Is there any difference between Jamaat-e-Islami (The parental organisation of SIO) and RSS in their approach towards Women ? Just have a look at the suggestions given by Jamaat-e-Islami to the committee headed by Justice J.S. Verma regarding ensuring safety and security to women. 1. Only proper marriage contracted by free will of man and woman should be recognised as legally permitted form of legal sexual intimacy. All sex outside marriage including live-in-relationship should be declared illegal and punishable. 2. There should be provision for capital punishment for heinous crimes such as rape. These punishments should be given in public and there should be opportunity for people to witness the same so that it might act as deterrent to such heinous crimes. 3. Co-Education should be abolished and proper education facilities meant for only women only should be available at all level of education. 4. Educational institutions should prescribe sober and dignified dress for girls. 5. Services of religious institutions and religious leaders should be sought to reform society, inculcate moral values and awareness against crimes especially in the new generation. 6. Proper transport facilities for woman which proper safety measures be made available particularly in the town and cities. 7. Marriage should be made easy and it should be encouraged to have timely marriage, all forms of dowry be abolished and all unnecessary expenditures be curbed and made punishable. 8. The electronic and print media, TV programmes, Films and advertisements should avoid in proper exposure of woman and it should be made punishable. 9. The alcohol is in the root of all evils and crimes particularly against women it should be completely banned in the whole country. 10. The criminal laws in this regard should be made more stringent, the judicial procedure be simplified and made faster. 11. The police reforms should be implemented soon and especially the complaints of not lodging FIRs or delaying of FIRs are made punishable offence. (Nusrat Ali) Secretary General Jamaat-e-Islami Hind Majority communalism and Minority Communalism cannot be equalised. But it needs to be emphasisied that both the Jamaat e Islami and RSS will find convergence when it reaches the discourse of gender.
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RAPE do how we define it…..Is it simply an act of sexual intercourse or advances without ones consent? We all are aware of the reality that how rape takes places but always the question WHY remains unanswered. Is it simply a case of heightened sexual desire playing its role or is something more behind this act? Rapes are a social problem. It has several myths and misconceptions attached to it. Due to the absence of knowledge of sexual psychopathy rape is misconstructed and misinterpreted which leads to perpetuation of victimization rather than its prevention. In the words of A.Nicholas Groth ”Without an understanding of the offender, one cannot fully appreciate what the victim is a victim of” . It is a popular misconception that the “offender’s behavior is primarily motivated by sexual desire and the rape is directed towards gratifying only this need. However careful clinical study of offenders reveals that rape is in fact serving primarily nonsexual needs.” (Groth, 1979) Rape in actual “is the sexual expression of power and anger” Rape involves sexuality which becomes a means of expression for aggression, domination and control. As in the rape case of Bhanwari Devi, who was raped by upper caste men when she challenged the caste as well as gender hierarchy. (Chakravari, 2003) Understanding rape as an expression of sexual desire is not only an inaccurate notion but also an insidious assumption. As it results in the shift of the responsibility for the offense in large part from the offender to the victim: if the assailant is sexually aroused and is directing these impulses towards the victim, then it must be that she has deliberately or inadvertently stimulated or aroused this desire in him through her actions, style of dress or some other feature. A myth about the offender is that the person was sexually aroused and that’s why he committed the offence but most of them are already in a consenting sexual relationship. Groth believes that Rape is always a symptom of some psychological dysfunction, either temporary and transient or chronic and repetitive. It is usually a desperate act which results from emotionally weak and insecure individual’s inability to handle the stress and demands of life. It is out of desperation and emotional turmoil that he commits such an irrational act. Therefore he is not deterred by such logical considerations as punishment, disgrace to his family, injury to victims, etc. A Myth about the victim is that she”only got what she asked for”. Even if so then she still retains the right to change her mind. Such charges of provocation are ridiculous when we see that victims of rape include all gender and age category. There is neither any place, season, or time of day in which rape has never occurred, nor any specific type of person to which it has never happened. In 2012 Rape case of Delhi one of the offender said”She deserved to be raped” The victim was out at night with a male friend and the rape was carried out as to teach a lesson. This shows that when gender roles are disruptive of the social order ‘actions’ are done in order to save patriarchy in the society and to retain masculinity and femininity. There is a need of change in the policy making. Instead of the approach for 24 X 7 surveillance on our heads what is required is a more gender neutral society where women are not perceived as mere object. In 86% of cases (95.7% in Delhi) offenders were known to the victim 1.82%of rapes out of total reported cases are of incest rapes. As out of 36,735 rapes 197 are reported custodial rapes. There