Last night I watched India's Daughter. On Youtube.
To begin with, I thank all the people who thought it right to make the video go viral by sharing and re-posting it. You all were courageous enough to go against the "ban" put up by the Authorities of The Great Indian Democracy. At this point, I feel I should rather thank our Authorities first, for setting up a classic example of negative publicity. Hadn't they put up a row, most people would not have found time to watch the video on TV on 8th March - it's a Sunday, Cricket matches are on, most households do not maintain the maximum rated cable/DTH package that allows viewing BBC in India. But now, Jyoti Singh is present in almost every single concerned individual's desktop, laptop, tablets and smartphones - good work Sirs !
I have watched the film very carefully, pausing it time and again, and noting down information where I felt the need. The film in no ways insult Late Jyoti Singh, or puts her "character" in a bad light. I thank the director, Leslie Udwin, for putting forth facts sensibly and with much care. I thank the Tihar jail officials for allowing the interview with one of the convicted. They should feel proud that they have done something good in their lives. And I bow down and send my respect to Jyoti's parents for being part of the documentary. Without their heart-wrenching inputs, Jyoti would have remained in our heads only as a symbol of a fighter girl; After this documentary, the image of Jyoti, the human being, is permanently impressed in our hearts.
The reasons of banning the documentary reminded me of an incidence that most of us have read about - when Satyajit Ray made 'Pather Panchali' , a famous Hindi film actress, who was also possibly a member of parliament at that time ( I may be wrong on this last info), condemned him for glorifying India's poverty, and suggested he should rather spend his time making films on India's "progress", maybe on its new dams. It was 1955. 60 years have passed since then. And we face such insane criticism against, followed by a ban again on a sensibly made documentary, because it reflects the general mindset of our dominantly male-infested society - sick, traumatic, injurious.
We all live in a Great Country. Here the Mother Goddess is praised in all forms and avatars- Durga, Kali, Annapurna, Mata Rani, Meenakshi, Kaamakshya, Lakshmi, Saraswati--- the list is endless. Most of our menfolk spend loads of money celebrating festivals revolving around these female goddesses, bow down to their feet asking for health and wealth, keep fast, and at times, even do charity in their names, then come back home, and in cool head, abuse, molest and rape women - known and unknown - on a daily basis. They come out of a woman's womb, go to bed and have sex with one or several women, even become the cause of the birth of a few more women, and then have the obnoxious confidence to say "In our culture there is no place for a woman" and also think it is rightful to burn down a young girl alive in front of family members because she has done something that did not have the patriarchy's approval ! - yes, the first comment is by Mr. M L Sharma , and the second opinion given by Mr. A.P. Singh, both lawyers who were/are fighting the case on behalf of the rapist-murderers.
Well, as India is a democracy, so even the most heinous criminals are given a chance to defend themselves; so we cannot blame Mr. Sharma and Mr. Singh, right? Someone had to defend the criminals. They agreed to do so. But why did they do so? Well, after viewing the documentary, we all know the real answer - their thought process exactly matches those of the rapist-murderers. Just as there was no sign of remorse or shame during most of the shooting time in Mukesh's eyes or words , equally there was not a pinch of sensibility or liberal thoughts in the eyes or words of those two lawyers. I felt, given a chance, they would also be able to perform similar crimes and then be not repentant about it. To think that they have gone to school and college for at least 17-18 years, then work and earn as lawyers and thus are part of our ever-lauded Judiciary, one of the prime pillars of our "democracy" and also a part of the civil society, sums up the nature of education our schools and colleges offer, the 'justice' that's delivered, as well as the actual thought process and thumb rules of a large part of the society.
And after watching the film, I think our Government should have been more perturbed by what the lawyers said, instead of what the convicted said. The convicts are uneducated daily wage earner coming from poverty stricken families where regularly beating up the womenfolk and nights spent at red-light areas are ways of life. Maybe they can be given some lease for owning and nurturing a regressive thought process. But their lawyers? These supposedly "highly-educated- English-speaking-urban-professionals" are representatives of a big slice of the society, who think if a woman is allowed to go out of the house and make a living for herself, it is equal to putting food on the streets for the dogs to fight over and destroy ! A woman who is out on the the street "means immediately put the sex in his eyes", says Mr. ML Sharma ! Oh! Indian Men ! They must be in dire need of eye-specialists - their eyes must be hurting badly with so much "sex in their eyes", because everyday, more and more women are coming out of their homes to work, earn,spend for and maintain themselves and their families. I wonder if men like Mr. Sharma also have "sex in their eyes" when they are at home with their mother,sisters and daughters (forget the wives- they are supposed to be rightfully abused and raped without consent any day, anytime ; and forget women friends - men and women are not supposed to be just good friends, that's impossible in our bullshit "culture" )!
And yes, I also believe our Authorities were actually perturbed about broadcasting the video because at one point of time, it informs that there are at least 250 members of parliament, against whom there are several cases of criminal offense, including rape, for which no judicial procedure has been taken up.
Our Authorities are not understanding that with every stringent decisions they take, in the name of upholding "Indian Culture", which itself is such a huge topic of discussion and studies about which none of them have any idea, they enrage us more. And yes, they are not only enraging women from all strata of the society, but also the handful of sensible men, whom we are lucky to have around us, who stand by us in both good and bad weathers. Our Authorities are not putting up a very good image of themselves in front of the population, their precious vote banks.
If they think we are fools who can be oppressed to any extent, then I am sorry to say, they are being bigger fools - like Mr. Pahlaj Nihalani, who thinks omitting sundry words from films and putting up statutory warnings every now and then in films and on television, will put the existing moral standards of the society a few steps up the ladder of morality.
Dear Authorities of The Great Indian Democracy, please understand that the change has to begin from within each individual, from the grass root level. The Great Mission of "Cleaning India" neither begins nor ends with the installation of sanitation system, and wiping litter off roads through the length and breadth of the geographical periphery. Cleanse your inner selves first. The grand task will become much easier after that.