The Shame of India

The rape of an Indian medical student in Delhi five years ago caused universal disgust and horror. Possibly because the victim was from the middle-class. The same outrage is much more prevalent among the rural classes, and does not seem to generate the same reaction. The Indian government blithely puts forward the view that India has the lowest per capita rate of rape in the world, criminally concealing the fact that 71% of all sexual assaults against women are unreported.

Rape is often used as a weapon. Since time immemorial, invading armies have considered it a right to take their sadistic pleasure from the women of conquered nations. A father dislikes the man her daughter has fallen in love with, the remedy is to have her raped by her cousins. A short while ago, a

stepmother ordered her son and three other men to rape a nine year old girl, and kill her. In Kashmir, the rape of an eight-year old girl was seen as a legitimate act destined to dislodge some nomad tribe to leave their lands. Effectively an instance of ethnic cleansing. The despised Dalits are by far the most common rape victims, and often the police ignore their fate. Gandhi’s teachings about fair treatment of the “untouchables” does not seem to have outlived him. The Muslim Jammu Liberation Front are notoriously known for raping Hindu women in order to drive away Hindus from areas they consider

should only house Muslims. Indian armed forces are said to carry out systematic rapes on areas where there is dissent, like Nagaland, Assam, Manipur. Even a bishop was accused of raping a nun.

Pakistan has very much the same history as far as rape is concerned.

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