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Submit Your Film Reviews for Gender in Bollywood@100
To mark 100 years of Bollywood, India’s largest film industry, we are inviting people to submit reviews for our “Gender in Bollywood@100″ film review series. To read previously published reviews click here.
Below are the guidelines. PLEASE READ CAREFULLY BEFORE MAKING YOUR SUBMISSION.
→ 1) We invite submissions from everyone regardless of gender, nationality and race. If you’ve seen a Bollywood film that you’d like to talk about in context of gender, we want to hear from you!
→ 2) Print the name of the film you are reviewing and your name on the top. This must be an Indian film, though it can be in any language, and from any time period. Note: your film does not have to be a recent one.
→ 3) Your review must focus on a gender aspect of the film. Here are some ideas: How is male and/or female gender portrayed; how is male and/or female sexuality portrayed; how is gender violence or gender hierarchy, or the interaction of the sexes portrayed. You can focus on any other ‘gender issue’ that strikes you about the film.
→ 4) Word limit is 1000 words. Do include a brief 150 word or less synopsis of the film. BUT HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR REVIEW: The bulk of your review must be about your personal response to the film. We are not interested in a general synopsis. What we want to know is what impact this film had on YOU. What emotions and thoughts did it arouse in you? Or what events in your life or family did it make you think about? Did it make you rethink something? And why? Make it personal!
→ 5) Also include a 2 line bio about yourself and your background. Include links to your blog and/or twitter account if you wish. Then copy and paste your submission below. If your submission is accepted we will email you.
by Rita Banerji
Please Note: The DVD for this film is available on amazon.com and other online sites around the world, with subtitles in English and other languages
There’s a reason why I chose the film ‘Amu’ (2005; directed by Sonali Bose), to kick-off our ‘Gender in Bollywood@100’ series. In December 2012, when the social media was abuzz with news of the Delhi rape protests, our campaign received several messages asking why India had been totally silent on the rapes and killings of Sikh women in Delhi.
This is a reference to an episode in 1984, when following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by her two Sikh bodyguards, for four days there were unchecked and organized attacks on Sikhs in Delhi and other parts of India. Since the Sikhs are a tiny community, 2% of the population and easily identified by the turbans and other clothing, they became an easy target. More than 4000 Sikhs were killed, hundreds of women were gang-raped, and homes and businesses burnt down.
A report from the CBI, (India’s Central Bureau of Investigation) shows the massacre was sanctioned and organized by the police and the central government which then was headed by Indira Gandhi’s son, Rajiv Gandhi. Voters lists were used to locate Sikh homes and shops, which were marked with a ‘S.’ Lynch mobs amply armed with weapons and gasoline etc. would then descend on these ‘targets’ to rape and kill. The organized rapes and violence on Sikh women in rural Punjab continued even after 1984. As Human Rights Watch observes, 29 years on, the Government of India has still not prosecuted those responsible. Indeed among them, politicians from Rajiv Gandhi’s Congress party, the ruling party now headed by his widow, have been predictably acquitted!
A 1984 victim
However, as the comments left by Sikh women on our site pointed out: India has been oddly, and unforgivably silent on the rapes and killings of women during the 1984 Sikh massacre. Even intellectual ‘liberals’ in India who’ve angrily condemned a similar, state sanctioned rape and mass massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, have been silent on the 1984 Sikh pogrom.
What I find most alarming is how the younger generation in India, those who were too small to remember 1984 , or were born later, seem completely oblivious to this chapter of India’s human rights record! How can a nation have forgotten something like this, so soon?
The film Amu is a wakeup call to India’s amnesia. It is the story of a 21-year-old Indian woman, Kaju, who grew up in the U.S. and who while visiting her relatives in India, stumbles upon a dark secret from her past. She discovers that she was adopted, something she was not informed of. As she delves deeper for an answer she learns about the 1984 Sikh massacre, and the relevance it had to her life and adoption.
This film struck a personal chord in me for a number of reasons. For one, there’s a strong emotional affinity since my childhood was spent in small towns in Punjab, among Sikh neighbors and friends. Secondly, I experienced an odd parallel with Kaju’s process of uncovering the truth about 1984.
A young boy who burnt alive
When the 1984 pogrom happened my family had left Punjab, but there were sporadic attacks taking place all over India. I was 16 then, and I remember school was shut down early and we were all hurriedly sent home. We were told that Hindus and Sikhs were fighting, and that there were “riots” everywhere, a term that is still officially used by the government to mask the fact that it was a targeted massacre. There was of course no internet then, and only one television station in India that was owned and controlled by the government. Even as I now go back and look through the newspaper archives, trying to figure out how I could not know then what I know now, I realize that even the print news in India was vigorously censored.
In fact the film ‘Amu’ even though released in 2005, was strongly censored. On the DVD cover of my copy of ‘Amu’ it says “The Indian Censor Board cut crucial lines of dialogue in the film indicating the government’s complicity in the genocide and gave it an ‘A’ certificated on the grounds that “why should young people know a history that is better buried and forgotten.””
Indeed, it frightens me to think that I could have been one of those on whom the government cast a sleeping spell. Two years after the Sikh massacre I left for college in the U.S. and when I finally returned there was yet another similar state sanctioned pogrom of another minority group. It was the 2002 mass rape and massacre of Muslims in Gujarat. I was horrified and in disbelief that something like this could happen in India, till an elderly gentleman informed me that this had happened before in — 1984!!
Still, there’s one particular scene in ‘Amu,’ that haunts me and leaves me with a question. It’s of the woman who had been raped, and commits suicide. And I wonder how many more women there were like that in 1984 and even later when the rapes of Sikh women continued? Where rape is a frequently used patriarchal weapon of violence against women, women who are raped are often victimized twice in India. Once by the men and systems who attack them. And once by the men of their own community who regard raped women as ‘contaminated’ sexual objects. In communities like the Sikh community the discarding of rape victims through murder or suicide was considered an ‘honorable’ act. Recently I read an article by an elderly man, who talked about how proud he was of his sisters who offered their necks to their father for beheading!