were 36,975 victims of custodial rapes for 36,735 reported rape cases in the country. (National Crime Bureau, 2014). This raises a question as how the agency which is meant to keep us safe becomes something from which we need to be safe. A change in our culture, a change in our thinking is needed as these policemen are not aliens but people who were socialized in the same gendered society in which this culture prevails. Multidisciplinary and interagency efforts at individual, social, cultural, legal, economic and political level are needed. Only then a real change can happen. It starts with you. -Chand Mahal Ruby ( Ramjas College , President at SFI Ramjas Unit) Bibliography Chakravari, U. (2003). Caste and Gender in Contemporary India. In Caste in Colonial India. Groth, A. (1979). Men Who Rape The psychology of the offender. New York: Spinger Science+Business Media. National Crime Bureau. (2014). Crime Against Women. Government of India. Treaty of Westphalia was the first recorded agreement in history that intended to ensure the sovereignty of nation states. This event is remembered as the birth of the international political system. For the first time in history nation states were recognized as autonomous actors within their corresponding territories and therefore were perceived as sovereign nation (Hawtin, p. 3). Peace of Westphalia ended the hegemony of the Habsburg Empire and established an anti- hegemony principle which emphasised independence. It actually redrew the map of Europe and apart from paving way for nationalism and national allegiance; it established a normative framework, an international society. One of the key implications of Treaty of Westphalia was that it created the idea of autonomy, so that no outside parties would have any authority within a nation state’s internal affairs. It defined the state as territorially independent. According to Jaclyn Hawtin Treaty of Westphalia created an opening for nation states to have a new kind of conversation with each other, one where agreements could be made and power could be exchanged in a logical and rational way. This type of high level interaction was an evolutionary step for human relations, and although flawed, it did empower world leaders to make educated decisions rather than emotional ones (Hawtin, p. 9). According to Kelly Gordon, Peace of Westphalia uses the religious background of the war as a way to increase secular power (Gordon, 2008, p. 21). The peace treaties abolished the compulsion to follow the religious beliefs of princes. Politics was no longer identified with religion. The preservation of religious freedom was a first step towards the protection of fundamental rights (Filho, 2007, p. 967). For scholars of international relations, the Westphalia Treaties have more relevance to jurisprudence; whose ‘normative- prescriptive’ character provides the formal instauration of an international order based on ‘juridical equality’ among secular states (Filho, 2007, p. 972). Scholars like Kelly Gordon are not ready to associate Westphalian sovereignty to treaty of Westphalia. For him, The Peace of Westphalia was merely another step in the long process of establishing ideals of Westphalian sovereignty (Gordon, 2008, p. 23) Andreas Osiander in his article ‘Sovereignty, international relations and the Westphalian myth’ argues that the process of political authorities evolving into ‘sovereign territorial states was a gradual one but the most significant transition occurred with the French revolution and the onset of industrialisation, not with the peace of Westphalia (Osiander, 2001, p. 32). Global system today in certain respects bears more resemblance to the type of system exemplified by the Holy Roman Empire than to the so-called Westphalian model (Osiander, 2001, p. 34). He also draws similarities between European Union and Holy Roman Empire. Even with all the critics, it is important to recognize that Westphalian settlement actually legitimised a sort of commonwealth of sovereign States. Dr Daud Hassan considers Article 2(1) and Article 2(7) of United Nations charter, which emphasis ‘sovereign equality’ and ‘exclusive domestic jurisdiction’ as ideas originating from treaty of Westphalia (Hassan, 2006, p. 68). But In the era of globalized world, where the relevance of nation states are questioned, Westphalian system itself is challenged. - Ashique Ali T Works Cited Filho, M. T. (2007). Westphalia: a Paradigm? A Dialogue between Law, Art and Philosophy of Science. German Law Journal, 8(10). Gordon, K. (2008, June 6). The Origins of Westphalian Sovereignty. Western Oregon University. Hassan, D. D. (2006). The Rise of Territorial state and the treaty of westphalia. Yearbook of New Zealand Jurisprudence, 9, 68. Hawtin, J. (n.d.). Political Theory & the Treaty of Westphalia . Arizona State University. Osiander, A. (2001). Sovereignty, international relations and the Westphalian myth. Retrieved from www.jstor.com: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3078632?uid=3738328&uid=2&uid=4&sid=2110448 6609081 With 356 million people in the age group 10-24 year, India has the world’s largest youth population. This mean we’ve the responsibility of handling the world’s largest population of the most tender age group. But the present scenario is a tight slap on our face, as the rate of juvenile criminal cases has shown a steep rise in past one decade, our laws define a juvenile as any child belonging to less than 18 year age group. But question is, is age the only relevant criterion to decide any youth as ‘juvenile’? I would out rightly reject this notion. Juvenility is related the ‘maturity’ and in today’s ‘advanced’ world even a 14 year child is mature enough. So in my view, the recent Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, passed by the Lok Sabha which lowers the juvenile age from 18 to 16 year is totally justified.
