Beyond Legal Remedies for Rape

                     India has earned a muddy reputation for being one of the most unsafe countries for women in the world.  There is an average of 106 rape cases per day. (The Quint) Many go unreported, while some, like Nirbhay in Delhi, Unnao or Kathua, bring forth a surge of public outrage and anguish; people feel shocked, angry and insecure. News channels air impassioned talks by women activists, newspapers run front-page news, and politicians make dutiful noises. The judiciary takes notice and announces stricter laws against the rapist.  Parents tighten vigil on their daughters’ movements. People follow up the course of the police enquiry for a while till the news moves to the back pages and slowly disappears altogether. People feel something has been done and are somewhat reassured. In some cases, the rapists are brought to book. Life moves on. And soon the newspapers pick up another rape episode in another town.

It is apparent that laws against rape alone have not been enough of a deterrent, and making them harsher has not solved the problem. Maybe we need to enquire deeper into the causes that turn a man into a rapist.  Sexual assault is a psycho-social-behavioural pathology that runs beyond a mere breach of law and must be tackled as such. What are the forces that incite sexual violence?  Who is the man-turned-demon who forces himself on vulnerable women, girl children or even infants, many times causing great physical torment and damage? Research has rubbished theories that see rape as an uncontrollable sexual urge incited by provocative dress or behaviour in the victim. This is borne out by the fact that 4 out of 10 victims are children, and the much-covered Catholic nuns and Muslim women are no exception to sexual assault.

 Empirical psychological studies have highlighted feelings, emotions and experiences quite removed from just eroticism, which play upon the mind of the rapist. Dr. Prentky, a professor of psychology at the Boston University Medical School, has given an analysis of the characteristics of close to 300 rapists, published in 1988 in The Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 32 per cent of the rapists were vindictive and women haters; 11 per cent were angry with the world at large, both men and women. The researchers said the findings suggested that the more men were abused as children, the more they were likely to rape as adults. Some of the characteristics that run common in most rapists are - anger, hate, frustration and being abused as children. In the Indian context, 60.83% of cases of rape were reported from the poorer strata of society.  95% of cases of crime against women were reported from slum areas. (The Times of India) Most of the arrested perpetrators were between 18-25 years of age, many of them school and college drop-outs. 96.4% were known to the victim.

So the probable (not only) image of an average rapist that emerges from the above statistics is a youth 21 or so of age, a school dropout, belonging to a lower socio-economic strata and residing in a colony with low civic amenities. He is probably without a job or holds a low-paid job and likely underwent physical and sexual abuse in childhood. The kind of personality that emerges is a frustrated man with low self-esteem who sees no promise in his future, nurses a grudge against a society that has been brutal and unfair to him and has received little motivation or role models for character-building and higher aims. He is, at the same time, enamoured of the Bollywood movies he watches on the TV and probably on his mobile, where he escapes reality by identifying with a screen hero who rides fancy cars and romances a heroine. His hormones are raging; he lusts after what he sees on the silver screen; automobiles and girls. But he has neither the means to that lifestyle nor does the Indian society give youngsters the freedom to intermingle freely, let alone get into physical relationships. He is not working towards the achievement of a worthwhile aim. This cocktail of frustration, suppression, hopelessness and anger is a recipe for incidents of vicious pathological behaviour. The most probable victims of pent-up aggression and violence will be the most vulnerable people, i.e. women and children. Rape can be dramatic and extreme form of assertion of strength and mastery; displacement of resentment and vindication.

When we try to deal with rape only by making the punishment harsher, we are trying to treat the symptoms and not the underlying social structure and processes where the malaise lies. The rapist is not likely to be a man of sound mind who is likely to pause and assess the severity of the law before he assaults a woman. He is a deprived, bitter, angry, abused and frustrated man who finds an easy target. We need to correct our socio-economic system to ensure the necessary means for an existence consistent with basic human dignity for all, an outlook that imbibes a value system and does not brutalize youngsters and rob them of hope and fulfilment of basic needs - material, psychological and sexual. Let us look after that youngster in the slum today, lest he is pushed to become a monster we have to hang tomorrow.