What I do hope for, is just as there are witnesses who have courageously come forth to testify against politicians and other people who incited attacks and killed in 1984, there will also be women who will be brave enough to testify against their rapists. And the rest of us in India, and the world, must wake up and support them every step of the way till justice is done!
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Rita Banerji is an author and gender activist, and the founder of The 50 Million Missing Campaign to end India’s female genocide. Her book ‘Sex and Power: Defining History Shaping Societies,‘ is a historical and social look at how the relationship between gender and power in India has led to the ongoing female gendercide. Her website is www.ritabanerji.com She blogs at Revolutions in my Space and tweets at @Rita_Banerji
Ask the Indian Prime Minister: Does he know why the crowds protesting the gang-rape of a 5 year old child in Delhi are so angry with his government?
Please join us in our demand the PM immediately fire the Delhi Police Chief, Neeraj Kumar, by signing our petition below.
The rape of child is heinous! The fact that the government’s own data shows that one in every two children in India is sexually abused in some way is even more angering.
But ask what the public in India now is starting to ask more and more loudly: Can a corrupt and violent police force control or stop rape and other forms of violence against girls and women — violence that has now reached Read more…
April 20, 2012
Like with the December 2012 Delhi gang rape protests, once again there is an angry public rocking India’s capital. Last week a 5-year-old girl was kidnapped, held hostage for 2 days by two adult men, and repeatedly gang-raped and sexually tortured with all kinds of objects, like candles and bottles, inserted inside her. Then the rapists tried to kill her by slashing her throat. The police that had earlier refused to file a missing person’s report when the parents approached them, later tried to hush up the case as the child lay in the hospital battling for her life. They not only refused to file a rape complaint, but tried to give the father Rs. 2000/- ($40) to keep his mouth shut! They told him not to approach the media or public because they’d only make fun of him! Later as women protestors approached the police, the police beat up some of the women!
As we said in an earlier post, the rape of women in India has increased by 873% since 1971. However rape and sexual assault on children too has reached epidemic proportions. In the last 10 years there is an estimated 336% spurt in child rape cases in India according to a 2013 report. A 2007 survey conducted by the government revealed Read more…
Which Countries Has Our Campaign Reached?
The 50 Million Missing Campaign is a global campaign to end female genocide. Our first goal is to make the world aware of the systematic and mass annihilation of women in India. We thought it might interest our supporters to see how far our voice has reached.
Below is a table of which countries visited our blog, and how many times, only in the last 6 months. Read more…
#Ambedkar: The Status of #Women Says Much About A Nation!
I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved…So long as you do not achieve social liberty, whatever freedom is provided by the law is of no avail to you. ~ Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (1891-1956, Architect of the Indian Constitution and Leader of the Dalit Community)
Last week, a 10-year-old girl, who went with her parents to register a complaint of rape was jailed instead! Later on, under media pressure she was released but the police insisted that she was not raped! Further more the villagers have threatened to stone the family to death if they don’t withdraw the complaint! The reason for this bold abuse of a rape victim, a child, is that Read more…
Husband Eaters! To be a #Widow in #India
Click on the photo to see the online slide exhibition. Copyright Claude Renault© .
In a country, where millions of females are killed: through infanticide, feticides, dowry murders, and ‘honor’ killings, what does it mean to be a woman who has survived her husband? What does it mean to be a widow in India?
The town of Vrindavan in northern India is sometimes called the ‘city of widows’ because it houses thousands of widows who’ve moved here from all over India. Below is an excerpt from an article by Neha Dixit in which she gives a heart-wrenching account of what life is like for the widows in Vrindavan. Read more…
The following is an excerpt from an interview that The 50 Million Missing founder, Rita Banerji, gave to One World South Asia. To read the full interview click here.
To answer your question about whether we can bring about a change in the misogynist attitude that underlies this female genocide, consider this….
The reason this massive human rights violation has gone unnoticed for so long is that as a nation state we’ve responded to it the way most of us as individuals do at home.
So when laws are violated, the human rights of individuals are violated in our homes – women are forced to abort their girls or kill their baby girls, or women are beaten, blackmailed or killed for dowry, we tolerate it.
We support the violators. We hush it up. We hide it from others. We all do it.
When we learn to do that as members of a family, we then move into society, into jobs – in the government, police, courts, hospitals, or just ordinary citizens, and we do the same for the nation as a family.
Our country mirrors the way our family units work. As citizens of a nation we function the same way we do as members of our families. We deny it, hide it. We get defensive when it is exposed internationally.
We are doing what our families do – closing ranks and being complicit directly or indirectly in the perpetuation of this violence.
The 50 Million Missing Campaign will soon start an initiative asking people to tell the stories from their own lives on our blog and to make the personal — political. We’ll be looking for people, who using own identities (names and faces) will tell how either they stood up to stop their own rights being violated in their family or community or stood up or spoke up for another woman or girl in their own family.
[To see some of the stories from the campaign blog that will be included under this initiative click here.]
The change in India’s approach to female genocide will begin with the change in the attitudes of how each individual behaves in their own family.
Rita Banerji is an author and gender activist, and the founder of The 50 Million Missing Campaign to end India’s female genocide. Her book ‘Sex and Power: Defining History Shaping Societies,‘ is a historical and social look at how the relationship between gender and power in India has led to the ongoing female gendercide. Her website is www.ritabanerji.com She blogs at Revolutions in my Space and tweets at @Rita_Banerji
In Feb 2013, The 50 Million Missing Campaign had put out a public poll along with the story of the Indian model and actress Pooja Chopra.
Pooja’s father had wanted her killed when she was 20 days old, and had tried putting a pillow over her face. But had Pooja’s father known that one day his daughter will be wealthy and world famous, might he have changed his mind? If for nothing else, since he was an educated, well-off man, then for the fact it would mean fame for him too? [To read the story click here]
OUR QUESTION TO THE PUBIC WAS: Should wealthy and glamorous women like Pooja be used as a role models to convince Indians to not kill their daughters?
