Respect Consent: On International Women's Day and Every Day

THE HINDUS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS BLOG IS A SPACE FOR A HEALTHY EXPLORATION OF IDEAS PERTINENT TO OUR MISSION. THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS BLOG ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE OFFICIAL POLICY OR POSITION OF HINDUS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS.

In one of the many stories from Mahabharata, King Shantanu while strolling on the banks of River Ganga, happens to see a beautiful lady who unbeknownst to him is Goddess Ganga in human form. Enchanted by her beauty, he proposes marriage, and she accepts on condition that he would never question her actions. After years of marriage, Shantanu breaks the promise he made to her when he stops Ganga from drowning their newborn son Devavrata, and demands an explanation. Ganga explains the reasons for her actions, but also leaves Shantanu as he broke the conditions of marriage.

Ganga enters and walks out of the marriage of her own volition. Shantanu’s second wife Matsyagandha also marries him by her own choice, and with her own conditions. 

These stories that were compiled in the third century could imagine a world where women had the right to choose, and yet in the 21st century, this idea seems more distant than ever. 

Though Indian society has always been patriarchal, our laws and constitution see women and men as equals. Equality in the eyes of law provides refuge to women refusing to kowtow to the traditions. Laws do not reflect of the state of the society, but rather what the society aspires to be. 

The Indian constitution states that all citizens are equal, irrespective of gender, caste, creed, or religion, but in today’s India, as new bills and court rulings defenestrate women’s position by institutionalizing patriarchal mindsets into laws, the idea of equality between men and women is eroding with each passing day. 

Last week, Chief Justice Bobde asked a rapist to marry his minor victim, instead of punishing him. Last August a Madhya Pradesh high court directed the accused in a sexual harassment case to have his victim tie a rakhi (a bracelet symbolizing brother-sister relationship) on him. Not only are the women denied justice but the court condemns them to a relationship with the accused without their consent. And the accused have complete impunity.

A few days ago in Karnataka, Ramesh Jarkhiolo, a BJP minister was found abusing his power to demand sexual favors from women. Instead of punishing him, the response of the government has been to file petitions to cease reporting of this crime by the media. Again, the courts and the government have emboldened the perpetrator. 

Last year, in the aftermath of the heinous gangrape and murder in Haathras, not only did the police refuse to file a report for weeks but they also burned the victim’s body against her distraught parents’ wishes and thereby destroyed any evidence of the crime, and barricaded the village to obstruct news reports. 

Recently in Unnao, three minors died after being drugged with pesticide-laced water all because one of the cousins had rebuffed the advances of one of the accused boys. Three small girls were killed because one of them exercised her right to consent. In cases where Hindu women consent to marry a Muslim man, the newly ordained “Love Jihad” law assumes they have been duped and forces them to separate. Owing to the harassment by police under the guise of the Love Jihad laws, a girl suffered a miscarriage. A woman lost her baby for exercising her right to choose a partner.

When a woman refuses a man’s proposition, she is either raped or killed; when she accepts one willingly, the law denies her the right to choose. When the woman fights against the violation of her right to consent, the law condemns her to a relationship with the accused, in a way that ensures that next time she could be denied a legal recourse. 

Stories are means of escape from our mundane lives. Mythological stories do not just talk about a world with divine powers, but at the core teach us values, ethics, and morals. 

As our Hindutva leaders sing paeans about River Ganga, they forget that in a human form Ganga was a woman who exercised her right to consent, a right very few women enjoy today.