The People Next Door

                      One ill-conceived and ill-fated political manoeuvre in 1947 split apart the Indian sub-continent into two countries, resulting in a massive exodus of people and horrific genocides. These two unfortunate countries, India and Pakistan, continue to pay for this historical blunder to date. Let’s, for now, put aside the responsibility of assigning responsibilities for this humungous historical blunder. Whether it was the Machiavellian British, the greedy-for-power politicians, or the communal leaders is another story. Unfortunately, this brutal tearing apart of a human, cultural and geographical fabric gave birth to two national and political entities who came to brickbat over a dividing wall raised through an erstwhile common courtyard. Both the neighbouring countries have had seventy-one years to re-think and re-orient their perceptions and policies towards each other since then and failed; failed to move on; failed to seize the advantages of a common heritage and proximity and translate it into political and economic strength.

                        As the Indo-Pak relations stand today, both countries are paying a huge human and economic cost for their ongoing political strife, whereas the majority of their populations struggle to keep enough food in their bellies and clothes on their backs.

  Pay close attention to some of these basic indicators of well-being and development for both countries.

 India ranks at 139 and Pakistan at 147 positions out of 164 in the list of per capita GDP (IMF list, 2017).

Pakistan’s census for 2017 shows an alarming decline in the literacy rate from 60 per cent to 58 per cent, with a global ranking of 135. The literacy rate in India is 72.1 per cent, ranking at 92 globally.

Life expectancy in India is 68.3 years, and in Pakistan, 66.63 years, against a global average of 72 years.

Pakistan ranks 93/111 on the quality of life index, (Economic Intelligence Unit), India 73/111.

                   The above figures bring out the huge challenges India and Pakistan face to meet the basic needs of their people: sustainable income, education, health and security. Instead, both countries have squandered ill-afforded resources on developing nuclear weapons and cross-border strife at the cost of looking at the fundamental needs of their citizens. The huge resources used to equip and maintain armies in Kashmir could be diverted to constructive developmental areas. How do they justify bragging about joining the nuclear club when a section of their population does not have access to potable water and electricity?

                  India and Pakistan are one divided- into- two countries with hugely similar cultures, sensibilities, languages and cuisines. It would be so effortless to trade and share human power across borders, to learn the best methods from each other in various fields, to share intellectual and artistic pursuits. Together, India and Pakistan could be a force to reckon with in the sub continent. It is time for both countries to correct the fault lines that came up in 1947, move on and redefine their relationship in the interest of mutual development and well-being.

Mystery of Disappearing Braids

   

             A strange, unexplainable “supernatural” phenomenon seems to have gripped the attention of some neighbouring states of north India.  Some mischievous “spirit/witch/ghost” with a malicious sense of humour seems to be having fun snipping off the braids of unsuspecting, innocent women and girls in some rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab. Interestingly, the “spirit” is not interested in urban women. The poor victims can’t do a thing to protect themselves and generally fall into a faint.

             It would do everyone concerned to look deeper into the existing socio-familial traditions, taboos and norms as they govern every thought and action of the rural women of north India.  There is an exhaustive manual of dos and don’ts that a girl starts imbibing as soon as she starts grasping the life realities around her. They soon become part of her evolving self-regulating mental manual, which she follows, for the most part, unquestioningly. Most girls grow from being good, obedient daughters and sisters to being good, obedient wives and daughters-in-law. Life is generally a dull routine of cooking, washing, cleaning, raising children and pleasing the husband and in-laws. Dress styles are conservative, very often including a veil over one’s head and face.

             But, deep down, human mind has its own mischievous “spirits” which will sometimes become restless and wishful, straining to break free from the given norms. These untamed spirits can be suppressed and pushed into the unconscious but will not be banished.  If one is not ready to acknowledge them as they are, they will find ways to show up in clever disguises to protect the conscious mind from guilt feelings and the threat of social blame and censure.

                 This woman in a certain village in, say, Haryana, meekly goes about her usual daily chores without taking up a losing battle against a strong, suppressive social system; she has overtly accepted it as her way of life. But come evening, she has access to the television, which opens a window to an amazing, enticing “other” urban world, a world where women are smartly turned out in short, styled hair and dresses and move around freely out of their homes between jobs and other activities. She escapes her drudgery, identifying with them for a few bewitching hours.

           Eventually, wherever her fancies may take her, she is not empowered to change her dull life or win any attention or social importance.  Unable  to openly rebel against the family and larger community and incur their wrath, her subconscious forges socially acceptable forms to break taboos, express frustrations and  get even with a cruelly suppressive system without giving it a plausible reason to punish her.  Going to a village dera to exhort a spirit through wanton dancing with open hair was one such way. Snipping off one’s braid and forcing her family to accept short hair, which symbolizes modernity and freedom, is another.  The “spirit” is not outside but within, and social repression is the cause.

