We, Humans are social animals. We are all socialized into these abstract notions
of a society. A society is defined as ‘alarge group of people who live together
in an organized way, making decisions about how to do things
and sharing the work that needs to be done. All the people in a country, or in
several similar countries, can be referred to as a society' Cambridge
Dictionary). We are trained to fit into our relevant roles in the society from
the moment they are born. They are all trained to maintain and stabilize the
society. And a crime is an offense which disturbs the peace and tranquility of
the society. A Crime is an act or an omission which violates or is forbidden by
the law. Paul Tappan defines a crime as “an intentional act or omission in
violation of criminal law committed without defense or justification and
sanctioned by the state for punishment as a felony or a misdemeanor". The study
of the law of crimes deals with the forbidding conduct, which is perceived as
threatening or causes harm to the society in general. Whereas, Criminology is
the scientific study of crime as a social phenomenon, of criminals and of penal
treatment. A major aspect of Criminology deals with the aspect of why does one
becomes a criminal.
In India, one in every three women faces physical / sexual violence. While 33.5%
of the women face domestic violence with 8.5% includes sexual violence. While
the rate of reported rape crimes 6.5 for every 100,000 people of the population
(Bandyopadhyay). This is not including the floodgate of unreported crimes. In
this paper I will be attempting to analyze the reason for the crimes against
women the Indian framework. As framework of the Indian society is very diverse
and some parts of the framework is contradictory to the other parts. I will be
analyzing the framework of the Indian society in my attempt understand and
analyze the reasons for the ‘normalization’ of domestic crimes against women in
India with the help of Literature and Drama because Art is the reflection of the
society.
In India, the crimes against women is extremely ‘normalized’ to dangerous
levels. We are used to these crimes to the extent of that, our first reaction is
to blame the victim for not being careful enough. Despite the constitutional
right to equality since the past 68 years, Women still have to fight tooth and
nail to earn what is normally taken granted by the men. Therefore, the question
still remains as to why this problem exists. There are many theories in
criminology to examine this :-
The Traumatic Bonding Theory, the Marital Power theory, the social learning
theory, exchange theory, the Bio-psychological theory etc., but amongst all of
them the theory of ‘Culture of Violence’ and the ‘feminist theory’ seem to be
the more probable answer.
The feminist theory is relevant in explaining why domestic crimes happen whereas
the Culture of violence theory makes it widespread and established. There are
many different ideas within feminist theory of domestic violence, however,
according to M. Bograd in ‘Feminist Perspectives on Wife Abuse’ there are four
common strains. Firstly, the dominant class, men have differential access to
material and symbolic resources and women are devalued as secondary and
inferior. Secondly, intimate partner abuse is a predictable and common dimension
of normal family life. Thirdly, women's experiences are often defined as
inferior because male domination influences all aspects of life. And lastly, the
feminist perspective is dedicated to advocacy for women.
The concept of `Cultural violence' is defined here as ‘any aspect of a culture
that can be used to legitimize violence in its direct or structural form.
Symbolic violence built into a culture does not kill or maim like direct
violence or the violence built into the structure. `Cultural violence' is that
aspect of a culture that is used to legitimize violence within the society
through either direct or structural methods. Now, this form of violence is
sometimes propagated, through religion, ideology, art, language, and also through
empirical and formal science.’ (Galtung, 1990).
The propagation of structural violence through religion and ideology is deeply
rooted in the within the Indian society. The ideologies of women as the inferior
sex, honor of the family, subservient, etc., which are perpetrated into the
society can be clearly noticed through the version of presentation and narration
of the ‘ideal women’ in Indian mythologies.
It is interesting to note that, the example of the Supreme Goddess, Adi
Parashakti. Although she is the same goddess, she is worshiped in many forms as
per the caste, class and status of the her worshippers. The understanding of the
religious beliefs is very important as this enables us to trace the empowerment
and the mobility of women within the society. We can trace a pattern that the
version of the Goddess worshiped in a particular sect of society, determines the
mobility of the women in that particular sect. For example, we see the worship
of Goddess Durga, the domesticated version of Goddess Adi Parashakti amongst the
upper caste and upper class sects while the middle castes and classes worship
the more violent version of her; whereas the lower castes worship the lesser
known versions of the Goddess depending upon many factors such as geography,
economic status, hierarchy of their caste, etc., The most domesticated upper
strata of the society has very less rate of female mobility and thereby making
them more vulnerable to crimes in the patriarchal framework. Whereas,
independence and mobility is favored in the lower strata. This reference throws
light on the nature and scope of the unreported cases of violence against women
in the upper strata of the society.
Although, the woman in the Indian Mythology play a variety of roles, it is the
‘ideal’ women like Sita and Draupadi that are looked upon as role models for
young girls. Now, both these characters are represented as women who stick by
their husbands despite various hardships and trauma that they face and are
deified for their dedication towards their husbands and their families. We also
see various other minor characters who are similarly deified, therefore,
enforcing the stereotype of the ‘good woman and bad woman’.The good woman who
suffers through everything without complain and the bad woman who is the
villain, thereby, perpetrating the ideology of ‘patriarchy’.
