An observation of rape from various perspectives

ZK Pahrü Pou *

The visual impact of it all :: Pix Courtesy - TSE

A Failed Naga City: Our heads hung in shame when the news broke out that one of our sisters was raped by a man on 23/02/2015 at Dimapur. This inhuman act had brought colossal damage not only to the victim's physical body, mind and soul but also sent shock wave to all women about their security and safety in our land. While we were still struggling to reconcile the madness done to the woman victim, the perpetrator had been dragged out by the angry crowd from the prison and murdered in broad day light (05/03/2015) denying him legal justice.

From Christian mission point of view, we have denied him the opportunity to repent. It is unfortunate that this kind of brutal and vicious unwanted incident is taking place in Nagaland, a State where Christianity- a religion of love - serve as State religion. It is also a land where there are hundreds of prayer centres and Churches.

Even more so, this incident took place in Dimapur city where there are more than 40 theological colleges/seminaries imparting God's word to thousand committed Christians and sending out more than 400 graduates every year. This city has some of the finest, costliest and biggest church buildings among Asian countries.

However, the present scenario of Dimapur with increasing rate of rape, murders, prostitution, drug abusers, gamblers and drunkards tend to depict to outside world that in this city people are living without Christian principles. Sad enough to say that Naga Christians have failed to convert this city into a 'mission field', to reach out to different ethnic races with the message of love – the true Gospel. Having said that, I would like to move on to the complex issue of rape.

Reasons of Rape: Rape cannot be fully understood through a single lens. Only when see through a prism, we will be able to see the multi-dimensional issues involve in rape. It is a shameful thing to know that human being is the only animal that rapes others. No other animal commit this sin. Although rape is one of the oldest issues of human being, the means to control this menace is not found till today. Human laws and regulation and religious moral teaching have failed to stop this menace completely.

In order to tackle the problem of rape, we need to look from diverse perspective more importantly the causes of rape and people's reaction to it. Among the many reasons of rape, here are some of them.

Firstly, rape is committed due to lust. Many people find modern technology as the culprit for the increasing rate of rape as explicit adult sexual contents are made easily accessible to all people-young and old. This has misguided many young people to commit rape.

Secondly, men are mentally weaker than women. This is the reason why sometimes man-made society blamed women's dressing style as the cause of rape.

Thirdly, rape can be committed by a drunkard who has lost all sense of moral judgment. Fourthly, many cases of rape are related to caste domination. Among the Hindu society, upper caste groups indulge in raping women of lower caste groups as a means of domination.

Fifthly, rape is used as a means of inflicting fear on the enemy and as revenge during war and conflict. Such instances can be seen committed by Indian armed forces raping Naga women during combing operation against Naga insurgents and Naga IRB personnel raping adivasis women while deployed to check the menace of the naxalite insurgents.

Sixthly, rape is employed as a tactical threat with economic and job interest as seeing in many cases of discrimination and sexual molestation against the north east people in New Delhi. Hence, rape is not just because of lust but it has many factors.

Consequences of Rape: When a woman is raped or sexually assaulted by man, it affects the whole humanity of that victim. It brings shame to the victim's family. This force many mothers to restrict the movement of their daughters. In other words, women should not have freedom equivalent to that of men's. As women are considered 'keepers of sexual morality' by our society, the one who perpetrates the act is often protected and the victim is blamed.

Rape that is committed to a single individual affect the mentality of women as a group. Women are kept in dread of men and they seek protection from men who are also their oppressors. Rape is tantamount to slow murder especially when the act is committed by a HIV/AIDS positive without using any protective gears. The rape victims are vulnerable to many STDs too.

We must raise our voice together and fight against this menace. However, Naga people have very strong not-in-my-backyard mentality towards any issue. Many rape cases are reported against our sisters from New Delhi or Bangalore, etc, but we did not raise our voice rather we kept mum till it happened in our own state. Unless some serious problems affect one's family, or close relative or tribe, we never protest. Rape is not a 'private matter' but it is a social issue that affect the whole community. It is a crime against humanity.

Protest to Rape Cases: People react to rape incidents in different ways. In deeper analysis, the reaction to rape incidents is connected to caste, ethnicity and patriarchy with economic, political and religious interest. This means that all reactions to rape cases are not because of love and to get justice for the raped victim. Many people join the protest to get economic mileage.

For instance, in metropolitan cities (like Dimapur and Imphal), when rape in committed by a particular ethnic or religious group, other ethnic/religious group (with hidden agenda) may take advantage of the situation to punish and threaten the whole ethnic/religious group of the perpetrator. By creating fear and insecurity to perpetrator's community, the other group/s gets benefit in terms of employment and business especially in today's fierce economic competition.

Rape incident is also employed to flare up communal and religious tension. Sometimes, politicians also used rape incident to criticise the ruling government or topple the government in the name of restoring law and order. Again, in caste ridden Hindu society, when a dalit or shudras woman is raped by upper caste man, the lower caste people protest and fight together for justice.

Here rape is considered as an issue of caste discrimination. But when a dalit woman is raped by dalit man, the matter is considered to be a 'private issue' and the culprit is usually let loose with little or no punishment. This shows that if a woman is raped by one's own relative or tribe, the matter is not as serious as the act committed by outsiders.

Even in Naga society, the seriousness of rape penalty depends on the status of the victim. If the raped victim is from dominant and powerful tribe, the case is pursued seriously than for a woman who belongs to a less significant tribe. The severity of rape punishment can also be determined by educational and economic status so that the punishment of raping a domestic servant is different from that of a hi-fi woman.

In many Naga villages, the perpetrator of rape is set free with little or no penalty in the name of compromise. Many a time, when rape is committed, man-made (not human) society considers it as attacking the prestige of the victim's clan or tribe and hence harsh reprisal followed. Therefore there is different punishment for the same crime – rape. The above discussion clearly shows that not all those who protest against rape are not doing solely to bring justice to the raped victim or to secure the rights of women but for their own interest.

What Must We Do? With more liberated women coming out to the open space (man's traditional space) leaving behind traditional beliefs and roles, one can expect back-lash from men. Sexual discrimination will be on the increase as men want their status quo of domination and women fighting for equal freedom. With the states actively pursuing economic growth through tourism development, another great platform is opened for sexual discrimination. Tourism enhances sex industry.

For instance, there are 10,000 children fathered by Korean men tourists with prostituted Filipino women often known as "Kopino." Dislocation from villages and urbanisation will also lead to more sexual discrimination similar to the situation of Thai rural women. Today we feel angry of one incident of rape. Tomorrow such case may multiply by tenfold. It is high time for us to get ready to meet any such eventuality in the near future. Killing one person is not the solution to rape. People should not take law in their own hand.

Blaming and suspending the district administrators will not solve the problem at this juncture. What we need today is to come together and critically examine the ideological role of patriarchy, caste, ethnicity, consumerism and global market forces that encourage, sustain and justify sexual discrimination. We also need to carefully examine the 'interest' of different people's group who stand to protest against rape. Any 'misdirected protest' can lead to vicious cycle of violence and loss of life.

The State as 'guardian of all its citizen' must work hand in hand with churches, civil organisations, NGOs, intellectuals, activists, law makers and frame stringent law to deal with sexual discrimination in general and rape cases in particular. Apart from strengthening the State machinery, the religious and educational institutions must take initiative to create awareness among all section of people's groups about human dignity of all people regardless of sex difference.

If we do not take concrete step now, the future looks bleak.