A total of 3674 people voted on the two choices we offered, and the results are as shown below Read more…
Lucknow, U.P., March 17, 2013,
A 16-year-old girl from Moradabad, who was being sexually harassed and stalked by a man named Danish, committed suicide by setting herself on fire after the police refused to act on the complaint her family had filed against her harasser.
Why do police authorities repeatedly dismiss complaints by women about sexual harassment and rape?
And why does the government not hold its various offices and officers accountable to gross negligence of duty?
The response of the members of parliament and India’s senior most leaders speaks volumes for the government’s attitude. Read more…
On March 15, 2013, a Swiss woman and her husband, who were on a three-month cycling excursion around India, were attacked while they camped in a forest in Madhya Pradesh, in central India. At 9.30 p.m. a group of 8 men attacked the couple. They beat up the husband and tied him to a tree, and then gang raped the wife. Then they robbed them of their belongings and fled.
Over the last week the police have located and arrested 6 of the rapists.
However, according to a senior government officer, the couple is partly to blame. He says this is because they did not inform the police of their whereabouts as foreigners in India are supposed to do. “They took a wrong turn and decided to halt for the night by the side of a village brook little realizing that the district with 85 women :100 men ratio is not the safest place for women.” Read more…
Why Indian Women Must Learn to Misbehave!
by Rita Banerji
Why did Indian women suddenly rise up in an angry, mass protest after that highly publicized Delhi gang rape in December 2012? Since I run a campaign on female genocide in India, this is one question I’ve been repeatedly asked.
I’m not sure why this puzzles people. India is the fourth most dangerous country for women, following Afghanistan, Congo and Pakistan. In 20 years, 20 per cent of women will have been systematically exterminated from India, subject to every form of gender-based violence.
How much more were Indian women expected to bear before they rose in revolt?
Perhaps what we really need to understand is that women’s revolutions happen for the same reasons everywhere. The impulse is the same. What is this impulse? To read the rest on The Huffington Post click here.
ABOUT THE WRITER
Police Officer Helped Rapist Son Evade the Law for 7 Years!
Bitti Mohanty was sentenced to years to 7 years in jail in 2006 for raping a 26-year-old German woman in Alwar in the state of Rajathan.
With the help of his father, who was a Director General of Police, Bitti jumped parole and escaped, and remained in the hiding for the last 7 years. After jumping parole in 2006, Bitti obtained an MBA degree and started working in a bank as a probationary officer.
Bitti’s cover was blown when the employees of the bank branch at Pazhayangadi where he worked grew suspicious of his real identity on seeing his photo among pictures of accused in various sex crimes shown by TV channels and those floated on the internet in the wake of the Delhi gang-rape incident.
Bitti was picked up from his local residence on Friday evening and during interrogation revealed his true identity after initially trying to mislead the police. Soon after however, he withdrew his admission, as his father also refused having helped him escape and even refused to identify him!
The question is, will the system of police and dirty politics help Bitti evade the law yet again! And if senior police officers are raising and protecting the country’s rapists what hope is there for women in India?
IMPORTANT: NOTE THE DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING AN APPLICATION FOR THIS GRANT IS MARCH 29, 2013
The SHARE Research Consortium and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) have joined together to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) with a total value of £400,000 for research on sanitation and women in India. Four priority research questions have been identified, further details are available in the revised RFP documents: Read more…
Tarn Taran, Punjab, March 05, 2013
A 23-year-old woman returning from a wedding was sexually harassed by a truck driver. When she went to complain to the police, instead of arresting the driver, four policemen began to beat up the woman. A passer-by captured the incident on his phone, which got the policemen in the video below suspended from their jobs.
With increasing rates of violence against women and an inept and corrupt police force, there is a lot of emphasis laid on “gender sensitizing” the police. Women who go to complain about dowry harassment, domestic violence, and rape are similarly harassed by the police. In many cases rape victims have been raped in police stations!
Watch this video and tell us if you think police men like the ones in this video below can be “gender sensitized?” Do you think the term ‘gender sensitization’ is a cop out term in place of the strict disciplinary action and accountability that needs to be demanded from a competent police force?
94% of #Women in #India Feel Unsafe #Traveling Alone
A recent study shows that 94% of women surveyed in India, say that they have felt unsafe traveling alone in India.
This survey included women from all economic strata, housewives and professional women.
Of the professional women who traveled for business and work, only 37% they don’t mind traveling alone, but still worry about their safety!
The city voted as most unsafe was Delhi with 84% of women saying they felt unsafe.
However the state voted ‘safest,’ Maharashtra, was not far behind! Only 27% of women said they felt safe when they traveled alone. Which means that 73% still felt unsafe traveling alone!
Of those who had traveled abroad, a majority said they felt safer traveling alone in other countries than in India.
78% of the women said, they would prefer to live in hotels exclusively for women if such facilities were available. Which means women feel unsafe even in the hotels.
IF YOU ARE READING THIS POST DO CHECK OUT OUR 11 SAFETY TIPS FOR WOMEN LIVING OR TRAVELING ALONE IN INDIA
No Justice for the #Suryanelli #Rape Victim! No Justice for #India!
DEAR FRIENDS, WE NEED TO STOP KURIEN, A GANG RAPE ACCUSED, FROM CHAIRING THE HEARINGS FOR INDIA’S ANTI-RAPE LAW!