Today, hearing and reading about incident like juveniles involved in robbery, rape, murder, cybercrime, drug abuse, terrorism etc. has become a daily chore. Millions of youths are destroying their lives & careers for some transient funs. A study revealed that in last one decade the rate of juveniles involved in heinous crimes has shot up from 1.77 incidents per lakh in 2004 to 2.58 by 2013. There is a 143% spurt in rapes by juveniles. This is an alarming data reflecting the grave crisis among youths of our country. But what are the reasons that these innocent children of our country have lost their paths and indulge in Crimes? Drugs, alcohol, exposure to adult world though internet and TV etc. Are not the sole culprits. These are the secondary reasons and in fact the primary reasons according to my criteriosation are lack of proper guidance increasing competition and academic pressure. Commercialisation of school, the lust for money and power in today’s world etc. Today parents have stopped spending quality time with their children. There is no proper check on the daily routines, their friend circle, values and morals of society are fading away day by day. The society needs to be restructured. The juveniles need to be guided thoroughly. Only then, this brigade of youths would be tomorrow’s assets. - Shreya Shandilya India- the land of believers and the believed; the land of mysticism and mystery and the land of some of the most remarkable ironies human society has to exhibit. This land of the faithful has a noteworthy section of people (mostly from the majority Hindu population) devoted to the idea of the divine they have named-the Goddess and even amongst those who do not ‘worship’ this divinity, there is a considerable veneration for the feminine. The Indian culture, in general, talks about a respected position for the womenfolk, elevating them to the position of divinities, but the same culture in practice shows a different picture for the real life goddesses of India. We come across reports of violence against women almost regularly, be it at their own homes or outside, some of them heinous enough to mobilise entire cities and towns to demand justice for the victim and punishment for the culprit; but how many times have we actually paused to contemplate the real reason behind people acting in such vicious manner? Mostly we satisfy ourselves with the information regarding the crime committed and focus our energies to either criticising the event or if we are a tad more active, we engage in mobilising popular support in seeking justice; but seldom do we attempt to unearth the cause of such behaviour. In one opinion, the reason is embedded deep in our culture itself. The culture that seeks to deify women has at the same time laid down stringent norms to cripple the very females in their freedoms, their capacities and their lives. This stringency stems from the ancient conflict for assertion and the idea to regulate the role of women, to control births and hence, their sexuality and confine them to the households while men or rather, the masculine assert their utility and position. But this stringency does not work merely through the establishment of such norms but through their active enforcement over time by using a variety of sanctions and punishments for compliance or otherwise. Acute socialisation that commands the compliance from even the suppressed sections has been well employed for centuries and even millennia to control, if not directly suppress the females. Violence against women has erupted mostly when they have raised their voice against the unjust nature of the norms that govern their lives and when they have tried to live on terms which the mainstream patriarchal society viewed as a threat to their structure. Such acts of ‘assumed defiance’ need not necessarily be ones of revolutionary nature but acts as trivial as wearing clothes that are termed ‘culturally unsuitable’, although calling something culturally unsuitable demands deliberation on the very basic tenets of the culture and the diameters it draws for whichever purposes. The violence against women has proved itself to be persistent enough to withstand the forces of modernisation and education. Generally it would occur to us that with the growth of literacy rates in our country and the spread of a modern outlook across all sections, such savagery should experience a downward trend. But the misfortune is that many a time, highly educated individuals engage in such heinous acts which render their entire education worthless and on being confronted with the cause; they shift the blame to societal norms. But what they, we and most interrogators fail to understand in this situation are two dual aspects of the same condition-firstly, we form the society and it’s flaws are our creation and secondly, the resolution to such a deeply rooted evil lies only in the spreading of the ideas of equality of the two genders and making people aware of the daftness of many of the differences upon which the patriarchal norms are established; not mere literacy. In an environment where males realise the importance and value of the females around them, be it at home or outside, will the real goddesses of India recover from their condemnable situation. - Suvayu Sengupta ([email protected]) Caste, not an unknown thing in India, is a highly influential factor in the society. It touches all aspects, be it education, economy, politics, religion or marriage. It is based on the Varna system that every person is assigned some duties by birth and it is mandatory to perform those duties. Modern day “dalits” are the lowest in this hierarchical Varna system. In the contemporary time, it is often said, that caste is not relevant and modern generations are not fond of talking about caste. But what happens when affirmative action comes into picture? This so called modern generation is the staunchest critic of such policies. Society is, even today, not ready to give dalits their dues. State policies are being criticized on the basis of “desert” or deserving criterion. People argue that upper castes are not getting jobs and admissions in state institutions. But why don’t they think of social justice? Social justice is not about snatching all six apples which one has but its more about giving three apples to those who do not have one. If the past was pathetic then how can present be good for survival and future be secured? Social backwardness and economic backwardness are parallel to each other. It’s a rigorous fact that one can change her class but not caste. People, who often say that they do not believe in maintaining caste system, are the ones who practice it by rejecting affirmative action. Here, one thing must be understood that the social being of a person is already determined by caste system. People cannot do anything about it, but what they can do is to understand the notion of social justice positively. Caste is a stamp over your head that you are a dalit and you cannot get rid of it, whether you are at the highest authority or a rickshaw puller. Caste is never abolished, it starts from your birth but does not end with the death. It is there forever. -Aakansha Rani ([email protected]) The air was blowing hot, slapping me across my body, sweat dripping down my neck making its way towards the valley between my breast, making me feel uneasy with the growing urge to reach the comfort of my home faster and change into a pair of fresh clothes. I knocked the door. The ringing of automatic locks opening, echoed in my ear louder than ever. I entered the house, the bag still on my back and my hair still in the messy bun that I made, feeling prickly in the sun with my voluminous hair.
I turned the knob on the door of my room only to be encountered with immense darkness. A sobbing voice caught my ears. In dysphoria I turned on the lights and was caught by the sight of my three year old sister sitting on the floor in one corner of the room beside the bed. All the uneasiness that, I had before entering this room vanished to some known place. All my attention now shifted to my little doll. I ran towards her, sitting cross legged, I sat in front of her. I took out my hanky from the pocket of my kurta and offered her. She was hesitant, she shook her head signalling a “no”. I asked her “why”? Her small little reply shook me from my core. She said “main aap ka rumaal nahi lungi, warna mai kali ho jaungi.” Dropping the white handkerchief there I stood up and went towards the vanity of my elder sister. Looking at my face in the mirror, I saw two black eyes, one pointed nose and maroon lips all surrounded by my wheatish brown skin. - Chand Mahal Ruby ([email protected]) As far the definition goes, honour killings are the act of vengeance, usually death, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonour upon the family. It is the homicide of a member of family by its other member.
But is this problem only limited to the content of its definition or do we need to look beyond? Well, in my view, it would be immensely unjust to term it merely as a ‘homicide’. In fact, it is like a social illness, a contagious stigma for our society, engulfing innocent lives on baseless and meaningless grounds. What defines ‘honour’? These are the unsearched questions lingering in our society. But ironically, the ineffective answers of these questions prevail in our society. Love marriage or mere falling in love with someone outside your caste, community or religion still means shame for most families. Widow remarriage, homosexuality, being a rape victim, girls pursuing higher education, dressing according to one’s choice, refusing to celibacy are seen as a ‘threat’ in our so called well-mannered and respected society, and honour killing its ultimate solution. In recent years, even after the spread of education to remotest parts of our country these orthodox beliefs exist. What adds to this awful surprise of mine is that even many of the educated ones entertain such irrational practices. The plight of honour killing is not just contained within the states of Haryana and Punjab but spreads to every corner of the country. The fact is that thousands of honour killing cases either go unreported, burnt, buried alive, love pairs beaten up to death, rape victims feared to discard the society or even killed by the society or just massacred by any other means. Does marrying beyond your caste and class lines or even being homosexual or widow remarriage really mean that you are bringing shame your family and community? Are the people doing so a stigma for the society? Well, no, not at all! This simply means that you are enjoying your birth rights- your freedom. This means that someone has tried to think above the orthodox irrational beliefs and these people need to be honoured, not killed. Just because someone has tried to be bold enough to defy the irrational principles and laws of the society doesn’t necessarily mean that they are wrong. These are the people who have tried to set the laws of morality disregarding the so-called ‘society’ laws. The issue of honour killing needs to be solved urgently. Killing people because of such adamant beliefs is an insensible act. The society needs to examine its laws and principles and change it for the better. The perspective towards class, caste, religion and community needs to be changed. We, on our personal approach, need to introspect. A place where brothers and father brutally murder their sisters and daughters is not an honourable but a ‘shameful’ society. There is no honour in honour killing! - Shreya Shandilya
