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The 'Bhay' behind Nirbhaya's Documentary

Over the last week, 2 very graphic and disturbing videos were put out for mass consumption. One was a documentary on Nirbhaya and the second on the lynching of an alleged rapist in Nagaland. It is difficult to judge if one was the anti dote to the other but none the less its hard to me to agree with either ..

The key issue I have with the Nirbhaya's documentary is the follows

  • The documentary is called as 'India's Daughters' and attempts to make the world aware of the crimes against women. The documentary attempts to generalise that many women in India are often victims due to the attitude of men exemplified by the indicted rapist. Both these generalisations cannot be more wrong. Women in Indian history and society have always occupied a position far superior than in any western country. The feminine god - shakti is far more worshiped across the length and breadth of the country than any male god. We accept the women can be 'Messengers of God' Lets not forget the 2 greatest wars in our history ( Ramayana & Mahabharata) took place when the dignity of women was violated.
  • The rapist  DOES NOT represent the men of India or their attitude. Ask any women if their fathers or brothers think like the rapist on video and you will get your answer. Nirbhaya's incident shocked all Indians equally. 
  • Lastly the documentary reflects a typical western mindset - that its s white man's burden to make aware and reform a primitive backward civilisation like India. This narrative is similar to the other western narratives - we need to bring freedom to the primitive tribes of the middle east. Just like they maligned our nation and our religion using a few horrific instances such as Sati in the past, the same approach is being used there. Case in point is the use of images of Shiva in the Nirbhaya documentary...
  • The Nirbhaya documentary reminds me of an article in The Hindu which blamed Swami Vivekananda for the rapes in India. You can read that shocking article here 
We Indians are well aware of what is wrong with us and our society and moreover we have the self correcting means to reform ourselves The western scholars are better off looking at themselves 

Moving to Nagaland .... a mob of 10,000 raids a police station and gets hold of an alleged rapist. He is then stripped, paraded, castrated and killed. Videos are then posted online for mass consumption. 

The mob of Nagaland also does not represent the people of India. Lets not forget that unlike the western countries which assassinates terrorists, we gave a fair trial even to the perpetuators of 26/11. 

The vast population of India still retains a moral compass and we do not need education from outside. We have strength in our culture, our values and our religion to enable us to take corrective steps. 

The government of any nation is as bold as the society it governs. Ban on the videos is a reflection of the mood of the society - graphic content in both the videos from last week are not mandatory for the benefit of society and we can do well without them.

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