The Menace of Rampant Rapes
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
7 March 2024
International Women's Day (March 8) is on the anvil and the recent gangrape of a Spanish woman by 7 Satyrs in Jharkhand's Dumka, comes as an irony not because it has anything to do with empowerment or non-empowerment of women, it's because of the disparaging treatment meted out to women in a 'civilised' country which proudly says, Yatra Naryastu Pujyante Ramante Tatra Devta, Yatraitaastu Na Pujyante Sarvaastatrafalaah Kriyaah (Where women are honoured, divinity blossoms there, and where women are dishonoured, all actions, no matter how noble, remain unfruitful; Manusmriti)
.
I'm totally against any kind of physical punishment, let
alone capital punishment to anyone, but seeing the cases of rapes in India
almost every day, it seems to me that some sort of an exemplary punishment is
needed to curb this menace.
In Islamic countries, rapists are either executed in public
or bobbitised. This may seem savage but the question remains, what to do with this
scum of the earth who suffer from priapism? Should they be chemically castrated
or put behind the bars till they breathe their last? What to do? It's a
million-dollar question. Can such priapic people be reformed? It's a very deep
and difficult issue. The problem lies in our mindset.
Despite all tall claims, India is a third-world country with
a third-rate attitude towards women. We may shout from the podium, Beti Bachao,
Beti Padhao, but our collective attitude towards women is pathologically
pejorative. Our very approach to looking at women is flawed and sexually
suggestive.
India is a country of sex-starved and ever-salivating men.
In a country where male-female ratio is always skewed and where boys still
outnumber girls, sexual crimes are bound to happen. States like UP, Bihar,
Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Haryana have always witnessed males outnumbering
females.
Moreover, lack of education, awareness and employment
contributed to aggravating the issue. Indians talk of religiosity but hardly
anyone talks of morality and ethics. People still think that religious people
are also moral people. This is a fallacious belief.
India is a religiously resurgent country, thanks to the
current political dispensation. Then, why're so many rapes taking place every
day across the country? A large section of Indians may be deeply religious and
god-fearing, most of them are still morally bankrupt. It's time for the
sociologists to mull over this issue. The useless 'spiritual' gurus are of no
use. Laws should be much more stringent in dealing with the incorrigible
rapists and a complete revamp in thinking is a sine qua non. Is anyone listening?
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A regular
columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative
religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the
world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.
URL: https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/menace-rampant-rapes/d/131862
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