it (meaning remain a ‘body' by displaying it like an object/product/commodity to be used or consumed).

#Example of self-objectification in Women – In this video, a model/actress is seen removing her clothes in a public place in front of the camera willfully and happily.

    Self-objectification is manifested in the over-scrutiny of one’s body in ways that impact, potentially harmfully, both self-perception and the perception of others. This leads to an almost narcissistic obsession with how one looks and how one wants to be seen. Research shows that self-objectification is a harmful cultural practice. The increase in both shame and anxiety about the body and appearance, leads to mental health risks. Researchers around the world have suggested that the practices involving self-objectification expose women to increased risk of three mental health disorders-

• Eating disorders- too much concern for body weight and shape results from self-scrutiny and body shame. To counter this anxiety of body dissatisfaction, young women begin skipping meals and trying mercurial diets that lead to disordered eating.

• Depression- the connection between self-objectification and depressed mood is mediated by body shame and appearance anxiety.

• Sexual dysfunction- if a woman is always anxious about her body image, she is supposed to less concentrate on her own sexual pleasure to gain maximum sexual satisfaction. Body shame is related to sexual self-consciousness which in turn relates to decreased orgasm and less sexual pleasure.

Therefore, the sexualization of female body for the male ‘gaze’ and ‘pleasure’ does not empower women but keeps them focused on their own physical appearance and that of other women. The societal emphasis on women’s sexual objectification has been associated with gender inequality and recognized as an element within ‘rape culture’ that contributes to sexual violence.

3. The ‘Rape Culture’-

   The third reason under my observation is the existence, development and support of a ‘rape culture’. The above discussed two factors lead to this concept of ‘rape culture’ which came into use by the feminist scholars, practitioners and activists to refer to a social structure that supports the perpetration of sexual violence. A rape culture is defined as one that normalizes and excuses rape, sexual violence and exploitation in all its forms. It refers to a social, cultural and structural discourses and practices in which sexual violence is tolerated, eroticized and trivialized. A rape culture entails a society that – 

(i) raises its girls with the conviction that they need to make themselves attractive to men;

(ii) tells the women that their value and welfare depend upon male validation;

(iii) ignores the disappearance of socio-economically marginalized women;

(iv) endures the practice in which a powerful man who a woman refuses to have sex with can end her career;

(v) propagates men as the hunters for sex and the conquerors of women;

(vi) normalizes women to be the guardians of her own purity, chastity and virtue;

(vii) disrespects women who fail to be virtuous by slut-shaming and victim blaming;

(viii) questions the victims of rape about their behaviour;

(ix) DOES NOT question the men about their behaviour when they commit rape-crime;

(x) manifests the patriarchal legacy by silencing the victims and keeping silence about rapists.

A society is said to promote rape culture when it “trains its women to be rape victims” (Susan Brownmiller, 1975), or dismisses rape as “just sex” (Nicola Gavey, 2019).  Besides, the pathetic conviction rate is also a worrying reality in the Indian societies of different states which is well reflected in the government data. In West Bengal, in 2020 the conviction rate was only 3.1% out of the 1,128 registered cases of rape. Rapists are not sexual deviant or sexually frustrated but rather individuals responding to socio-cultural expectations of aggression and dominance over female by resorting to intentional violence. Men grow up with the social conditioning that enables them to assert power over women – from boardroom to bedroom. A man’s will to force his maleness on a fearful woman reflects not only his position of supremacy but also the lack of empathy when she is the objectified ‘human’.

    Now, let us consider few of the “Rape Myths” in which victims are blamed and shamed in a typical rape culture society –

• Provocative clothing was a factor of rape.
• When a victim is promiscuous, she encourages sexual violence.
• Visiting a pub or club or walking by dark pathways might have caused the rape.
• The victim was drinking or on a high which resulted in rape.
• A victim must fight back or have physical injuries for the act to be called a sexual assault.
• Victims must show signs of trauma by crying and displaying unusual emotions.
• The victim never said NO, hence the perpetrator did not get the clear signal to stop.
• Sex workers and porn stars cannot be raped.
• Victims made a false claim of rape.
• Women of low caste or class are sexually promiscuous; hence they are raped.