Nemesis of Punjab

The Punjab government will soon swing into action for procurement and subsequent storage of the paddy crop in the state. The centre government has received some appreciation for a record increase of Rs 200 per quintal in the MSP of paddy. The government’s price advisory body CACP had calculated the production cost of paddy at Rs 1,166 per quintal, and the MSP of common grade paddy has been by Rs. 200 to Rs.1750 per quintal for Kharif 2018-2019. The reckoning year of elections is close and this will serve as one added brownie point in the report card of the ruling party. But the overall health of Punjab, in the context of its ecological, financial and social indices, has declined alarmingly over the last five decades, raising questions as to whether raising MSPs for crops holds much significance at all for a state reaching a nadir.

Let us trace the recent history of the state. New high-yielding varieties of crops were introduced in the early sixties when the country was grappling with a massive food shortage. The Punjab farmer was quick to adopt new agricultural technologies consisting of hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and agro-machinery, setting agricultural output on a new growth trajectory and replenishing the national food coffers. But the green revolution, which accorded Punjab the distinction of being called the granary of India, came at a crippling cost, which would be extracted from the state in the years to follow.

 MSP offered by the government and high-yield varieties brought about significant changes in the cropping pattern, shifting the cropped area for paddy from 6.8 per cent in 1970 to 33 per cent in 2000. (Statistical Abstracts of Punjab, 2001). This was at the cost of other traditionally grown crops of mustard, groundnut, jowar, bajra, rapeseed, maize, sugarcane etc. The production of wheat between 1960 and 2000 went up by more than nine times, and the production of rice between 1970 and 2000 has gone up by more than thirteen times. Soon, the wheat and paddy cycle came to be the most favoured by the farmers, which brought new problems. Growing the same crops over and over again, without any fallow time led to a sharp deterioration in the soil productivity, leading to greater use of chemical fertilizers to keep up productivity. By 1985, Punjab was using 112.68 tons of fertilizer per lakh hectare against a national average of 41.00 per lakh hectare. (CMIE, 1993)

 Introduction of new crops and varieties also means combating new diseases and pests, and by 1985, Punjab was using the highest amount of pesticides in the country at the rate of 423.85 tons per lakh hectare against a national average of 68.78 tons per lac hectare. (CMIE, 1993)

By the year 1990, the giddy euphoria of the green revolution was over; the momentum of agricultural growth in Punjab had reached a plateau. The dark decade of religious militancy had taken its toll. Post 1984, the Punjab government had extended a high number of medium and long-term loans and credit subsidies, many of which would turn into bad loans and turn into nooses around many an unfortunate neck.

The climatic conditions of Punjab were not suitable for growing a water-guzzling crop like paddy.  In 1985, Punjab had dug up 10,756 tube wells per lakh hectare against a national average of 3,753 tube wells per lakh hectare and has approximately 1.4 million now. (CMIE, 1993) Soon after, tube wells need to be replaced by submersible tube wells to delve deeper into a depleting water table, placing an additional financial burden on the farmer. The post-sixties mechanization of the farming process had already made it increasingly difficult for the small farmer, who own under two hectares of land and form 45 per cent of the farming community, to sustain the viability of small farms. He did not have resources for a submersible pump and was deprived of his right to underground water, which was sucked out by the submersible pumps of the neighbouring big farmer. The government did little beyond extending subsidized electricity. As the other states of the country became increasingly self-reliant in food grain needs, wheat stocks started rotting in government godowns, waiting to be accepted by a reluctant FCI. Rice shipments were rejected. This has led, over the years, to an accumulative and spiralling financial loss for the Punjab government.

The present situation is grim. Seventy-five per cent of the total development blocks in Punjab have been declared “dark blocks” due to over-exploitation of water. Parts of south west Punjab are on the way to becoming arid.  The indiscriminate and persistent toxification of the ecosystem by agrochemicals has taken its toll. The soil, water and the food chain in the state have been contaminated with heavy metals, arsenic, iron, phosphates, nitrates, fluoride and salinity much beyond permitted limits.  Muktsar, Mansa and Bathinda districts from the Malwa region of Punjab have shown an alarming number of cancer incidences. Serious mental health problems have driven a large number of farmers to suicide and substance abuse. Physical and mental health challenges result in reduced productivity and financial resources and adversely affect all indices of development and well-being.