PLEASE READ THE ACCOUNT OF THE SURYANELLI CASE BELOW, AND SIGN THIS PETITION DEMANDING KURIEN BE SACKED IMMEDIATELY! YOU CAN ALSO TWEET YOUR PROTEST TO @PMOIndia or email the Prime Minister here
In 1996, in the state of Kerala, a 16-year-old girl was abducted and brutally gang-raped by 42 men over a 40 day period. She was tied up, and transported place to place throughout the state, and raped by various men at various points. When she was finally dumped by the rapists and taken to the hospital the doctors said her groin and private areas were so savaged, and she had bled so much that a few more days, she would be dead! The victim however found courage and named and identified her rapists. One of them was Kurien who she recognized and identified from a photograph. On September 06, 2000, a special court had found 35 of the men involved guilty and sentenced them to rigorous imprisonment for varying terms.
The Kerala High Court, however overturned this ruling. It acquitted all 35 convicted rapists and found only one of them guilty of crimes related to the sex trade and sentenced him to a 5 years jail term and a fine of Rs 50,000. The reason for the acquittal was political pull, specially that of the accused P.J. Kurien, who was a former Union Minister and member of the Congress party the current party in power!
In fact, even the witness based on whose statement Kurien was later acquitted, has recently said that he actually testified that he had seen Kurien in the guest house, around the time the victim was raped there!! And that the police officer in charge had changed his statement to protect Kurien, and a number of bribes were also offered to him for his silence! Furthermore, the one man convicted in the case has also testified that Kurien was in the guest house but that he was pressurized by the investigating officer to not testify against Kurien! Despite this the government has refused to remove Kurien from office and re-try his case with the new evidence emerging against him!
Over the years, the victim and her family had to move houses constantly, and continue to be ostracized by society, and face harassment from various quarters. The harassment increased because the victim refused to retract Kurien’s name from the list of men who had raped her!
Watch the video to understand how this victim and her family have been further victimized by political honchos over the years
In January 2013, the government of India released a new anti-rape law in response to the ground-breaking Verma Committee report on rape and sexual violence on women in India. Of the many recommendations of the Verma Committee was for the government to ensure that no politician charge-sheeted with rape be allowed to be in office, which the law in India currently permits.
The government however intends to make a complete MOCKERY of this recommendation on February 19, when the Rape Ordinance will be discussed at the Rajya Sabha (State Assembly). The discussion will be chaired by P. J. Kurien who has been charged in a gang-rape case of a teenager in Suryanelli, Kerala!!
Govt continues to ignore women’s protest to remove and try Kurien
The mother of the victim, has written a letter to Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the Congress party, who is also Kurien’s boss, saying, “… How can he (Kurien) chair the discussions when the ordinance aiming at the emancipation of womanhood in India promulgated by the Union of India with regard to the sexual offences against women in the Upper House of Parliament…(is about to be considered).”
IT IS THE VERY IMPORTANT THAT KURIEN BE REMOVED BEFORE THE PARLIAMENTARY DISCUSSION ON THE NEW RAPE LAW ON FEB 19. AND ONLY PUBLIC PRESSURE WILL WORK!
PLEASE READ THE ACCOUNT OF THE SURYANELLI CASE BELOW, AND SIGN THIS PETITION DEMANDING KURIEN BE SACKED IMMEDIATELY AND RETRIED WITH THE NEW EVIDENCE AGAINST HIM! YOU CAN ALSO TWEET YOUR PROTEST TO @PMOIndia or email the Prime Minister here
How Do You Know It’s #Love?
BEFORE WATCHING THE VIDEO DISCUSSION PLEASE READ THIS POST TO KNOW THE BACKGROUND
In December 2012, the Delhi Gang Rape public uprising sent a furious message to the the government of India! That message was: ” We are not going to tolerate government apathy and corruption in face of the intolerable violence on girls and women in India.”
There’s an increase of 873% in India’s rape crime rate. Moreover, in 20 years, 20% of women will have been exterminated from India subject to all forms of gender specific violence. [Also browse our newspaper log]
The government’s first response was — stony silence! It pretended it didn’t hear!
As the uprising gathered momentum and all of India came on board, the government decided it to use brutal force to clamp down on the protestors.
When the clamor continued, and the government thought it is starting to look increasingly un-democratic and dictatorial to the outside world, it decided to use an old, Indian bureaucratic route! Let’s push paper for months, maybe years, till the public gets tired of waiting and goes away! So they asked J. S. Verma, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, to head an investigative panel on rape related violence on girls and women in India. The government obviously thought this important enough to ring Justice Verma’s door bell past midnight, and wake him up to hand him the government’s request and suggestions!
This strategy also backfired! Usually committees and their reports take months and even years! However, the Justice Verma Committee, which comprised of 3 Supreme Court Chief Justices: J.S. Verma, Leila Seth, and Gopal Subramanium, aided by 15 young lawyers, worked tirelessly, round the clock, with almost no aid or support from the government, and after collating of thousands of testimonies from victims, women’s groups etc. presented a 600 page report, complete with recommendations to the government in a record 29 days!
Again for 7 days there was no sound from the Prime Minister’s office! Then the government speedily both acknowledged the report, and came up with a new ordinance on rape and violence against women, claiming they’ve accepted 90% of the Verma Committee recommendations. This was done without pubic involvement, or parliamentary debate! But as Justice Verma himself has pointed out: the Government completely ignored the observations and recommendations of the Verma Committee!
In fact the Government even removed the Justice Verma report from its website so that the public would not be able Read more…
The Real Reason the #DelhiGangRape Protests Were Crushed
by Rita Banerji
“It was so disrespectful! In our days we wouldn’t dare approach the Chief Minister or President’s house like a band of howling hooligans!” This was a comment made by one of my parents’ family friends, in context of the student uprising in the aftermath of the brutal gang rape and murder of young woman in Delhi.
In response I told her, that I was amazed at how courteous the young people in the Delhi protest had been. Because as a student in the U.S., every protest march that I had participated in, made a stop in front of the President’s house, as it made its way to the steps of the Capitol building. And we did not mince our words or swallow our anger. We expressed those with our demands, as we believed we were entitled to. I remember standing in front of the White House gate Read more…
India Must Kick Out #Politicians with #Rape Records!