Myths and stereotypes that support the perpetrator’s behaviours and actions are as follows –

• Males are hyper-sexed and cannot control their need for sex.
• A spouse or intimate partner (boyfriend or fiancé) cannot rape because sex is consensual, not forced.
•  Only strangers can rape.
• The perpetrator had to use weapon or physical force to commit rape. (It is a myth because emotional blackmail can also lead to raping a woman)
• Serial rapists are not common.

There exist Rape Scripts as well. They are societal stereotypes regarding the rape setting, act of rape, or sexual assault –

• Sexual assaults occur in isolate areas.
• Sexually violent crimes happen outside or in public, not at homes.
• External body injuries must be visible to call the assault a rape-crime.
• A weapon must be used for the assault to be considered rape.

    We must also note that shame is crucial in self-silencing of the victim, and often contributes to victim/survivors feeling unworthy of recognition. This “shame” factor many a times lead to the late reporting of rape in our country which is interpreted as potentially false complaint.

   However, the measures to prevent rape need to promote women’s rights to safe and respectful relationships, with men encouraged to do away with patriarchal form of masculinities which have been promoting hatred and contempt for women. Rape prevention initiatives must challenge the silencing and objectifying exercises that reinforce rape culture. Few of the measures proposed by researchers are:

(i) Self-defense – a formal training on self-defense makes women able to resist violence. Research on rape avoidance shows that physical resistance (combating and fleeing) coupled with verbal resistance (shouting, sending clear messages/ signals of denial) to sexual advances not only avoids rape but also decreases risk of physical injury.

(ii) Bystander education – a bystander is a witness to the sexual crime, or a facilitator in the crime or simply a neutral observer, or someone who steps in to stop the assault. Bystander may include anyone – friends, neighbours, family members, coaches, teachers, professional helpers, co-workers, or strangers. Unfortunately, a bystander is surprisingly absent/ missing in the R.G. Kar rape case. Bystander intervention has garnered attention because of their potential to prevent rape. Their education includes encouraging them to stay attentive to the safety of those around them and voluntarily intervene to prevent a sexual assault or rape occurring in their presence.

(iii) Engaging men and boys – Rape prevention work begins with men and with men’s questioning of traditional assumptions about masculinity and their rethinking what it means to be a man. The prevalent means to engage men in preventing violence against women is face-to-face education programmes. Herein they are given consent education which clarifies a woman’s agreeability in having sexual intercourse. Further, awareness programmes on prevention of sexual harassment at workplace or higher educational institutions are also an effective manner to engage men and boys in resisting the beliefs of rape culture.

(iv) Digital rape prevention – in the 21^st century, the world wide web and social media platforms turn out to be the site of sexual violence against female users. Without any physical boundaries to constrain it, digital abuse has global reach with the potential to online harassment of an individual or group through objectifying posts, comments and reactions. Online gaming platforms make virtual rape possible through victim’s avatar, therefore, making the real and the virtual sexual crime almost identical. On a wider level, online and social media messaging can also sustain societal rape myths, including victim-blaming beliefs. Despite the difficulties the internet facilitated virtual world posits for being vast and largely unregulated, the preventive measures to avoid online sexual violence requires increased public awareness and involvement. This can be achieved through involving netizens on social media to challenge the societal practices that enable violence against women. And also, to promote online mobilisation around high profile news stories such as the R.G. Kar case. The focus on news stories digresses the discussion from the individual (she was drunk; he is a psychopath) to deeper concerns surrounding rape-crimes, including the role of hatred against women (misogyny) and the influence of patriarchal worldview.

    In the end, we may assert that rape will remain an epidemic if structured social hierarchies remain, and women’s bodies remain instrumental to male definitions of masculinity. For there to be no instances of rape, there must be no instances of misogyny.