The nexus of the political and bureaucratic establishment has chosen to ignore these deepening agrarian and socio-economic crises because most of them are indirect or direct beneficiaries from the rice mills, grain procurement commission agencies, transport agencies and private storage godowns in the state. They have neglected to address the core issues of an honest agricultural policy with long-term interests of the state and the small farmer in view, development of agro-industry, alternate avenues of employment of the educated youth and safeguards for the states depleting natural resources. The centre doesn’t need Punjab’s grain anymore and could not care less. Political cronyism, absolute short-sightedness in favour of immediate greed and morally corrupt leadership has brought Punjab to the brink of disaster. The state that fed the country and was home to many a gallant soldier and decorated sportsperson stands bereft of all glory; contaminated, ill, addicted, poor and facing a continuous exodus of its youth to foreign lands.

Misconstrued Nationalism

                          Thousands of years back, in the times we smugly like to think of as the “pre-civilized” times, people moved around in small groups defined by common ancestry, beliefs and traditions called tribes. This sticking together in multiple numbers improved the odds of survival. A group of, say, a hundred people was better than a family of four for hunting animals for food and fighting off predators. As human populations increased, the number of tribes increased, too, more so in fertile areas that formed the cradles of civilization. This brought about inter-tribal wars for control of natural resources and dominance, with the stronger tribes subduing the weaker tribes to make a much larger group. Merging of tribes meant the end of warfare and the saving of precious lives. Larger groups also resulted in progressive joint activities like agriculture, pooling of special skills and aggregated community establishments, which afforded better civic amenities. Thus, a village grew into a city, city-state and kingdom. Man had well realized larger groups, and the pooling of resources and manpower was beneficial to progress and, ultimately, the survival of the species, which is the ultimate innate goal for mankind. Over the centuries, we saw smaller kingdoms and fiefdoms merge into nations.

                        Closer home, the Indian subcontinent, including present day Pakistan, is a recent example of a conglomeration of small kingdoms and states which was, over various periods in history, defined by different territories held together by any one ruler. At no time, whether it was the Mauryan Empire or the Mughal rule, was the entire country as we know of it now united. The history of our sub-continent is a narration of small kingdoms perpetually at war with each other, driven by the petty territorial greed of rulers. The bloody Kalinga war was fought in 262 BC between the Mauryan Empire and Kalinga, which are now two states of a common nation. There were many more of such wars in which the nationalists of each small state fought and lost lives for their little territory!  In 1756, a handful of traders from a tiny overseas country realized that this fragmentation of the local people could give them much more than just tea, silk and spices. The British seized huge realms of fertile territory and subservient people to rule!  It took a long hundred years for the people of this sub-continent to decide that they would come together and regain their freedom, lives and dignity. Hence came about the creation of a nation (unfortunately ending up in two), where brave-hearts from Sind and Kashmir in the north to Tamil Nadu in the south fought together and drove out the British.

                           The narration of the above chapters in the evolution of the history of mankind and the Indian sub-continent underlines the curious change in the perception and definition of the concept of nationalism. Follow the evolution of nationalism along with the evolution of society, state and politics. During the period of tribal existence, it was imperative for survival that the loyalties of members lay with the tribe and that lived and fought together. Nationalism was not a formal concept yet. As the entities of social groups grew larger and took on more formal forms, member loyalties were re-defined to spread to the larger group. It could be a bit confusing for someone whose ancestor proved his nationalism for Kalinga by fighting the Mauryan king Ashoka in 262 BC. The erstwhile kingdoms are now part of the same nation, and India hails Ashoka as one of its heroes, changing the definition of nationalism for the progeny of this soldier!  So maybe this blood bath in which 200,000 people lost their lives could have been avoided if King Padmanbha of Kalinga and King Ashoka had not sounded a clarion call for people to march to the battlefield and lose their necks in the name of nationalism, the whole disguised aim being to feed their personal greed for power and property.

