Indian Press on Hathras Case and Indic Poetry: New Age Islam's Selection, 3 October 2020
By New Age Islam Edit
Bureau
3 October
2020
• Hathras Case: It Is Our Collective Dignity
And Decency That Is Erased Forever
By Menaka Guruswamy
• Indic Poetry Was Born Of Pure Compassion
By Renuka Narayanan
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Hathras Case: It Is Our Collective Dignity and
Decency That Is Erased Forever
By Menaka Guruswamy
October 3,
2020
Protesters
holding candlelight vigil for Hathras victim at Delhi's Jantar Mantar (Image
credit: Milan Sharma for ITGD)
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During a
candle light march by the Mumbai Congress unit to protest the Hathras case on
September 2, 2020. (Express Photo: Ganesh Shirsekar)
On
September 14, 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit woman goes to work in the fields, close
to her home, in the Hathras district of western Uttar Pradesh. Let us call this
young woman — India. She lived with her family across the street from their
upper caste Thakur neighbours in this bustling town, that is 200 kilometres
from Delhi.
As
Newslaundry reports, India’s mother found her daughter’s body in the part of
the fields owned by the Thakur neighbours. She is quoted as saying, “My
daughter was lying naked with her tongue protruding from her mouth. Her eyes
were bulging out and she was bleeding from her mouth, her neck and there was
blood near her eyes. I also noticed bleeding from her vagina. I quickly covered
her with the pallu of my saree and started screaming.”
The law is
clear on how the state must respond. At this point, a First Information Report
(FIR) must be immediately lodged, and if the victim needs hospitalisation then
the requirements of a medico-legal case such as this, the preservation of
clothing, the recording of injuries, can be done at the hospital. A statement
as to the events, under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, of the
survivor in the presence of a magistrate, must be ensured by the police. It is
expected that the police arrange for the magistrate to be taken to the
hospital. Finally, if the survivor of the rape should pass away, then the body
must be handed over to her family, after post-mortem analysis. Now let us
examine what happened to India and her family.
Post the
assault, India was taken to the Champa police station, and from there to the
hospital while her brother stayed back to register an FIR. At the hospital,
despite the trauma on September 21 and 22, she clearly named her upper caste
neighbours and their friends as her assaulters. Eventually, belatedly — over
two weeks after the assault — India was transferred to Safdarjung Medical
Hospital in Delhi, where she died. A magistrate came to the hospital in Aligarh
to record her statement but it is unclear whether they preserved sufficient
evidence for a case such as this.
What
followed subsequently, tells you even more about the state of Uttar Pradesh
police and those they answer to; by chain of direct command, to the Home
Minister of the state — that portfolio is held by Chief Minister Yogi
Adityanath. After her death in Delhi, India’s body was whisked away, and
despite the fierce protests of her family, was cremated around 2:30 am/3:00 am
by the police. The journalist Tanushree Pandey in her first-person account,
captures the police telling India’s family that mistakes have been made
(galtiya hui hai) but it is time to “move on”, and family members locked
themselves in their home in fear while police proceeded to cremate India. The
police then tried to prevent the press from taking any pictures or recording
their actions.
Meanwhile,
on October 1, the Additional Director General of Police, Prashant Kumar,
apparently relying on the FSL, said that India’s cause of death was injury to
the spinal cord, no sperm was found and no rape occurred. The officer would do
well to note Section 166 A of the Penal Code that makes it a punishable offence
for the police not to register a rape.
That the body
was cremated in a hurry makes it easier for him to spin this story. Reports
indicate that the FSL samples were taken days after the events, making it
impossible for bodily fluids like sperm to be found. However, the amendments to
our rape law mandate that only penetration is required to establish rape or
gang rape, and not presence of sperm. Further, the nature of the injuries,
repeated statements by India, make the gang rape clear.
The
Allahabad High Court, on October 1, 2020, shaken by the course of events, has
taken suo motu cognisance of the events — in Re: Right to decent and dignified
last rites/cremation. The judges point to case law that mandates that the right
to dignity and fair treatment is available to all in life and death. A decade
ago, they had declared that the right to life and dignity includes the right of
a deceased to have her body treated with respect, subject to her tradition,
culture and religion practised. The next date of hearing before the High Court
is October 12, meaning that India’s family must withstand the pressure being
mounted on them to change their story.