  Finally, the rape and murder of any woman is preventable, not by asking women to change their behaviour but by challenging men to change theirs. Are we, the men, ready to take this challenge? Can we make it our New Year Resolution at the end of every December, every year? Can we pass it on to our generation and the future generations to come? Can we, as a society, make efforts to stop rape-crimes like the R.G. Kar Hospital case? I urge the readers to think about this and question.

Thank you!

 

Sources:

Berger, John. Ways of seeing. BBC and Penguin Books Ltd., 1972.

Brownmiller, Susan. Against our will: Men, women, and rape. Simon and Schuster, 1975.

Calogero, R. M., Tantleff-Dunn, S., & Thompson, J. K. (Eds.). Self-objectification in women: Causes, consequences, and counteractions. American Psychological Association, 2011.

Gavey, Nicola. Just sex? The cultural scaffolding of rape. Routledge, 2019.

Henry, Nicola and A. Powell (eds.). Preventing Sexual Violence: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Overcoming a Rape Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Jordan, Jan. Tackling Rape Culture: Ending Patriarchy. Routledge, 2023.

Jordan, Jan. Women, rape and justice: Unravelling the rape conundrum. Routledge, 2022.

Nicholls, Tracey. Dismantling Rape Culture: The Peacebuilding Power of ‘Me Too’. Routledge, 2021.

Smith, Lisa R. The Blaming and Shaming of Defenseless Victims in America’s Rape Culture. Lexington Books, 2022.

Web resource-

https://www.data.gov.in/resource/stateuts-wise-case-registered-cr-and-conviction-rate-cvr-under-rape-under-crime-againt

Bihar and Mahagathbandhan 2.0: Is Socialism (Samajwad) the Decisive Factor in Reunion of JDU and RJD?

“Factors of religion and history must be considered seriously. It is these that sour the minds and hearts of men.” (Dr. Rammanohar Lohia)

Ideological politics appear oxymoronic in Indian context. The recent developments in the formation of government in Bihar have created newer debates surrounding conflicts of interest between three influential political parties viz. RJD, JDU and BJP. After the Bihar Legislative Elelection 2020, the Nitish Kumar led JD(U) formed the government with the national party BJP. This hurt the largest party, Tejashwi Yadav led RJD, after 2020 assembly election because the RJD had the highest Vote share (38.11%) and won seats (75) out of its contested 144 seats. But the JDU-BJP alliance formed the government leaving the RJD in the opposition bench. Here, it is important to note that in 2015 the JDU and Lalu Prasad Yadav led RJD stormed to power what was called Mahagathbandhan. Later, the JDU broke the alliance with RJD and Congress in 2017 and joined hands with BJP to form the government citing the corruption charges against the then Deputy Chief Minister, Tejawshwi Yadav.

    Now, in 2022, there comes twist in the tale in the political scenario of Bihar! On 09^th August 2022, Nitish Kumar came back to the previous alliance with RJD to uphold the Mahagathbandhan 2.0. This time he is again the Chief Minister and his deputy is the same Tejashwi Yadav. Here, what caught my attention is the Television interviews of Tejashwi Yadav in which he can be heard chanting and hailing the Ideology of Samajwad (Socialism). The reason, which he continuously and jubilantly cites, for rejoining hands with his “chacha” (i.e. Nitish Kumar) and vice-versa originates from Socialism, from the legacy of Dr. Rammanohar Lohia and Jaya Prakash Narayan. Herein lies the origin of this post.

    Is it Samajwad or something else that brought the old foes together? Do they really care about Socialism? Had Nitish Kumar been a true socialist, he would never have allied with BJP in 2017. The socialist agenda revolves around the downtrodden, the poor, the backward castes in India. A true socialist will never mix politics with religion and neither will support the party which does so. Hence, what happened in 2017 in Bihar goes against the spirit of socialism.