In the aftermath of the Delhi Gang Rape uprising, one of the BIGGEST OBSTACLES standing in the way of system reform is that India permits men charge-sheeted with rape and other violent crimes against women, to run for government offices!
The Association for Democratic Reforms in India reports that 6 MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly), and 2 MPs (Members of Parliament), have declared in their official affidavits that they have pending rape cases against them. 36 other MLAs have cases pending with other charges of crimes against women such as sexual assault.
Below is a report on one such politician charged in a gang-rape case which became known as Read more…
Another Woman in India #Gangraped on a Bus by 7 Men
January 13, 2012, Gurdaspur, Punjab,
After the horrific gangrape and murder of a young woman on a bus in Delhi, in yet another similar case, a 29-year-old woman who had taken the bus to visit her parents’ village, was gang raped by the driver and his six other accomplices. Full report here.
People are calling this a copy-cat crime! But is it?
From the accounts of the delhi gang rape victim, as well as her male friend who survived the brutal battering he got, it is clear that the seven men (including the driver) had pre-planned this crime.
It is very possible that this has happened many times, but has not been reported before.
Could it just be that after the national outrage against the Delhi Gang Rape, more women have found the courage to come forward? Read more…
Another #Dowry Torture Case in #Canada
Canada, Jan 05, 2013
While many assume that the criminal extortion and violence on women connected with the practice of dowry (the wealth demanded of a bride’s family by the groom), is an “Indian problem,” the fact is it widely prevalent among the educated, well-to-do communities of Indian origin in western countries too.This makes the dowry related violence on women as big a “western problem” as an Indian one!! Here’s one case from Canada.
Harmanpreet Kaur, who was a student at Calgary University, in Canada, had got married with Parmeshwarjot Singh of Jalandhar (Punjab) in November 2008 and had taken him to Calgary the same year. But she quickly realized that he had probably married her just to get a legal passage to Canada, and had no interest in being married to her. When she’d confront him on that he’d abuse her. In November 2012, when she visited India attend the marriage of her husband’s elder brother her in-laws demanded more money from her to pay for marriage expenses. When she refused, her husband and through her out of the house. As in most dowry cases, no arrests have been made, because as Harmanpreet’s father points out her husband has “political connections” in India. Full report here.
For other newspaper reports of incidents of violence against women and girls in India CLICK HERE. What are the 6 Ways Women and Girls are Killed in India? To watch a video CLICK HERE.
Milkman Shoots Wife Dead for Not Giving Him a Car in #Dowry
Lucknow, Dec 28, 2012
Dowry today has become the number one form of criminal extortion and violence against women in India today! It is viewed as the ‘jack-pot’ or the ‘unlimited wishing well’ that a man can use, to get all the material acquisitions he wants without working for it himself! He just has to threaten, and torture his wife, and her parents will pay up! If they don’t, he can kill her, knowing that there is hardly any scope of prosecution by the police and courts! We also need to ask why parents Read more…
Rise in #Wealth Brings Rise in #Dowry #Murders to #Assam
January 2013, Assam
While most efforts to stop dowry violence by the government and NGOs in India continue to promote the idea that poverty and illiteracy are the cause, the fact of the matter is that the opposite is true. An increase of wealth and education actually fuels an increase in dowry demands, and consequently there’s more dowry related violence, and dowry related murders of women, as again evidenced from the state of Assam in NE India. [Also see the article 'Why Education and Economics are not the Solution to India's Female Genocide']
Below is a clip from a popular T.V. show Satyameva Jayate, in 2012, hosted by Bollywood actor, Aamir Khan, on the the practice of dowry in India, where a young person from the state of Assam talked about the absence of this practice in his state. Well that was true at one time! However that’s changing! Read more…
‘Where the Mind is Without Fear‘ is a famous poem that the great Indian poet and Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, had written in 1901 to inspire India’s Freedom Movement. Tagore believed that India’s fight was not just against British colonial rule. But this fight for freedom and democracy for all its citizens had also had to be fought within, against its own social structures and cultures.
In 20 years, 20% of women will have been exterminated from India, subject to every form of misogyny and violence, before and after birth (see this). For too long, we’ve kept silent and borne this violence like we were taught to. For too long, we’ve allowed customs, culture, religion, class, family, caste, and government to imprison us in this cage of violence and fear! No more!
The December 2012 protests that started in Delhi, and spread to the rest of India, after the brutal gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman touched a nerve, that set off a time-bomb! The government tried to squash the protests that started in Delhi with brutal force and dirty political maneuvers, and continues to attempt to block and minimize all grassroots efforts rallying for the safety of women and girls in India. But the fact is – THE REVOLUTION IS ALREADY HERE! And it is moving forward, regardless!
The 50 Million Missing Campaign is honored to present below the anthem to India’s second fight for freedom and democracy. It is a series of photos from the Delhi gang rape protests and is accompanied by Tagore’s freedom poem. The photos were contributed by various photographers to our campaign’s flickr pool, which is supported by more than 2400 photographers. Click on the photos to Read more…
Pakhanjore, Chattisgarh, Dec 23, 2012
Though the Delhi gang rape aroused India’s fury, the fact is that this is an everyday reality for girls and women all over India. Most of these cases evoke no response or fury in the public. There is no one lobbying for justice for these girls and women.
On Dec 23, a 36-year-old woman, and mother of six children, was gangraped and brutally assaulted by five people, including her brother-in-law and the local sarpanch (head of the village judiciary), in her home Read more…
Though the brutal gang rape and murder of a young medical student in Delhi has spurred a movement of anger and outrage against the government and police in Delhi (click here), rape and femicide (the killing of girls and women) are the fastest growing crimes in India.
One of the questions we have to ask is : How does Indian society view this crime? Very often rape victims are blamed by the government and police for the crime. They question how the victim dressed, or claim they behaved “immorally,” implying that she asked to get raped!!
