October is the Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Domestic abuse is a universal phenomenon much like the recent emerging rape crisis in Asia especially in countries like India and Malaysia. Crimes such as domestic abuse, rape, and sexual violence are hush-hush within any community. In my past teaching experiences, as a teaching assistant to the "Introduction to Women's Studies Course" at University of Western Ontario, I was approached by a student who told me that because these issues are such taboos, society silences the voices of the victims due to stigmas and taboos that surround these particular issues. Her emotional words have stayed with me all these years. Honored to be approached by Chris McMurry, director of Theresa's Fund. We engaged in a fascinating discussion about the ways in which technology now plays a key role especially in the social sector.
Recently launched, Theresa's Funds with partnership with the National Coalition of Domestic Violence (NCADV), domesticshelters.org is the very first searchable online database of domestic violence and includes about 3,000 of the agencies in the US. When someone visits this mobile-friendly website, any one can find the near domestic shelter based on their location, services, and language preference. Easily accessible to anyone who is in desperate need to get out of the relationship, I found that as a young woman of twenty-eight years who is constantly engaged with social media for both social and intellectual purposes, I can truly attest to the value that this particular website offers especially within the South Asian community. McMurry informed me a surprising statistic that, "approximately half of the online searches nowadays take place through mobile phones." Because this particular search engine is mobile-friendly, victims have easy access to the three pillars of the services that it offers: "Find Help," "Be Safe," and "Get Smart." "Find Help" is a tool that allows you to get help in your language (available in international languages including sign language). "Be Safe" is a tool that allows you to escape detection by clearing your browsing history and clicking on "leave the site." Finally, "Get Smart" is an education tool to aid in making good decisions.
Sylvia Torralba, membership director of NCADV, says, "The great news is that there are many good people, organizations and providers trying to help, and in fact, helping.” She further added, "With some 36,000,000 million searches a year in just the U.S. on the topic of domestic violence, domesticshelters.org is an overdue and much-needed concept that may help more people than any other service ever offered in this space, and may help save lives because it will be so easy, accessible and fast to use."
The organizers of the site worked endlessly for more than six months identifying 3,001 domestic violence provider organizations in the United States.
The origin of the website was born out of the need as McMurry noticed that on the first few pages of the Google search engine. There will be perhaps attorney websites, national organizations, state coalition, and maybe a shelter or an organization on the first page. As the director of Theresa's Fund, he realized that there was a prominent gaping hole as there was no single site that made finding services fast and easy. The younger generation, he said, barely calls on the phone but uses the phone for Facebook, Texting, and online searches. This website, in particular, is mobile-safe to avoid the abuser from gaining access as the victim can easily access on the phone's browser without getting caught.
To sum it up, as times are changing, technology is playing a vital role in the social sector. This mobile-friendly website indeed is a turning point especially when it comes to domestic violence - according to Google more than 3,000, 000 searches are conducted per month (a scary statistic!).
When I was 11 years old and living in Singapore, my good friend Manoganya introduced me to Jim Henson's fantastical movie,The Labyrinth (1986), starring the popular singer of the 80s David Bowie and with him was the young Jennifer Connelley who recently was part of The Winter's Tale (2014) and A Beautiful Mind (2001). While the entire movie is cute and unforgettable with muppet-like characters, it is the journey of Sarah who is in search of her brother, Toby, who has been stolen by Jareth (David Bowie), the king of the goblins. Towards the end of the film, Jareth is frustrated with the cat-and-mouse chase with Sarah. He blames Sarah for being the cause of the conflict as she had been the one who had initially been frustrated with her brother and had asked Jareth to take the baby away. While he continues to psychologically manipulate and play with Sarah's mind trying to gnaw at her weaknesses, Sarah realizes that she has always had the power within her to overpower and overcome his tactics that are attempts to weaken her strong and resilient spirit. At the end of the scene, Sarah cries, "you have no power over me!" Sarah had the power all along to combat such negativity and control from Jareth. The film ends with Jareth falling into the abyss and Sarah rescuing her younger brother. Why is this story important to understanding the mission of Gulaab Gang (2014) or Nishtha Jain's documentary Gulaabi Gang (2014), one might ask? This anecdote reveals the power struggle that continues to exist between the subjectivity of the marginalized peoples and oppressive systems that attempt to control them and overpower them through verbal and physical tactics. Sarah breaks the psychological control by empowering herself and not allowing Jareth's meaningless words to overpower her own subjectivity.
As a disclaimer though, I do want to say two very crucial points that I wish to reiterate whenever I write about violence, patriarchy, and bio-politics. First and foremost, I want to emphasize the idea that not every man is a Jareth in the Indian context. Surprisingly, I have encountered more men who are sympathetic and empathetic to the cause and are against any or all types of oppression. They are gracious and are filled with respect for all marginalized communities and genders. Secondly, I want to reiterate that I am not a "feminist." My political concerns span across gender, caste, class, religion, and other realms and my ultimate goal is to understand why India is the way that it is, how can we improve its conditions and lives of the oppressed and marginalized communities, and what does being an "Indian" mean for women like me who have lived outside of India for majority of their lives but continue to live, breathe, and intellectualize India daily and everyday. Although unfortunately recent news reports have said that Madhuri Dixit-Juhi Chawla starrer Gulaab Gang (2014) bombed the box office, I would suggest that the film is still a must watch. Perhaps, even should be watched alongside Nishtha Jain's documentary on the Gulaab Gang (2014) that took five years to make. Both these films have been the avenues that have placed Sampat Pal Devi and her Gulaab Gang on the international map. The members live in the rural parts of Uttar Pradesh, a region known to have an oppressive and misogynistic culture and sometimes physically fight for their rights against the issues of dowry, domestic abuse, and political corruption.