This concept can also be reflected amongst the muslim women as well. But, the
case of the Muslim home is much more interesting because the installation of
these ideologies of subservience is done directly through the religious texts
rather than through other agencies. A woman’s agency in itself is reduced making
her a part of the inferior race to a male through various religious laws like
Zina, Triple Talaq, disproportionate inheritance, etc., In fact, she even has
less weightage as a witness in trials proceedings and marriages. Furthermore,
there is always a sword of co-wife or divorce hanging in her neck, thereby
making her vulnerable to the male.
These ideologies on the role of women within the indian framework is brought
into question almost every time while addressing the issue of development,
nationalism etc., Although there was massive mobilization and empowerment of
women there was still a problem. These women were still working for the realm of
the domestic sector (i.e. welfare of the family) thereby denying the woman her
free agency. Therefore, this empowerment did not protect them from the
prevailing domestic abuse, but instead exposed them to external violence as
well, as the self entitled believed that these women were now available as they
had stepped out of their ‘ideal’ stereotype.
Furthermore, these ideologies due to their existence throughout generations,
gain the normalization status. For example, a large majority of people believe
that it is the right of the husband to hit the wife. Because, this is the
tradition.
Now, this structure of cultural violence is further being solidified in the
present day and age through modern mass media be it television, movies and
novels, etc., these mediums with their widespread mass appeal propagate and
glorify the abuse of women. This is prevalent in the case of Television soap
operas which re-define the role of a woman to include an educated modern woman
who uses all her new skills for the betterment of her household, thereby,
reintroducing the ‘Badramahila’ of the late nineteenth century. Ironically the
plight of the women in the India seems to be much more dramatic especially with
the T.V. Serials which has more than have the nation glued to its screens
everyday, propagating the upper class ‘Sanskariness’ with traditional, all
respecting heroines who are abused on a regular basis and get thrown out their
house every other week, etc., Some of these ideologies propagated in these
serials are no doubt, affect the society in general. (Partha Chatterjee).
The reactions of the people to these propagated ideologies is reflected through
the plaints and written statements in the family courts, which show the drama in
the Indian households. Whereas, the rulings in the family law cases, further
strengthens the case. We have learned Supreme Court judges upholding the
religious sacredness of a marriage and also holding the (mostly) woman liable
for not fulfilling her wifely duties. All these forms of commercial media have
glorified and normalized sexual violations and the crimes in the domestic sphere
in the modern day to day life.
One of the things that we humans love to love is ‘LOVE’. Romance is one of the
best selling genres in the market. In fact, all over the world there is always a
dash of romance across all genres in most of the novels, comics, movies,
Television series, Plays, Operas and what not. Love triangles, Alpha male, Super
Successful Heroes, who stalk heroines and make them fall in love with them. This
is the appealing mass media the country is exposed to. In fact there are a lot
of adolescents who are exposed to these ideas of how a women is treated in the
society. This translates into a crime when these youngsters start believing
abuse and violence to be romantic, leading to domestic violence into
relationships and through further glorification this behavior becomes the
normalized into the society thereby causing a never ending circle.
Another relevant In fact in India, the major successful commercial movies, there
are two or three or sometimes four heroines who semi-nakedly in the so called
dream songs and item songs. In fact, a lot of the catchy item ‘songs’ are highly
problematic and also objectify a women’s body. These ‘songs’ reduce the women to
an object for the male gaze leaving the message that she exists for the sole
purpose of the enjoyment of men. And, these are the films which are being
regularly consumed by the general public. And these form of art like movies are
a reflection of the society in general, and its reflections which are also the
lens of the general society. This culture gets translated to when a lot of
people, adolescents, middle aged and even old people, who when caught committing
an offense against a women, like stalking, eve teasing, domestic violence and
even rape, believe that what did is justified as ‘That is how things work!’.
This also seems to be a valid defense in the courts of law. In the case of Mahmud
Farooqui v. NCT Delhi, the High court acquitted Mahmud Farooqui, a scholar
accused of rape. One of the grounds for his acquittal was ‘he thought her no
means yes’. These movie references have been used in many sexual assault cases.
We see people eve teasing and stalking women because they see themselves to be
heroes and they sincerely believe that girls generally say no in the beginning
and it is a challenge for their ego’s to make the girl fall for them. Although
this may seem entertaining for the others, it is a very tormenting experience
for the victims.
There are a lot of explanations as to why the crimes against women occur. The
normalization of the abuse and the vulnerably of the women is some of the
causes. Although the traditional cultural structure is one of the main reasons
for the prevailing rates of crimes against women, the modern day mass media add
on to this by creating new stereotypes of women as sexualized objects thus,
adding more fuel to the prevailing fire.
References
# Rajyashri B, “Crimes committed within a private space, such as domestic
violence within the family home are considered and regarded to be less
problematic than crimes committed within the public sphere.â€
Domestic Violence Against Women-Criminology Perspective accessed 16 October
2018.
# Galtung, Johan, “Cultural Violence†(1990) Volume: 27 issue: 3, page(s):
291-305
# National Family and Health Survey, 2005
# Sujan Bandyopadhyay, “A Closer Look at Statistics on Sexual Violence in Indiaâ€
The Wire
# Mahmood Farooqui vs State of (NCT Delhi) C.A. 118/15
# Partha Chatterjee, “The Woman’s Question†(1989)
# Picture Credits : "Letters to the Editor" Scroll.in
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