Just heard that a young woman who had been raped and set on fire was left to die by the roadside just around the corner from where I live a few days back. She was found by a neighbour’s dog who was out for a walk. The police whisked her away and there has been no further information on her, and no coverage in the press.
While we are all being outraged or ironic or clever about the latest brouhaha over the headlines, about actors saying things and politicians saying things and writers returning awards and college girls trolling politicians, the real world is carrying on with its bloody, horrific agenda just meters away from the glowing screens on which we perform our parodies and punditry. And while we are talking about people talking about people talking, problems and solutions remain very far away from our discussion.
There is a real war this country is engaged in: it is a war against the feminine. Women. Girls. Infants. A three year old was raped in a city school week back. Further down the same road where the nameless young woman was found is a goddess temple. India may be the only country in the world with living goddess traditions in an unbroken chain from the past. And yet, at the same time, it is a country at war with the feminine, with sexuality and with mothers, with among the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. It is a country at war with the bahujan and dalit women whose labour tills the soil, cleans the streets and homes, but is devalued and paid for in violence and rape all too often.
There is probably nothing that can be done for that young woman – if she is even still alive – but each of you can make a difference by thinking about this war, and how you can declare a ceasefire in your own heart and your own life.
Jayaprakash Satyamurthy lives in Bangalore. He writes various kinds of corporate content for a living. He also writes fiction. He plays the bass guitar for a band and he and his wife Yasmine work for causes they believe in, support hordes of cats and dogs, and each other’s many dreams. Jayaprakash also maintains a sporadic blog at http://aaahfooey.blogspot.com