The national outrage over the brutal rape of a 23-year-old woman in a Delhi bus and her subsequent death, so evident on the streets of the capital and around the country, can only be the beginning of a long journey to giving Indian women anything approaching equality.

Changing laws and constituting fast-track courts will help to an extent, but it will take decades, if not a generation, to change the nature of India’s patriarchal society.
The khaps, village assemblies of elders, are an extreme example of the traditional male attitude to women. Even more pervasive is the conservative segment of the country’s political spectrum which preaches the concept of submissive woman willing to sacrifice herself for her male partner or guardian. This concept collides head on with the urban empowered Indian woman who wants her due in life and society. It is, in a sense, a clash of civilisations.
One does not have to go far to discover how many of India’s representatives in Parliament and state Assemblies feel about the brutal rape and the questions it raises. The reaction of the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, in favour of the death penalty for rape was political in seeking to present her party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, as the no-nonsense hard-nosed organisation. And what can one say about the Congress MLA, Abhijit Mukherjee (the President’s son, to boot), who had a swipe at the agitating protesters in New Delhi as “dented and painted” women?
Indeed, West Bengal and its chief minister Mamata Banerjee have distinguished themselves in defining rape, and even a member of the Marxist party got into the act by an insulting reference to the chief minister. To cap the debate, a faithful member of the Trinamul Congress sought to make light of the notorious rape incident on Kolkata’s Park Street as a transaction between a prostitute and a customer gone wrong.
Politicians of various hues have enriched the debate on rape by their priceless comments — on what women should wear, on not venturing out at night, on the virtues of modesty. They reveal a mindset of a deeply patriarchal society firm in its righteous belief that women are inferior to men and must know their place in the home and in society. It will need a new generation of men schooled in the tenets of women’s equal status and equal contribution to the family, society and the country to enable them to stand shoulder to shoulder with women.
Rape is, in a sense, the ultimate expression of male subjugation of women, whether expressed in the macho culture of Haryana and Punjab or the more general mores of society elsewhere in the country. If submissiveness is promoted as the greatest virtue in a woman, with the male portrayed as both her protector and destroyer, how can society progress? Yet the brave young woman who fought for her life against great odds is the symbol of women’s revolt against the regressive mores promoted by some political parties and conservative sections of society.
There is much understandable anger against the police force, but the male police are only representatives of society and are equally influenced by the traditional view of women. The hesitation of a victim in reporting her case to the police is in most cases justified because of the non-seriousness with which the alleged act is viewed and the manner in which delicate questions are asked. Women police officers, showing greater sensitivity to the victim’s trauma, would help, but there are not enough of them to staff police posts.
Fast-track courts will, of course, help to bring culprits to book in a reasonable time frame, but with the chronic shortage of judges, the snail’s pace at which the Indian judicial system moves and the dilatory postponements sought and granted, how can the promise of speedy justice be fulfilled? Pricked by the scale and intensity of the protests, the authorities have been forced to show greater resolve and speed. But constituting committees and commissions are not answers in themselves.
What civil society and men and women must ensure is that the unprecedented outcry the rape and death of the 23-year-old has provoked should not remain a nine-day wonder. The authorities must be constantly reminded of the horrendous nature of the crime and goaded into speedy action. The greater task is of civic society itself. It must broaden its agitation by focusing on changing men’s attitudes, that it is totally unacceptable to assault women sexually or otherwise. Perhaps Bollywood and television soap operas can take the lead in portraying women in a different light than of a submissive, self-sacrificing person who willingly ruins her own life for the good of her men folk. And let us not always paint the assertive woman as an undesirable siren.
Indian society will not change overnight. The villages are often entrenched male domains. Even in the towns and cities, the educated, employed male happily extracts dowry from the bride’s family, and cases of dowry deaths are legion. Despite the jailing of some of the convicted in-laws, the institution shows no sign of dying. Is the inequality of women then ingrained in the Indian value system?
Indian women must gird themselves for the long haul. The scale and intensity of anger spontaneously expressed on the Delhi streets must be treasured (political leaders who sought to fish in the roiled waters were given short shrift). This can be the beginning of a new phase in women’s empowerment. A number of women in cities have claimed and obtained equal status with men; their task now is to broaden the field to take in their less privileged sisters and give them the strength and opportunity to become empowered.
In a sense, Indian women are on the cusp of a great opportunity. The brutal nature of the assault has galvanised the country. India and the world are watching on how the next act in the drama plays out. Let it be the beginning of a triumphal march towards equality for women.