Even as the public protest against violence on women gathered momentum in Delhi and the rest of India, one female politician in Kolkata, Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, chose this very moment, to demean another gang rape victim, of a highly publicized case in her city. She said, Read more…
Four-year-old Raped and Killed: Did her Clothes Matter?
Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, Nov 23, 2012
Though the brutal gang rape and murder of a young medical student in Delhi has spurred a movement of anger and outrage against the government and police in Delhi (click here), rape and femicide (the killing of girls and women) are the fastest growing crimes in India.
One of the questions we have to ask is : How does Indian society view this crime? Very often rape victims are blamed by the government and police for the crime. They question how the victim dressed, or claim they behaved “immorally” Does dress and “immoral” behavior get little girls raped and killed too?
A 4-year-old girl in the Majra village of Meerut district, was brutally raped and strangled to death while on her way to school. The rapist has yet to be identified. Full report here
For other newspaper reports of incidents of violence against women and girls in India CLICK HERE. What are the 6 Ways Women and Girls are Killed in India? To watch a video CLICK HERE.
STOP THIS GENOCIDAL AND BRUTAL VIOLENCE ON WOMEN IN INDIA. SUPPORT OUR PETITION FOR 3 IMMEDIATE DEMANDS FROM THE PRIME MINISTER BY CLICKING HERE
Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, Dec 16, 2012
Though the brutal gang rape and murder of a young medical student in Delhi has spurred a movement of anger and outrage against the government and police in Delhi (click here), rape and femicide (the killing of girls and women) are the fastest growing crimes in India, and it’s a reality women and girls have to face or die to all over India, every day.
One of the questions we have to ask is : How confident are rapists that their crimes will go unpunished in India? Do India’s rapists view the police to be on their side?
An underage girl who had been raped by a man in Sidhaav village near Kanpur, was killed in full view of villagers, as he strangled her, after she and her family refused to withdraw the rape complaint they had filed with the local police. The police refused to act on the complaint, or arrest the rapist. The rapist then went to the home of the victim, dragged her outside, brutally beat her up and strangled her to death in full view of the villagers. The rapist is now absconding, and the police says they are looking for him. Full report here.
For other newspaper reports of incidents of violence against women and girls in India CLICK HERE. What are the 6 Ways Women and Girls are Killed in India? To watch a video CLICK HERE.
STOP THIS GENOCIDAL AND BRUTAL VIOLENCE ON WOMEN IN INDIA. SUPPORT OUR PETITION FOR 3 IMMEDIATE DEMANDS FROM THE PRIME MINISTER BY CLICKING HERE
Patiala, Punjab, Dec 27, 2012
Though the brutal gang rape and murder of a young medical student in Delhi has spurred a movement of anger and outrage against the government and police in Delhi (click here), rape and femicide (the killing of girls and women) are the fastest growing crimes in India, and it’s a reality women and girls have to face or die to all over India, every day.
One of the questions we have to ask is : How does Indian society view this crime? Is is viewed as a human rights, violent crime against women, or as an issue of ‘Shame’ where the onus is more on the victim than on the rapist? Is it because of the latter that many rape victims in India commit suicide?
In Patiala a 17-year old girl had been gang raped by a group of men in November 2012. For weeks her family and she tried to get the police to make an arrest. The police however ignored them, while the rapists roamed free. The rapists would harass her and try to humiliate her. Finally, the girl consumed poison and killed herself. Full report here.
For other newspaper reports of incidents of violence against women and girls in India CLICK HERE. What are the 6 Ways Women and Girls are Killed in India? To watch a video CLICK HERE.
STOP THIS GENOCIDAL AND BRUTAL VIOLENCE ON WOMEN IN INDIA. SUPPORT OUR PETITION FOR 3 IMMEDIATE DEMANDS FROM THE PRIME MINISTER BY CLICKING HERE
#Indian #Women Protesting #GangRape Attacked With Tear Gas, Batons and Water Cannon: Sign Petition to the Prime Minister
December 22, 2012
On December 16, 2012 a 23-year old woman, in New Delhi, on her way home with her boyfriend after seeing a film, was brutally gang-raped and beaten with an iron rod by 7 men on the bus they had boarded. The boyfriend too had been beaten unconscious, and both were thrown out of the bus. As she lay in the hospital, undergoing numerous surgeries, during which all her intestines had to be removed, the government of India had nothing to say! On Dec 29, after fighting for almost 2 weeks for her life, the young woman succumbed to her injuries.
This form of brutalization and systemic violence on girls and women has become a daily norm in India, which unaddressed and unchecked by the government and system of law and order has reached epidemic proportions. See our log on news reports here. Also see this video which explains how the violence on women is of a genocidal scale.
The Dec 16 gang-rape however was the breaking point! It resulted in an outpouring of anger as women and girls flooded the streets of the nation’s capitol demanding action, demanding the government take responsibility for the lack of law, order, and justice that has resulted in this system of violence on women. Over the week, the protests intensified.
Then on Saturday, December 22, the government of India decided that if the women were not going to break up their protests and return to their homes, the government would force them to do so using whatever means. The women, protesting peacefully, using nothing more than their voices, lit candles, and placards, were attacked by the police forces using water canons, batons and tear gas!
SUPPORT THE WOMEN OF INDIA IN OUR DEMANDS TO THE PRIME MINISTER
(SIGN THE PETITION BY CLICKING HERE)!
#MobilePhones and #Gender #Revolutions : Online #Photo Exhibition
CLICK ON THE PHOTO MONTAGE TO SEE THE EXHIBITION
Have you ever had one of those moments when you were feeling low, and you just had to pick up the phone and dial your mother or father or best friend, and felt instantly better soon as you heard their voice?
We are not talking about relationships here! What we are talking about is that instrument: the phone Read more…
Mother and Baby Girl Burnt Alive for Dowry
Allahabad, Gujarat, Nov 09, 2012
Sushila Gupta who married Rakesh Gupta in 2009, often complained to her parents that her husband and in-laws were abusing her for more dowry. They wanted a motorcycle and Rs. 50,000 more.