                                  Around the 18^th century, there came around a term called “nationalism” which denoted a crystallization of feelings of loyalty and devotion to one’s nation above all. It came to Asia in the 20^th century. Suddenly, all political leaders, monarchies and oligarchies started impressing upon the obligation of nationalism upon gullible populations they wanted to control and rule. The projection of nationalism was twisted and turned to serve the interests of the rulers, not the citizens at large. Instead of promoting nationalism as love and devotion to one’s nation (which does not mean exclusion of goodwill for other nations); it came to highlight the parochial, the different and the particular. Your neighbour is different; beware and perceive him as a threat. Only if the common citizen feels threatened will power mongers emerge as saviours; armies will flourish, power centres will be strengthened, and the failures in governance will be swept aside for the bogey of national threat from outside. If you are a good national, you will support the slogan of destroying the neighbour, applaud the uncouth, aggressive foot-thumping parade at the border and cheer yourself hoarse for your team during cricket matches. But there is another breed of the good national who thinks deeper and contrary to the given definition of nationalism. This nation does not like the body bags that bring back soldiers from the front, the diversion of funds from food, education and health towards instruments of destruction, regional conflict and disquiet at the cost of progress. This nation knows that growth for any nation can come only in harmony with others.

From tribes to villages to city-states and nations, the world has evolved into a global entity. Survival and progress of nations are interlinked in more ways than one. The meaning of nationalism must necessarily evolve from stressing the parochial and different to the inclusive and universal. Anyone who truly puts the interests of her/his nation above one’s own must realize this. A nation can progress and thrive only if there is an environment of peace and goodwill with its neighbours. Citizens of countries like Pakistan and India must decide whom to pledge their loyalty to; the well-being of their nation or chest-thumping, theatrical, pseudo-nationalist powers. It spells the difference between survival and hunger, illiteracy and poverty. Weak nations eventually find themselves at the mercy of the global powers.   India and Pakistan must remember that it is just seventy years since they have thrown off the yoke of British imperialism.

With apologies to Rabindranath Tagore for the temerity of penning a travesty of his wistful poem “ Where the mind is without fear….”

Seventy years hence

We paid with blood to keep our tryst with destiny

Somewhere down the road, we lost our way

Into a dark forest of untruth, terror and barbarianism

Minds caved in to fear and few heads can be held high

Knowledge is distorted

 The country is being broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Words come from depths of darkness

 There is a tireless striving towards power and gain

The clear stream of reason has long lost its way

Into the dreary desert sand of regressive habits.

The mind is led backward by parochialism

Into ever-narrowing thought and action

How many Augusts more, Gurudev,

Will it take for my county to awake?

I want to celebrate my Independence….

Most of the Indian politicians opt to go to the USA for treatment, obliging the Indian tax payer to pay three to four times the cost of what it would cost in India. Add to it the cost of their accompanying family and personal physicians. This when, paradoxically, one in five of the surgeons in the USA are from India.

The questions to be asked here are:

 Is the professional prowess of Indian doctors doubtful?

Is the technical where withal and medical equipment of the best hospitals of India not up to the mark?

Is the paramedical service lacking?

The answer to the above will need to be in the affirmative to justify use of public money to go abroad for treatment. In that case, who is answerable for failure to provide the country with a dependable health care system after seventy one years of independence? Surely it is these very politicians who draft policies and overlook their implementation. If they feel that the health care system is still such that they would not trust their lives to it, they should be held accountable and  penalized instead of pampered . What makes them think that their lives are more precious than those of the millions of Indians who pay taxes with the belief that the government will use it to provide basic human facilities. By what logic is the life of a Sonia, Badal or Ambareesh more important for the nation than the intellectuals, scientists, teachers, engineers and soldiers who are faithfully serving the nation? Why should a poor nation mis-utilize government funds to pamper corrupt leaders when there are still many villages that have no dispensaries, no schools and no access to drinking water? Let these leaders realize that they are not colonial rulers; they are from this third world country called India and must live and die here.

Poison on our Plates

Food sustains life; pure, wholesome food sustains health; healthy citizens sustain a country. A country that cannot afford to feed safe and wholesome food to its children and adults is doomed to be crippled with a population stunted in physical and mental development, struggling to fight debilitating and life-threatening diseases arising from nutrient deficiencies and toxic intakes. It is a matter of great concern that India is a country consuming the most unsafe food, and Punjab is the second worst among states, with Uttar Pradesh at the bottom. In a recent report, the Public Health Foundation of India attributed 80% of all premature deaths to the consumption of contaminated food and water. Instead of working enthusiastically towards nation-building and personal advancement, a population feeding on toxins and sub-standard food struggles to keep going by battling with persistent diseases, low energy levels and low levels of cognitive abilities. Research shows that exposure to neuro-toxic substances can cause permanent brain damage, nervous system disorders, behaviour and learning difficulties, and hyperactivity in children. It can also slow down a child's growth, both in utero and after birth.

