The anger coursing through India’s veins is no longer only about the terrible death of a brave young woman in a Singapore hospital, it is also about all the other victims.
It was set off by the brutal gangrape of the now dead 23-year-old woman who till today remains faceless. A handful of the protesters on the country’s streets would know her real name. But her death, and terrible agony, have galvanised a nation into thinking about the thousands of other faceless victims of a sickening mindset.
They are asking for change. A 25-year-old girl at the vigil at Jantar Mantar said on Saturday, “I think the issue has come out into the open. What we want from the government is for the law to be amended and permanent fast-track courts. This is not a question of Damini but lakhs of Daminis waiting for justice.” Another, a young man studying engineering and handing out candles, said, “The crowd has been building up. Everyone is really angry. The government has to take steps. I fought with my parents to come here (Jantar Mantar) because one person can change. And I feel I have contributed.”
Rage is incandescent. The events of the last two weeks would have made this clear to the government. When the protesters tried to march up Raisina Hill some days ago, they were met by water cannon and a police cane charge. Then it quietened with the realisation that violence wasn’t the way, that they were better than that. But the embers remained. The crowds in Delhi the day the girl died were silent. But there was real anger running below the surface. Silent but seething. And there it is likely to stay. Till another woman is hurt. And then it will explode again.
On the streets, and in drawing rooms, people are drawing the same conclusion: that just better policing will not help, that the laws exist though they could be much stronger, that nothing will change till people begin to think and act differently, and that this can only happen if the process begins at home and in schools.
Till then we will remain a little people, and a little nation.