When they didn’t get more dowry, Sushila was locked into a box with her one and half year old daughter, and the box was set on fire. To ensure they didn’t get away, her husband and in-laws also locked the door from outside. By the time the neighbors broke the door open and tried to rescue the mother and child, both had burnt to death. Report here
For other newspaper reports of incidents of violence against women and girls in India CLICK HERE
Brother Murder’s Sister for “Honor” ; Takes her Head to the Police
Mehtab Alam after he walked into the police station with his sister’s head
08 December, 2012, Kolkata
How many women in India, who’ve managed to get out of their abusive violent marriages, and want to start a new life with another partner, are actually able to do so?
The fact is: that while it is socially acceptable, even recommended, that men divorced or widowed can remarry, women who desire to do so, are socially stigmatized, abused, and sometimes as in the case of 29-year-old Nilofar, last week, murdered by their family who believe that a divorced daughter who wants to remarry brings “dishonor” to their family.
Nilofar, was a child bride. Read more…
Dowry Extortions in “Love Marriages” too!
Lucknow, November 14, 2012
Many assume that the dowry is a part of marriages that are “arranged” by families in India. That is historically true. However, given how quickly dowry has become a form of criminal extortion and wealth acquisition for men and their families, it is a custom that men supposedly marrying for ‘love’ have eagerly embraced.
Suhana who was in love with Khurram Asif, married him against her parents wishes. She had been dating him for three years prior to the wedding. Khurram comes from a wealthy family, well educated, and his father and brother are doctors. Four days after the wedding, however Suhana who says the family abused and tortured her for dowry, threw her out of their house. Her own family won’t pay dowry or have her back, and Suhana is now essentially homeless. Full report here
For other newspaper reports of incidents of violence against women and girls in India CLICK HERE
Indians Abroad Marry Women in India for Massive Dowries
Surat, Gujurat, Nov 20, 2012
This is how the Indian dowry system works. The more educated and better paying job a man has, the bigger the dowry he demands from the bride’s family. If he lives and works abroad, then he is entitled to an even bigger dowry!
A lot of Indian women who are married to Indian men living abroad, suffer the same forms of harassment, violence and sometimes murder as women living in India.
Higum Hussain who lives in the Mauritius, had come to India to marry Zahida Bibi. After the wedding, he demanded a dowry of Rs 25 lakhs (U.S. $50,000.00). When his demand was not met he beat up Zahida and her brother, and escaped to Mauritius. Zahida is lucky. There are many such cases, where the men take the money, and escape, or continue to violently abuse the woman they marry and take back to their country of residence, demanding more dowry. Full post here
For other newspaper reports of incidents of violence against women and girls in India CLICK HERE
Indian Court Protects the Wealthy from the Dowry Harassment Law
Mumbai, Nov 19, 2012
This is another example of how it the wealthiest in India who not only get away scot-free in cases of dowry harassment and abuse of women, but they even have the system of law and order protecting them.
Sheetal, one of the daughters-in-law of one of India’s wealthiest industrialist families, the Mafatlal family, had filed a dowry harassment and abuse case against her husband, her mother-in-law and other relatives of her husband’s family. The Bombay High Court however intervened and prevented the police from even filing a case against the Mafatlal family. Instead the court had directed that they settle their issues ‘amicably.’ Report here
For other newspaper reports of incidents of violence against women and girls in India CLICK HERE
In regards to the western response… [to India's female gendercide] I think there are a few factors at work.
Indians in the west, even the feminists and scholars, don’t speak out about the violence in their families and communities.There is such deep denial.
I also think that Western feminists don’t really grasp the issue, because the Indian female genocide is subversive, invisible and cloaked in the most insane form of denial. I think it’s almost impossible to grasp the numbers, the inhumanity and the insanity of it all.
Those from the west who know of it are perhaps hoping for some magical way to stop this because to accept the reality is too frightening.
I think there is also an element of racism and colonialism when it comes to viewing violence against women in other cultures. The western view of the female gendercide in India is that it is a “cultural’ issue and not a human rights one. For some reason we can all agree that Auschwitz and Rwanda are a human rights violation but when genocide is gender base, people seem to think otherwise. This points to the fact that, regardless of what we may say in the west, female lives simply aren’t as valuable as males’. And when those female lives are not white then they are perhaps of even less value – so misogyny gets compounded with racism.
Soraya Nulliah is an Indo-Canadian, feminist artist who uses her art as a medium to raise awareness about pervasive violence on women and girls within Indian communities in the west. In 2006, her solo-exhibition Shakti was held at the Nina Haggerty Centre in Edmonton, Canada. You can read our earlier interview with her here. Her website is www.sorayanulliah.com and she tweets @sorayanulliah
Video: Six Wide-Spread Forms of Femicide in India
The following is a video of the presentation by The Million Missing Campaign founder, Rita Banerji, at the U.N. Symposium on Femicide, in Vienna on November 26, 2012.
Indian Cricketer Arrested for Dowry Harassment
Bhubaneshwar, Orissa, Nov 04, 2012
Sanjay Satpathy, 33, a cricketer who has played for India’s elite cricket championship, the Ranji Trophy, has been charged with torturing his wife, Swapna, a civil engineer, for dowry.
Swapna’s mother Swarnalata Upadhyay said Sanjay and his family had been torturing Swapna Read more…
Another Dowry Murder Staged as Suicide?
New Delhi, November 13, 2012
24-year-old interior designer, Payal Batra’s death has all the markings of dowry murders in middle and upper class homes in India, which are often staged as “suicides” by hanging. The case is under police investigation.
Payal Batra’s husband and in-laws claimed that Payal hung herself using Read more…
UN Symposium on Femicide: A Global Issue That Demands Action
On November 26, 2012, an international symposium on Femicide (the killing of women and girls because of their gender), was held by the UN-ACUNS in Vienna, Austria, to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
The 50 Million Missing Campaign founder, Rita Banerji, was a speaker at this symposium and talked about the various forms and extent of femicides in India (video and details of the symposium the program below).