    Let us now consider what Dr. Rammanohar Lohia, the leader of the Socialist Party of India, had to say of the political horizon of India after independence. In 1959 Dr. Lohia wrote a series of articles in the monthly “Mankind” in which he gave an overview of the incidents leading to the tragic phenomena of partition of the Indian subcontinent. In his introductory article to the series, he cites eight causes that led to the partition. They are “first, British chicanery, secondly, declining years of congress leadership, thirdly, objective condition of Hindu-Muslim rioting, fourthly, lack of grit and stamina among the people, fifthly, Gandhiji’s non-violence, sixthly, Muslim League’s separatism, seventhly, inability to seize opportunities as they came, and, eighthly, Hindu hauteur”. In the article, he laments upon the fact that none took any serious initiative to “bring the Muslim close to the Hindu within a single nation”. This “estrangement” was sustained by the collaboration of the Jan Sangh, the British and the Muslim League. One has to understand that Lohia is an authentic voice to have faith in because he had seen it all, first, as the member of the Indian National Congress and, later, as the propounder of Socialism in India. If he blames the Muslims for fallaciously trusting Jinnah as their messiah, he also blames right nationalism and Hindu fanaticism for the estrangement and divide. Lohia says:

“The Jan Sanghies and all Akhand-Bharatis of the Hindu pattern are friends to Pakistan. I am a true Akhand-Bharati. I do not like the partition. There must be millions of such persons on both sides of the border. But they must cease to be exclusively Hindu or exclusively Muslim, before they can become true to their yearning of undivided Hindustan.”

Please take note of the difference in the Socialist approach to the idea of Akhand Bharat. In his Akhand Bharat both the Hindu and Muslim form the undivided state. To Lohia, Akhand Bharat is an inclusive entity. The socialist in Lohia and Narayan always respected diversity and unity. The former stresses on the importance of incredible “temper of Indian people that has learnt the arts of adjustment and patient acceptance and surrender”. But the element of estrangement spoils the past eight hundred years of Hindu-Muslim relationship. He further adds:

“The estrangement of the Muslim from the Hindu has continued into the years of freedom. I suspect that it is deeper today than it was before the partition. Estrangement produced partition, which therefore could not possibly dissolve it in an automatic way. Into the effect enters the cause. Nothing has been done in the years of freedom to bring the Muslim close ta the Hindu, to remove the seeds of estrangement from their souls. Among the unforgivable crimes of the Congress government is precisely its failure to bring together the estranged souls, in. fact, its unwillingness to attempt the task.”

How contextual the above quote is even today! Has anything been really done even after the demise of Dr. Lohia by any government to lessen this estrangement? Dr. Lohia uses a phrase “vote-catching” as the basis behind the failure of the Congress government to bring the Hindu-Muslim together. And what about the present Central government? What could be the reason behind its failure to deplete this estrangement? Or does there exist any desire to bring the two religious community together?

    Let us come back to the “vote-catching” factor. What made JDU to leave the Mahagathbandhan in 2017? Was this a vote-catching tactic for 2020 election in Bihar? What Lohia said in 1959 is still contextual and relevant. For example, he says that “To obtain votes, appeals to Hindu and Muslim are still overwhelmingly separate”. Do you think that political parties are serious about this estrangement? Do you see any party adhering to its ideology under all circumstances? The answer is NO. Opportunism is at the centre of power. Unfortunate but true. I believe that all ideologies must converge for the welfare of the poor, deprived, unemployed, and the backward class/ caste. To this end Dr. Lohia has provided few remedies such as:

“...such solutions must be sought as interdining or intermarriage, also economic solutions such as full employment or nationalization or equality, also political solutions such as guaranteed representation of backward castes and groups. Without these solutions, the problem of estrangement can never be laid to rest, but with them alone, it will ever be there in some form, quiescent or virulent. Factors of religion and history must be considered seriously. It is these that sour the minds and hearts of men.”