The
historical reality of our country is that events like the gangrape of India
have been routine. In pre-constitutional feudal India, there was socially
sanctioned control of the upper castes on the labour, bodies and aspirations of
lower castes, especially Dalits. Our Constitution, recognising the systemic
degradation of lower caste persons, mandated prohibition on caste and sex based
discrimination. It also made reparations by providing for reservation in
educational institutions, political constituencies and public employment for
members of Scheduled Castes and Tribes.
But India’s
case shows that no constitution has any meaning if those tasked with enforcing
it have aligned themselves to an unconstitutional caste-based code of loyalty.
As Cynthia Stephen, a Dalit activist and writer, asks, “Why on earth was her
body torn from the family and burnt in the dark somewhere like it’s a piece of
trash? In Bangalore our garbage trucks take the solid waste outside the city
and incinerate it in an open field. This is something like that, no dignity
even in death.”
India’s
violation is part of a larger story of our country. It is not just India’s
spine that was broken — it is the spine of the Indian state and the police that
is fractured. It is not just India that was brutalised, it is each and every
woman who is raped and silenced that screams out loudly. In the disregard of
India’s body even in death, it is our collective dignity and decency that is
erased forever. Shame on all of us.
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Menaka Guruswamy is a Senior Advocate at the
Supreme Court of India.
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/hathras-gangrape-case-dalit-woman-up-police-6669922/
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Indic Poetry Was Born Of Pure Compassion
By Renuka Narayanan
October 3,
2020
The
unchecked violence raging in our country seems just cause to introspect on the
first known poetic verse in Indian literature.
I refer to the work of the first poet, Sage Valmiki, of Srimad Ramayanam
fame. Vedas and Vedangas that came before the Ramayana, though usually set in
various chhand, meters, are considered gadyam –
‘prose’ in Sanskrit – while the Ramayana is padyam, poetry.
That first
shloka, verse, happened in the most extraordinary way. Lord Brahma’s son, Sage
Narada, paid a sudden call on Valmiki, during which he disclosed the existence
of a noble person called Rama, who embodied all the 16 good qualities demanded
by Valmiki. After that illuminating visit, Valmiki went for a swim in the river
Tamasa, accompanied by Sage Bharadvaja. The water was so pure and clear that
they could see all the way down to the river bed. Marvelling at its perfect
clarity, they began to make their way back to Valmiki’s ashram.
On the way,
Valmiki’s eye caught a pair of krauncha birds –
demoiselle cranes, called koonj in Hindi – with long white necks and striking plumage.
They were dancing a graceful love duet, beautiful to behold. The sages were
enchanted. Suddenly an arrow whizzed in, wounding the male bird, which fell
down in agonised death throes. The female bird fluttered around him, sounding
pitiful cries. The startled sages discovered that a hunter had crept into the
scene and was triumphantly advancing on the dead crane.
Imagine
Valmiki’s state of mind just then. The day had begun on a great, big high with
Narada’s visit. Inspired and excited that there was actually someone like Rama,
the hero he had imagined, and hoped to find some day, Valmiki was already in an
exalted state. The purity of the river Tamasa and his refreshing plunge into
her waters was like a metaphor for the purity that the human soul could achieve
when cleaned of negativity. In this state of mind-body-spirit happiness,
Valmiki saw and felt the beauty of creation and the Creator in the love dance
of the cranes. The abrupt end of this woodland idyll was a rude shock to the
sage. His heart burst its bounds with a great rush of karunya, compassion.
“Why did
you kill that bird?” he asked the hunter angrily. “I am a hunter. It is my legitimate
occupation to hunt,” said the hunter squarely. The agitated sage, once a hunter
himself, said,
“Ma nishada
pratishtham tvamagamahsavati sama
Yat
kraunchamithunaadekam avadhi kamamohitam.”
It means,
“O hunter! May you never be respected for killing that unsuspecting crane when
it was happily dancing with its mate.” In Sanskrit, this came out as a rhythmic
sequence of 32 syllables, which, re-examined, proved to have a deeper
metaphysical meaning, praising Vishnu.
Shaken by
his own words, Valmiki hurried home. And whom did he find waiting at his ashram
but Brahma himself, in his swan chariot. Brahma had missed the presence of
Goddess Sarasvati. Looking for her in all directions, Brahma discovered that
she had flown by Valmiki’s ashram to bless him with eloquence. He stayed on to
bless Valmiki in his new role as poet.
That first shloka started him off.
This was
the birth of poetry as conjured by our ancients, and its trigger was
compassion. Isn’t that something profound, to steer our moral compass by, if we
claim to love the Ramayana?
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-edit-page/indic-poetry-was-born-of-pure-compassion/
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