Patriarchy or Anarchy

It is a sad period.
Sad for me, you and everyone who does give a damn...

The Noida gangrape case has once again exposed the withering moral fabric of the so called 'Cultured India'. The mere blatancy of the case, as was with the terrorist attacks, leaves one dumbfounded. The parallels are worlds apart but the inherent blatancy drives me to make comparisions.

These people are not humans. At least I cannot presume them to be human as humans are by their very definition social animals, which means animals which have a defined social structure, culture and set of rules. If these guys somehow missed out on the socialisation part, the only part left is - Animals.

So what we are dealing with here is animalistic terrorism within our own boundaries. The threat from outside is not by any means less but how can we survive if we face grave threats from within also. The incident has left its bloody impression on the already lacerated and putrefying stigma ridden patriarchial society of ours and has once again raised questions over the actual state of women empowerment and equality of women in India. Let alone women empowerment, rather the very deeply embedded mindset of inconsiderate affirmation to crimes and hardships given to women by our society exemplifies the sordid tale of a nation slowly losing grip over its very own ethics.

It is not a matter of 'rich vs. the poor', 'the haves vs. the havenots' or of the 'illiterates vs. the modern' but rather it is a stark revelation of the ill health of the minds of young India today in general. Because as far as I know, being an Indian truly, it has never been in our culture or ethics to degrade women or to ill treat them irrespective of the social or economic classes of our origin or existence. Women have always held a great place in our culture and religion and have been worshipped as devis and moreover are considered to be the supreme power, even greater than the Tridev as they have emerged out of the Almighty Maa Shakti.

In such a country when a village head belittles the dreaded and ghettoic crime by saying that it was just another rape case, it becomes all too clear that something is horribly wrong with the mindset of the person. But it is not only the mindset of this person in question but the mindset of people in general, which is not too different, which is the actual cause of concern and grief. In India we have come to a stage when such unfateful incidents have become a part of our daily lives and do not cause much change in the way we live or the way we are. Is it also not a Sorry state? Should these things be so common to us that we merely look at the headline on the 2nd or 3rd page and turn the page without even giving it momentary notice?

Such acts of lawlessness are a part of us and our lives. The root is in the getting away of kids in school over the bullying of fellow classmates, in being caught on cheating during exams and getting away with it, in trying to always bend rules and not feeling sorry for it, in parents coming to school on even the slightest and legitimate rebuke handed out to their child on indulging in hooliganism, and many many more such cases which we see daily in our lives and have accepted them as normal. Normal are they? Thats the big question.

No they are not normal as all of them have to do with people getting away without being suitably treated or rather ill treated to make them aware and moreover afraid of the consequences of breaking a social and institutional code. By telling them that it is just not Okay to beat up people or to tease and harrass fellow mates or to cheat in exams (although 99% in India have resorted to it to pass their exams) or to break traffic laws or to ask for bribes and favours for doing their paid jobs or several other things that we now normally do as individuals which just make our lives just that bit simpler.

We do not make our lives simpler by these acts but rather send the wrong message across to our ever so fearless next generation. We cannot expect them to be following the right path if we ourselves are not following it. We have to show them the importance of doing things right as they should be done or these incidents will continue to happen and the situation will only get worse. Independence is important but lawless independence makes animals and not humans and hence to make humans out of the free moving animalistic bipedal organisms around us a structure of rules has to be there and should be followed with. The independence of individuals should be respected but lawless behaviour should be severely dealt with so as to set an example to all those who think that they are above the law and society so that we can move about in our world and country free of any fear.

Signing off...
SM