What we see around us in India today was already foreseen by Lohia. Indeed, the estrangement exists; the factors of religion and history are not taken gravely. More so, in the times of social media, false facts, fake news, misinterpreted/ incorrect history are doing around every second! Most importantly, had history been “considered seriously”, JDU would have never ever went with NDA. Isn’t it?

     There is another word that Dr. Lohia uses frequently in that article, and with which I would conclude this post. The word is “approximation”. We all know that Lohia and Narayan always represented the underprivileged lower castes. Their concern was to safeguard their rights in the independent India. That is why, Dr. Lohia says:

“There seems almost to be a law that approximation is more often the work of persons of low caste or learning, and estrangement that of the ruling or more learned castes, while it may well be that, in critical times, approximation tends to degenerate into extinction and estrangement to stiffen into maintenance of identity.”

How precise the statement above is! Approximation is always forced upon the weak, the backward populace. Estrangement is reserved for the powerful, the forward populace. However, both lead to degeneration of a nation. If one is forced to assimilate/ approximate, it would cause loss of identity. In hindsight, if one maintains estrangement, it will lead to stricter consciousness of identity which would be non-inclusive. Therefore, mental attitude is what matters most. Our sensibility to the undivided nation matters most.

    Thus, what I conclude of the current political events in Bihar is that if they (the samajwadis) genuinely wish to form a “strong opposition”, they have to stick to the ideology – Practice what you preach. Otherwise, someone else will steal their ideology for their own good. The Statue of Unity in Gujarat is an appropriate example for the same.

Thank you!

References:

1. Lohia, Rammanohar. Guilty Men of India’s Partition. Allahabad: Kitabistan, 1960.

2. http://www.panjabdigilib.org/webuser/searches/mainpage.jsp

3. https://eci.gov.in/files/file/12787-bihar-legislative-election-2020/

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Religious Symbol: A Controversy Exposing Hypocrisy

A TV Channel Debate on the Gyanvapi Masjid has triggered further debates and arguments. The said 26th May 2022 Debate on Times Now has been doing around for a while. And now it has reached the peak of controversy.

Ms. Nupur Sharma, erstwhile BJP spokesperson, now has been suspended from the national political party for her remarks on the Prophet Mohammed.

My point is that why such debates on TV News Channels gain TRP in our country. There are more pertinent issues in India than continuous debate on issues which are sub judice. Look at the inflation rate, prices of commodities, job scarcity!

I lost my contractual job at a Central University whose HoI gave the excuse of  "lack of fund" for not extending the contract of teachers.

Can you imagine the situation? People with PhD loosing their jobs! Reason? Lack of Funds. Then where are the Government's funds going? Are they being utilized for sponsoring HATE? I am asking this question to whosoever comes across this post.

Also, this very incident relating to the alleged religious symbol found inside a mosque has exposed hypocrisy. The spokesperson in contention blurted out unnecessary arguments on TV and now her own party expels her - but only after the backlash received from the Middle-East countries.

Furthermore, another question. Isn't it a hypocrisy to take action after External Turbulence? What about the turbulence her remarks fired inside the country, e.g. violence in Kanpur?

These are some questions which every citizen of India should ask oneself. 

References:

https://cjp.org.in/cjp-calls-out-times-now-hosts-bias-towards-bjp-spokesperson-nupur-sharma/

https://www.timesnownews.com/mirror-now/in-focus/explained-nupur-sharmas-communal-remarks-over-prophet-mohammed-all-about-the-controversy-and-ongoing-protests-article-92025404

https://thewire.in/government/remarks-on-prophet-after-thane-hyderabad-police-files-fir-against-bjps-nupur-sharma

HINDI Translation of the Post

McCluskieganj: A Place to Remind the Colonial Past

My visit to McCluskieganj was quite refreshing after the constant lockdown and continuing Work from Home in Ranchi, the town where I live now. The distance between Ranchi and McCluskieganj is around 70 KMs.