 Food adulteration in India starts right from the fields through indiscriminate use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, leaving heavy residues in the grains, vegetables and fruits that come to our table. Many of these foodstuffs are further subjected to chemical treatments for artificial ripening and preservation. Amongst the most frequently adulterated products are milk and milk products, tea, bottled water, edible oils, condiments and flour . Recent food samplings by the food safety officials of the Department of Health and family Welfare, Punjab, have shown 60% of milk samples to be adulterated with chemicals, urea, refined oils and glucose. One can only guess the quantum of damages suffered by children and pregnant and lactating mothers, who are the highest consumers of milk, among others.

Food Safety and Standards Authority of India under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India implements legislation to ensure safe food, called the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act,1954. According to FSSAI guidelines, food adulteration amounts to intentionally or unintentionally debasing the quality of food that is offered for sale by adding or substituting it with inferior substances or removing some valuable ingredient. Adulteration is a legal term meaning that a food product has failed to meet federal or state standards of the required quality. Thus, adulterated food is the result of:

addition of a substance that depreciates its quality or affects it injuriously;

cheaper or inferior substances substitute it wholly or in part;

any valuable constituent has been abstracted wholly or in part;

it is coloured or otherwise treated to improve its appearance in a way detrimental to health.

 Food samples are drawn and chemically analyzed in FSSAI-accredited or referral laboratories to ascertain that they meet the food safety guidelines. Unfortunately, on ground implementation of the above law has failed miserably to safeguard the basic right to health and life for the common citizen. The following are the main administrative and policy-related reasons for the failure to regulate food adulteration:

Lack of adequate human resources and funds;

The Food Safety Department in Punjab has only 31 functioning food safety officers presently out of a sanctioned strength of 60, though the department has undertaken to fill the vacant posts as one of the measures under its current endeavours to check food adulteration.

Lack of adequate food testing laboratories and wherewithal; Punjab has only one laboratory in Kharar.

Lack of adequate equipment; most labs can only perform chemical analysis and need to send the samples to private labs for further testing for microbes, pesticides or metals.

A long, cumbersome process of documentation which may take up to a year for prosecution, allowing a lot of time for manipulation and escape routes.

There is only one designated tribunal to hear cases related to food safety, building up a huge backlog of undecided cases.

It is also necessary to look into the depraved moral and ethical fibre of our society, where many people are ready to sell their souls for making an extra buck. Such vendors do not hesitate to indulge in adulteration, knowing that it will cause irretrievable physical and mental damage to people, possibly resulting in serious diseases like cancer, reduced levels of overall functioning and possible death. Paradoxically, these are people who may not have  indulged in physical assault and murder but have no qualms in feeding slow poison to children in wombs, ailing seniors and the youth of our country. Next comes the role of the regulatory authorities, who have, before the current crackdown in Punjab, failed to deliver in favour of other considerations, including political interference and protection for defaulters. The policymakers have, through omission or commission, neglected to make adequate provisions for upgrading facilities to check this menace in view of the increase in vendors of edible goods.

 When one looks to athletes to earn gold medals in international events, the soldiers to defend our borders valiantly, the children to excel in studies, and the common citizen to perform to perfection, let us watch what we feed them; food or poison?

Dressed to Kill

                      Down the centuries, most cultures have had their own popular norms for fashion in women’s clothing, footwear and hairstyling, going as far as body parts alteration. Ostensibly, these fashions enhanced desirability and sexual appeal for women. As a matter of fact, popular concepts of female beauty evolved out of sub-conscious conditioning of the mind by a society that used them for control and manipulation of behaviour, as well as social strata identification. They were deeply ingrained in the minds of women, who strived to conform to these norms of desirability even at the cost of great discomfort, damage to health and restriction of movement. Paradoxically, they internalised these social dictates to the extent of believing them to be their own choices and remained devoted to self-damaging traditions.

           Let’s start with the fashion of tight-laced corsets in the Western societies of the nineteenth century. Remember the scene from the movie ”Gone with the Wind” where Scarlett holds on to a bedpost as her nanny puts her might into cinching her waist into a tight corset? It illustrates the prevalent effort  to achieve the ideal ”wasp-waist” of 19-20”, at the cost of numerous health problems like difficult breathing, fractured ribs, distortion of spine, stunted growth and damage to internal organs.

