Culture of Silence

2012-2013 has been the most evocative year for sexual prejudice. Be it the Nirbhaya conundrum or the insanity that drove the criminalisation of India’s “minuscule” LGBT population according to the amended Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. The growing dogmatism and apathy towards India’s minorities is not a sign of a healthy democracy. What kind of India are we heading towards? Our founding fathers envisaged India as a country where equality would flourish across the confines of religion, caste, sex and sexuality. After all democracy is all about minorities, sexual minorities included.

Sometimes it takes a tragedy to become the bedrock of a social revolution. It was Nirbhaya’s tragic tale and her nasty tryst with destiny that shook the conscience of the entire nation. Since then, there has been a paradigm shift in perception. The number of reported rape cases has doubled in the capital while there has been a fivefold increase in the reported molestation cases. Not that there has been a sudden upsurge in crime against women, but the culture of silence has broken.

 The stranglehold of sexual harassment is following women everywhere from newsrooms to courts, from public transport to our own houses!  Earlier, I believed that only education could curb the atrocities on women and that only education could bring about a mindset transformation in predators. But the recent turn of events with regard to Justice Ganguly and Tarun Tejpal have beguiled me. These powerful predators have faced heat of the law with public wrath. Both of them were educated elitists, active contributors in our society and a part of our academesia but yet they outraged the modesty of women. How much so ever progress we may have made on the education frontier, our mindset in still engulfed in the patriarchal regime. It is the entitlement of masculinity that turns men into beasts or more so, not being able to take no for an answer. Alas! We have become a deeply sexist society.  Banning the use of word” sex” or censoring intimate scenes from TV will not prevent sexual aggression. Mindset transformation might!

But the question arises how complacent we are with the romanticization of sexual violence and how obsequious we are with the beasts in our midst?  Though it may sound like a platitude of political oratory, ours is a Madonna whore society where a man will sleep with a sexually beautiful woman for lust for but he will never consider her as marriage material nor will respect her as a "wife".

There has been deep routed acceptance to building a society that is deeply insensitive. We do not hesitate to hurl abuses which are gender biased, neither do we falter in calling a guy names with feminine attributes. We do not stammer to gibe at a guy who walks effeminately nor do we dither to look down at the gay community. For those of us who wish to break this barrier of silence and show solidarity, we are muted by the fear of being reprimanded by peers and community

 According to the recent Supreme Court judgement, homosexuality between consenting adults is a violation of law. As a devil’s advocate, I perceive it as a violation of the fundamental right to live, right to liberty and right to privacy. It is an individual’s prerogative of whom to love and with whom to make love with.  The state has no business in our bedrooms. But for those of us who vouch for this draconian law, advocate that sex between individuals of same gender is unnatural because it does not generate new life. But we need to contemplate that sex is not only for procreation but also for recreation. Already the third gender is vulnerable to bullies, lives a life of desperation and badgering and to add more to their woes, they have been criminalized by law! One shouldn’t forget that before the onset of this Victorian morality, India was a pluralist democracy. While the world has been celebrating gay marriages, India still remains handcuffed in antiquated ethics and archaic laws. The least we can do as liberal Indians is to show more compassion to them as a society, as a nation. We need to take cognizance of the fact that alternate sexuality is not an aberration, neither it is an insidious quantum of an individual’s character, it is just a way of life! This law does not pertain to constitutionality anymore. It is now a battle between a retrograde law and resilient love. 

This law not only shows India in poor light but also highlights our hypocrisy in our responses to sex. We fail to bring marital rape under the ambit of law but we have the audacity to question love between two consenting adults. Isn’t this an exemplary example of our hypocrisy and insensitivity?

In a country where every move on part of a woman is measured by a social barometer, we still remain entangled in the prudish era of righteousness. We have to build an inclusive society so that the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexuals and Transgender) community and women can live a life of dignity and self respect. A culture of silence still prevails! We have to end the conspiracy of silence. Otherwise there will be repercussions. We all have to find a way to speak and it can be the best tribute to the unheard victims, to the oppressed! Let us all contribute to create our “shining” India.