Place to Stay, there are others besides this

Anglo-Indian Bunglow

Interior of the Bunglow 1

Interior 2

Interior 3

I was accompanied by my two colleagues from Amity University Jharkhand on 17th January 2021. The place appeared to be a space where time can be revisited, the colonial times. The legacy of Britishers was visible everywhere. It was an Anglo-Indian colony before. Now it is a tourist spot with new constructions built by the tourism department, Government of Jharkhand.

New construction

Renovated Bunglow

Dining Space for Tourists

Another Bunglow in the Woods

The greenary around was quite fascinating. Three of us walked down the road amidst the jungle. We enjoyed the scenic views of the place.

If you are in Jharkhand, you must visit McCluskieganj. The name is enough to tell the story - McCluskie + ganj, Anglo + Indian name!

With Dr. Rahul Kumar

With Dr. Ravi Bhushan

Ghost Town: A Poem

Ghost Town

I wandered and wondered

why the roads were deserted?

Birds soared high as if they never could,

humans were confined as if never could. 

Far and far in the town

the usual clamour was lost.

The only folks seen

were those who once left the town!

Forced to return they seemed,

their faces were pale and grim.

Every human I saw that day,

told a story of long painful journey.

They had left their own home

to find a better vista of dreams!

Did they ever wish to return?

Did they want to destroy dreams?

Nobody left glimmering towns

to relocate, to return, to rebuild.

Unwelcoming their own place had become

for they were deemed to be carrier of doom!

The fear, the cynicism, spread

Faster than the looming deaths!

They appeared to believe as I did

that their sojourn will be warring.

Hapless their journey was

but hopeful were those steps into the ghost town!

© Suraj Kumar Saw

COVID-19: A Pandemic that Signalled in the Past

Presently, in India, COVID-19 cases have risen close to 1 Lakh per day! The scenario is terrifying in the wake of 'Unlocks' to soothe the vast population. Well, Lockdown was a necessity. But were we alarmed by the rising cases of Corona virus disease outside India that started at the close of the year 2019? Again, did the scientific community of our country alarm the government? Also, did the health ministry take note of the already depleted health facilities in various parts of the country?

I raise these questions because in my attempt to explore the disease COVID-19, I found certain facts in research articles in reputed (online) journals published by Taylor and Francis and Oxford University Press. I am neither a scientist nor a medical professional but as a curious layman I thought to decipher the virus which has already perplexed the global scientific community. The influenza virus spreads very fast as we all know that when one person catches cold at home the other family members also get infected quickly! Then such viruses, as the present one, would certainly spread like a wildfire for they are advanced version of cold and flu virus which may even cause death. 

Corona virus is not an unknown entity to the world. The current one is new corona virus which causes fatal respiratory disease. The following is a list of such viruses which I discovered in various research articles:

1. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome corona virus (SARS-CoV) outbreak in 2003

2. H1N1 influenza A virus outbreak in 2009

3. Middle East Respiratory Syndrome corona virus (MERS-CoV) outbreak in 2012

4. H5N1 and H7N9 avian flu virus oubreak in 2013

The above viruses had already gave the threat of a pandemic long back as the years of outbreak suggest. That is why, published in 2016, one of the article's title rightly suggested that we were "in the era of corona virus". MERS-CoV unleashed havoc in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and until  4 June 2014, 688 confirmed infections and 282 deaths were reported (Ali M. Al Shehri, 2015). The potential of MERS-CoV in human-to-human transmission is easily understood for the disease spread to 27 countries in North America, Asia, Europe and Africa. One of the articles reports that in June 2015, Korea faced the largest outbreak after Saudi Arabia (Yin Mo and Dale Fisher, 2016). Another report says that as of May 16, 2016, 1388 cases of MERS had been reported in Saudi Arabia with dangerous 43% mortality (Sarah Batawi and others, 2016).

My point is that why could not we draw a lesson from these outbreaks and prepare ourselves better to combat the current CoViD-19? In 2003, when similar virus (SARS) hit Canada, their health public system was revamped and the formation of Canadian Agency for Public Health happened in similar lines of the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC). Then, MERS again shook the world. But we were waiting for another virus to enter our territory and bring chaos. The Indian public has already seen the failure of health system and preventive measures in news reports, mass media and various social media platforms.