          Another nineteenth-century fashion that brought death by fire to many was crinoline dresses with huge, hooped skirts made up of large amounts of inflammable fabric. These over sized dresses also caused accidents by getting caught in wheels of carriages and blowing away women with gusts of wind.

         In China, a small three-inch foot known as a golden lotus represented refinement and desirability in brides, no different from the tiny waist of Victorian England. Foot- binding involved breaking and binding all but the big toes and binding them flat against the sole with a ten feet long silk strip to turn them into a claw-like extremity. This cruel tradition often caused infections, severe pain and a slow, awkward, hobbling gait.

         Among the Kayan women of Burma, the hallmark of beauty demanded an excessively long neck achieved by wearing neck rings from a very young age. This was extremely painful and resulted in permanent deformity and spinal damage.   In many societies, women go through painful procedures like multiple piercings of ears and noses in order to support heavy and bothersome ornaments.

         Many a modern woman tortures herself to undergo risky cosmetic surgical procedures in an effort to appear more attractive. She bears the discomfort of walking in high heels and injuring her leg muscles and will go to extreme measures to attain a slimmer figure.

         The diversity between various indices of fashion prevalent at different places and times proves that most concepts of ideal beauty in women come from social conditioning and an underlying control mechanism that sets strict adherence to given codes of dress and behaviour for women. It is a disturbing fact that most aspects of women’s beauty are tied up with restricted movement, pain and discomfort, eventually translating into restriction of free movement and self-management. Elaborate and impractical clothing and ornaments result in the women being confined to the home as ornamental and dependant entities rather than being self sufficient through being physically active and acquiring practical skills for survival. The underlying message is also that discomfort and pain are a normal exchange for conformity and obedience by young women and must be accepted as such.

        Elaborately adorned wives of rich men were a public statement of his high station. The higher the social station of women, the more elaborate and restrictive their fashions would be. Hobbling around in massive skirts, bound feet, and high heels would show that one was rich enough to employ others for everyday menial tasks.

     Perpetrated benchmarks for desirability also cause the average woman to develop a sense of inadequacy, almost amounting to guilt for not measuring up to the optimum standards of what one should be. She is a lesser daughter, a lesser wife for a myriad of given reasons: a dusky complexion, a short stature, a flat nose, a thick waist, a hairy torso, and the wrong colour of eyes. How can she doubt it when this has been hammered into her head and enforced by her own mother, who has earlier imbibed and internalized this regimen from her family? Therein begins a series of obsessive attempts to “make up” for these “failings” and fill up a huge resultant vacuum in her self-esteem and self-image.

The modern woman will be truly free only when she shakes herself out of these given insecurities and mental traps and strives for achievement and ability enhancements. Let her accept her body image for what it is and seek no approval ratings for any physical attributes aside from what naturally applies to both sexes and concerns overall healthy and pleasing personalities.

Jallianwalla Bagh Outrage

Reference Ramchandra Guha's article in The Sunday Tribune, "Gandhi and the Punjab in 1919". The mass shooting in the Jallianwala Bagh ordered by Gen Dyer, leading to a violent and tragic massacre of four hundred or more peaceful worshipers, is written indelibly on the nation's or, should I say, Punjab's collective psyche. One would have expected an immediate uproar among the Indian leadership and a strong reaction towards the British.Gandhi's reaction was too mild, too little. He ridiculously responded that he did not know what to believe! Who did he doubt? The dead bodies of Punjabis who dared to defy the curfew to assert their independence to pray, to bow to a foreign diktat? He took one month to send a confused, nilly-willy letter to the Viceroy's Private Secretary. Compare this to his observation to the press after Udham Singh avenged massacre in 1940 by shooting Dyer in Caxton Hall. Gandhi :"The outrage has caused me deep pain. I regard it as an act of insanity...I hope this will not be allowed to affect political judgement."
Rabindranath Tagore, on the other hand, tried to organize a protest in Calcutta and later gave up his knighthood in protest.
He had never been to Punjab before,and it took him six months before he arrived after the massacre in October 1919.
By and large the Indian leadership had failed to give due acknowledgement to the efforts and sacrifices of the Ghadar party who had started resistance for complete independence much before Congress. By 1915, Ghadaris had returned to fight along with Babar Akalis in Punjab.
Had the leaders not been in a partial disconnect with this border state which had historically been shedding blood to resist various invaders, they might have been able to foresee the great tornado of human destruction, violence and misery their decision for partition of the country would bring.

Ma Meinu Koi Baat Suna