This is a significant development, and it has been the goal of The 50 Million Missing Campaign for the 6 years that we’ve been working to end female gendercide, to have femicide recognized as an international human rights crime, and Read more…
873% Increase in India’s Rape Crimes Rate
November 11, 20211
India’s National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reveals that since 1971, there has been an increase of 873% in India’s rape related crimes!!
Next to Femicide (the killing of women and girls because of their gender) this is the second fastest increasing crime in India.
Is the systematic annihilation of women and girls, and the low ratio of women to men the cause of the increase in this crime? Read more…
Mother and Child Killed in a Dual “Honor Killing” Case
Patna, Bihar, August 26, 2012
22-year-old Sanjana Devi and her 3-year-old daughter Gungun were brutally killed in what is a dual “honor killing” case. Sanjana had married Dilip who belongs to a different caste against her family’s wishes more than three years ago. Her brother eventually tracked her down, pretended the family wanted to make up with her, and then killed Sanjana and her baby daughter, chopped up their bodies and threw them into a river. Full report here
For other newspaper reports of incidents of violence against women and girls in India CLICK HERE
Nita Bhalla: I Have UnSilenced the Violence on Professional Women Like Me
Reporting on women’s rights issues [as a journalist] in South Asia over the last three years, I have covered the plethora of threats which haunt the millions of women who live in this deeply patriarchal region.
I still keep thinking: “This did not happen. This does not happen to women like me.”
Most of the victims we read about in India are largely uneducated women Read more…
The biggest myth about India’s female genocide is that it’s caused by poverty and illiteracy. If so, we should see the worst gender ratio for girls among India’s poorest. But as the Indian census shows, the best, indeed the most normal gender ratio, is in India’s bottommost 20%! As education and wealth increases, even for women, the gender ratio worsens. It’s worst for Read more…
In the international crime of genocide, the sex-specific destruction of women is largely ignored. No international crime recognizes Read more…
From the burning of witches in the past, to the more recent widespread custom of female infanticide in many societies, to the killing of women for so-called honor, we realize that femicide has been going on a long time….
Femicides are lethal hate crimes that are Read more…
Taslima Nasreen: Gendercide is War on Women
The Feminist movement is not very strong here…
A recent survey has found India is the fourth most dangerous place for women;
and it is the deadliest place for Read more…
Thoughts on the Bollywood Song “Hey Love, You can Glue Me on!” (Chipkale Saiyan Fevicol Se)
Kareena in the song
by Sunjay JK
Very obviously a large part of India’s male populace is impaired by ingrained patriarchal misogyny and the attitude of being macho bulls! These guys ogle, grope, molest and worse, often inflict domestic violence on women. They damage public property during protests, and litter, ‘scratch’ (their groins) and spit openly…..
Nowadays, all forms of so-called commercial “art” are happily making lots of profits by pandering to and indeed gratifying these corrupted machismo instincts in Indian men. These are in the form of product advertisements, films, and song and dance sequences in films, that are sleazily called ‘item numbers.’ In effect these unethical ‘products’ in a way legitimize the lewd and depraved way that men think about women, including their control seeking, often violent and criminal behavior…….
That’s what the “Chipkale Saiyan Fevicol Se” (Hey Love, You can Glue Me on!) song and dance sequence (called “Item Number”) in the newly released Bollywood film ‘Dabangg2′ does! This ‘Item No’, and its lyrics, that feature one of Bollyood’s top heroines, Kareena Kapoor, got hugely popular, which helped in increasing the film’s overall buzz and revenues, and in the process, made lots of money for everybody involved, including the producers and sponsors…….
You can watch the video trailer of Kareena Kapoor dancing in this song below.
But here are some of the lyrics she sings:
When I stretch my body
You can hear the thrilled ‘uhhs’ and ‘ahhs’ from all sides
The way I walk
Men go crazy and make a hell of a noise,
Even those who are alert lose their senses!
Hey Love! Glue my image to your chest
With Fevicol (super-fast glue).
I am always ready and waiting,
You can sway me with just a missed call.
…Come my King
I’ll take you to heaven,
I’ll set fire to your iced water.
When you’ve made all of India your slave
then I am just a chick
You can gulp with a beer, my love!
Another disheartening aspect of this “song” was that it was part of a film created by an important ‘Bollywood’ film banner, and the “song” was sponsored by a leader of Indian film industry via a top advertising company which otherwise has brilliant creative writers, all of who, for commercial self interests, were in denial of the lyrics’ that were so obviously inappropriate and regressive in thought process, in the words used, and in the way it all effectively encouraged the disgusting stereotyping of women as objects…….
That said, I also think that since its inception 100 years ago, the Indian film industry, has done more than its bit for gender equality and empowerment, making it cool in many films, creating awareness, and changing attitudes outside of films too.
Over the past few years, and particularly since the Delhi rape protests, I feel the industry has become more sensitive to critical women and gender issues. For instance actress Priyanka Chopra recently insisted on first studying and approving the lyrics of her ‘Item No’ song and dance in a big film she was doing, a move applauded by all activists, including veteran actress and women’s activist Shabana Azmi …..
Though they have brought about a lot of good, I believe that social change is not just the Indian film makers’ job, but alongside creative integrity it has to be a paramount factor in their works. The Indian film fraternity, and its associates (in funding, promotion, distribution) should also ensure that no aspect of their art is compromised in an exploitative way seeking illegit popularity and profits.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sunjay JK blogs at http://sunjayjk.wordpress.com-http://sunjayjk.com/ . His twitter handle is @SunjayJK
This opinion piece is part of the ‘Gender in Bollywood’ series of Indian film reviews
To see the other reviews in this series click here
We are open to submissions from everyone! To submit a review please read our guidelines carefully by clicking here
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