Coming after the entry at Haji Ali Dargah, Shani Shingnapur and the delegitimisation of the practice of instant triple talaq, the breakthrough at Sabarimala crowns a year of concerted mass determination to obtain gender justice in the cultural-religious domain long granted by India’s constitutional democracy.
The hiatus between the determinations of the Supreme Court on behalf of the rights granted to “we the people” and their lawful and mandatory implementation by state institutions thus continues to be bridged, however contentedly.
The imbroglio at Sabarimala underscores a new and pathbreaking maturity of governance by the state. It has long been a theoretical infirmity of the Left to assume that any rational idea must necessarily find instant compliance among the people at large. And should it be resisted, the state should deem itself authorised to resort to a coercive implementation of democratic requirements.
Such insistence, of course, ignores that great Marxist insight which had spoken of the “objective constraints of history” and cautioned that although “men make their own history,” they cannot make it any which way they like. Often, laudable pursuits of equity have thus been vitiated by an unripe refusal to attend to the power of previous social ideas and formations, and by the inability to deal with them with full and patient intelligence.
The Pinarayi Vijayan government has thus shown a new and perspicacious way; it has steadfastly refused to succumb to the bait set for it by the violence and resistance of reactionary social forces. Learning a lesson from Nandigram, the Kerala government came to adopt a humane and constitutionally upright two-fold tactic: one, to make it known in no uncertain terms that it meant to adhere to the constitutional imperative laid down by the highest court in the land, and, two, that it would not do so by taking recourse to forceful means. Badri Raina taught English literature at Delhi University for four decades.
Often, in case of sexual violence, it becomes extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact factors that made one feel violated. While violation of consent is becoming the way to understand sexual violence and abuse, consent itself is not a simple yes or no.
Often, in case of sexual violence, it becomes extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact factors that made one feel violated. While violation of consent is becoming the way to understand sexual violence and abuse, consent itself is not a simple yes or no. The following sections discuss this in more detail.
The Context of Sex Negativity
Bose and Sen (2018) write that the hysterical aftermath of #MeToo has resulted in a disservice to the fight against sexual harassment/molestation/rape by shifting into a politics of female victimhood, empathy, and revenge. They write that #MeToo’s “regressively moral impact on academia” has resulted in a context of sex negativity and safety has become the new radical feminist vocabulary in place of risk, by shifting the rhetoric of transgression to a demand for safety (Bose and Sen 2018). Their argument reduces the right to feel safe and the need for accountability to the institution’s protectionist attitude.
I disagree with the reading that the #MeToo movement has resulted in an atmosphere of sex negativity. Safety is not a word of sex negativity. On the other hand, safety is a necessity for an environment of sex positivity to flourish. To be able to practise safe and healthy sexual and intimate partner relationships, it is essential to have conversations around sex and sexuality. This is only possible in a context where there is no taboo associated with sex and sexuality.
Bose and Sen (2018) also highlight how power is attractive and the field of desire and sexuality is never devoid of power. Hence, the teacher in the classroom who exudes power is also the subject of desire. The University Grants Commission (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal of Sexual Harassment of Women Employees and Students in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations, 2015, in an attempt to protect women, have created an eroto-phobic atmosphere in the university by creating the image of the professor as the mentor. The university and the classroom space should not be eroto-phobic, so much so that the space is devoid of desire, and that students are constantly under the protectionist surveillance of the institute. Whenever there is a demand for safety against sexual harassment in campuses, institutions handle the issue by imposing more rules of dress, entry timings, or behaviour, and control mechanisms such as CCTVs and increased security on occupants of the campus, without acknowledging their desires. This does not address the problem of harassment, but instead makes it more difficult for people to seek redressal because they are scared of the questioning and victim shaming that they may have to face.
Despite this, as discussed earlier, consent is not a simple yes or no. Not all consensual transactions are free of coercion. Coercion can also work in seemingly consensual ways. We live in a society that is largely sex negative and hetero-patriarchal. While individuals who are socialised as women are largely taught not to seek or even desire sex, individuals who are socialised as men are taught to pursue the women. Hasi toh phasi (if she smiles, she has fallen into the trap) is the rhetoric that Bollywood has taught us. It is the same atmosphere of sex negativity that also leads to gender segregation during adolescent and teenage years.
Ditilekha Sharma (diti.mitu@gmail.com) is a PhD Scholar at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
Justice Nazeer also referred to some previous judgments on the subject and summarized the position of law as follows: "Thus, there is a clear distinction between rape and consensual sex. The court, in such cases, must very carefully examine whether the complainant had actually wanted to marry the victim or had mala fide motives and had made a false promise to this effect only to satisfy his lust, as the later falls within the ambit of cheating or deception. There is also a distinction between mere breach of a promise and not fulfilling a false promise. If the accused has not made the promise with the sole intention to seduce the prosecutrix to indulge in sexual acts, such an act would not amount to rape."
Quashing the criminal proceedings against the accused, the bench further added: "There may be a case where the prosecutrix agrees to have sexual intercourse on account of her love and passion for the accused and not solely on account of the misconception created by accused, or where an accused, on account of circumstances which he could not have foreseen or which were beyond his control, was unable to marry her despite having every intention to do. Such cases must be treated differently. If the complainant had any mala fide intention and if he had clandestine motives, it is a clear case of rape. The acknowledged consensual physical relationship between the parties would not constitute an offence under Section 376 of the IPC."
https://www.livelaw.in/top-stories/promise-to-marry-intention-to-seduce-a-woman-to-indulge-in-sex-not-rape-sc-141831#.XC2MFsWzgrU.twitter
#BookReview by Pingali Gopal of Sri Aurobindo and India’s Rebirth edited by Michel Danino https://t.co/1ADSTaPtea #Hinduism #dharma #India #Nationalism
Sri Aurobindo and India's Rebirth- A book by Michel Danino
IndiaFacts-04-Jan-2019
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