However, in these phases of Unlocks we must have noticed that how people are still not cautious and conscious of hygiene and following the guidelines released by the stakeholders for prevention of the COVID-19 disease. Hand hygiene is very significant including appropriate use of masks and practising social distancing. I do not need to repeat it here as whenever you pick up your phone to call someone these things are always repeated by the network operators in various Indian languages.

We understand that coronaviruses are "biologically diverse and rapidly mutating" (Yin Mo and Dale Fisher, 2016), these are new viruses and unpredictable in terms of origin, means of transmission and behaviour, however, good public health system must consider such circumstances and be ready for managing the situation without interrupting economic activities and creating turmoil for common people, specially those belonging to unorganised sector and labour class.

It would have been better that instead of building a 'statue of unity' we could have built advanced healthcare system keeping in view the large and dense population of our country and the undisciplined public. I think money should flow to the basic need which does not mean to provide free ration but to provide a medical infrastructure that could be trusted by common, mostly poor, public in India.

Please note that SARS came 17 years ago when I was a school student. It alarmed the world then. After this came MERS 8 years ago. It  also alarmed the public, governments and scientists! And now this COVID-19 stresses on the most urgent need to reform and reconfigure the national public health policies that may provide affordable treatment for such flu outbreaks, communicable and non-communicable diseases and other health challenges emerging from time to time. Only beating thaalis, lighting diyas and declaring unplanned lockdowns will not stop the disease besides diverting the attention of popular imagination to Sushant Singh Rajput case, the Holy temple and LAC dispute.

Thank you!

Works Consulted on the CoV

1. Yin Mo and Dale Fisher. A review of treatment modalities for Middle East Respiratory Sundrome. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. 2016. doi: doi.org/10.1093/jac/dkw338

2. Ali M. Al Shehri. A lesson learned from Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in Saudi Arabia. Medical Teacher. 2015. doi: doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2015.1006610

3. Sarah Batawi et. al. Quality of Life Among Survivors of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 2016. doi: doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofw172.527

4. Yu-Mei Wen and Hans-Dieter Klenk. H7N9 avian influenza virus - search and re-search. Emerging Microbes and Infections. 2013. doi: doi.org/10.1038/emi.2013.18

5. Ali Alfahan et. al. In the era of corona virus: health care professionals' knowledge, attitudes, and practice of hand hygiene in Saudi primary care centers: a cross-sectional study. Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives. 2016. doi: doi.org/10.3402/jchimp.v6.32151

6. Paul D. Gardner et. al. Viable Viral Efficiency of N95 and P100 Respirator Filters at Constant and Cyclic Flow. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. 2013. doi: doi.org/10.1080/15459624.2013.818228

Maharashtra Turmoil: Another Political Opportunism

Since morning today, we have been coming across a news that astonished everyone including the so called omniscient media and the political pundits. The visuals of Mr. Fadnavis taking oath as the CM of Maharashtra jolted many especially the Shiv Sena, hitherto ally of BJP,  including the NCP and INC.

It does not require much intelligence to understand that politics in India has been marked by opportunists throughout the history. For example, consider the post-poll alliance between Shiv Sena, NCP and INC. Here there is another level of opportunism that brought the nephew of Sharad Pawar to support BJP in formation of the government. Mind-blowing!

Now, there remains twist in the story because the number-game is going to be more intense now. Press conference followed after the oath taking ceremony showed us the parade of the MLAs "coming back" to the OLD deus ex machina of NCP. What will Ajit Pawar do remains to be seen.

However, it reminds us of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Akhilesh Yadav feud that ended up in the fragmentation of the Samajwadi Party in UP. Will the same happen to NCP? Let us wait and watch.

This political drama is to continue for some time now making the political scenario of Maharastra unstable and bereft of any hope of recovery from this continuing political opportunism in the country!