Ask any citizen on the street, “What do you think about politicians?” It won’t be difficult to identify that the common thread running through all the replies is that of ridicule and disgust. Now, this is an interesting case in itself because it is particularly difficult to locate the source of this disgust for politicians. The media is not so outrageous to paint the politicians in the colours which are reflected in opinions of the general public, whether out of fear or ethics is a different debate altogether. Then where do these hate sentiments originate. The answer is – in the minds of the politicians in opposition. Yes, the disgust is spilling out and creeping into the public sentiments from the relationship that politicians have developed with the others. Open bashing of opposition in press conferences and public rallies is a phenomenon hidden from none. This is the source on which the media bases its statements on a politician. The modern day relationship between politicians has turned from that of opposition to animosity. I use the word ‘modern’ because the animosity is relatively new in origin. Violence has always been a political tool but climate of vicious rivalry is a new feature in Indian politics. A particular case has been raised by PM Bakshi in his book “Our Parliament” in which he recounts an incident where the Speaker of Lok Sabha is upset because some fat politician spoke with his back turned towards him. In today’s parliament this would be taken as grave contempt. To this, the fat politician jokingly said that he did not have a front or a back side since he was fat and round. The emotion behind the response is exactly what is missing from today’s political scenario. Often understood as a non-serious affair, humour has an important role in avoiding over-fabrication of issues. If consensus between various groups of an essentially plural society is possible, the cohesion will come from humour used in the right spirit. For if we are looking towards cooperation instead of competition between the groups, humour is the key. It’s time we started considering humour as a part of education system. A piece of advice here, if you are ever to face a grave problem in your life, joke with it. - Aditya Nayak Cuban system is one of the best in education and health and has performed well in Human development index, a country which Castro called ‘socialist’ in 1961. Cuba has emphasised popular participation, even when leaving the political control absolute within the one party system. It has been critiqued by people like Samuel Farber, for many reasons; like many luxury or high-cost goods channelized by the ruling groups through extra-economic more likely in terms of political means, rather by expenditure of monetary income, restrictions applied on foreign travel, for low levels of internet availability, lack of its own good to sell in international market, dependence on sugarcane economy and lack of developing consumer goods. Emergence of New left is also witnessed in Cuba, which emphasise more on political liberty, defending standard of living and for democratically self-managed economy and polity. These visions will find tougher to battle, in a state where political repression is high enough. It is not to dismantle the revolutionary success of Castro or de-emphasis the socialist outcomes that provided redistribution of resources with much success but to initiate a dialogue on the reform of left according to new realities. December 17, 2014, witnessed a radical shift in United States policies towards Cuba. Washington has constantly tried to overthrow the Cuban regime with every sort of humiliated tactics. Those cannot be easily put into the dustbin of amnesia. There has been an attempt for political normalization. Embassy has been opened in Havana. Trade and travel restriction has been eased. Raul Castro ever since he has assumed power has been moving towards adopting the Sino Vietnamese model[i]. The highlight of this diplomatic success is that, it’s a victory for Cuba’s national self-determination since Washington failed to impose its hegemonic social-economic political system over Cuba. The removal of trade barrier will improve the standard of living of Cubans and help to liberalize which according to Samuel Farber ‘will undermine the support for the Castro government thereby facilitating the resistance and political formulation of alternatives to its rule’ (Farber, 2014). For many like Farber the resumption of US – Cuban relations is a real victory. But many are sceptical over those diagnoses, since it’s a play with the imperial Big Brother. End Notes: [i] A model of state-capitalism, which ensures the monopoly of political power to the Communist Party, but not relaxing its essential control over the strategic sectors of the economy like banking. It may share the rest with a domestic and foreign private sector. Bibliography: Baker, P., 2014. The Newyork Times. [Online] Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/world/americas/us-cuba-relations.html?_r=0 [Accessed 10 June 2015]. Farber, S., 2014. The Alternative in Cuba. Jacobin, 22 12. Farber, S., 2015. Cuba’s Challenge. Jacobin, 10 June. |
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