I am reminded here of an interview I was watching on Bollywood Boulevard the other day when Dixit said that the film focuses on the lives of women who live in the 75% India - the poor India - and how they overcome various systems of oppression. Unfortunately I have been unsuccessful in locating the clip online, Dixit has realized the struggle that India as a nation is facing. There are two "Indias" that co-exist - The "Old" India and the "New" India. The former that is kept alive by centuries old traditions, while the new one striving to be cosmopolitan and modern in the 21st century. Both worlds trying to reconcile their differences and attempting to find a "middle ground" if one exists. At the heart of this struggle, recent films and documentary such as Gulaab Gang (2014) have emerged to strongly argue that "No, India is not dangerous for women. Here are examples of women who do fight back verbally or physically and repeat Sarah's words to their oppressors - YOU HAVE NO POWER OVER ME!" While I will not divulge Anubhav Sinha's Gulaab Gang (2014), I will urge those who are indeed concerned with the cause to at least watch the movie once (and then watch Nishtha Jain's documentary). Both these renditions of the real Gulaab Gang offer us the realities that we sometimes overlook and erase from our cosmopolitan memories. The women who live in rural areas do not have access to education, are privy to child marriages (even Sampat Pal herself), and are readily abused or even have acid thrown on them if they refuse advances. Gulaab Gang was formed to protect women from such oppression and dedicated to the cause. Had both Sinha and Jain worked together or even released the two films side-by-side, we as audiences could have seen that the intention both filmmakers had was the same - to show that women in India were fighting back by uniting and literally taking arms to fight oppression. Instead, there are countless articles that show that both sides are immersed in a controversy days before the release of Sinha's film. Perhaps, their controversy serves a reminder that there is a need - a desperate need - for a united India. Without unity, there is no space for progress of any kind if people are too busy trying to find differences in one another. Although one film was a commercial enterprise set to release on the eve of International Woman's day, the other was a labour of love that took five years to make and was an attempt to capture the reality of the Gulaab Gang through Jain's perspective. I do have to say though that Chawla's performance as the corrupt, shrewd, and power-hungry performance should not be missed!
Rani Mukherjee who has been known for as one of the penultimate Indian actresses of Bollywood started her career in very low-budget films that spoke of glaring women's issues in the 90s. Her debut film entitled "Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat" or "Prince's Wedding Procession Will Arrive" is reportedly said to be a "commercial failure" in India's million dollar film industry. Recent discourses both in various social media outlets, newspapers, and even university classrooms have been hinting towards the increased sexual violence in India - one of the themes that both hinges upon on me emotionally and intellectually as I try to work through both my coursework term papers and attempt to unpack the current discourses that speak to the troubling violence of women in India.
I am no "feminist" and do not identify my politics with the term after having studied the historical discourses that have shaped the Western discourses since the suffragette movement began during the industrial revolution period in England. I hold a MA degree in Women's Studies from Western and a graduate certificate in Women's Studies from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Suffice to say, I have had time to think and shape my politics as a 1.5 generation woman of color who identifies herself both as an Indian and an American but strongly as a post-colonial scholar who is concerned with the status of women (and other marginalized others) in India.
I do believe in gender (and "other" studies) that speak to the politics and subjectivity of the subaltern (Read Gayatri Spivak's Can the Subaltern Speak?) - the marginalized - be it a man, woman, or any other person who belongs to a part of the society who is oppressed by socio-political-economic systems that have been in place for the less-privileged. However, I do consider my self a post-colonial scholar who is deeply concerned about the discourse that is centered upon the (sexual) violence of women in India as one of the major concerns that have shaped my intellectual and personal passionate study of the topic.
While there are other issues I hope to discuss in my blog in the future including acid attacks, dowry, the fairness debate, and other things that shape a middle class Indian woman's subjectivity in India. I will begin with this forgotten film, which I hope to resurrect from the "dead" and encourage people to watch it again (forgetting the low-budget production but focusing on how astutely and arguably "accurately" the director has brought about many important issues that continue to be hush-hush in India)! The film link that I have posted is with English subtitles but divided into parts. A full version is available but without any subtitles.
Raja ki Aayegi Baraat stars Rani Mukherjee, Shadab Khan, British-Indian actor Saeed Jaffery, and Mohnish Bahl - all of these actors (sans Shadab Khan) have made an international name for themselves but I give them props for being associated with a film that centered so heavily on domestic (and sexual violence) of women in India at a time when these realities were not even discussed or brought to light (which explains its supposed commercial failure). Today, I view their efforts as a gem and hope to use it in my pedagogical teachings in the future.
This film has three instances that I find are especially relevant when we discuss today's subjectivity of an Indian woman. Rani Mukherjee's character, Mala, is outspoken and strong. She angers Raja (Shadab Khan) when she arrives at his friend's wedding accusing his friend of abandoning his pregnant ex-girlfriend. Insulting and breaking the ceremony, Mala, a school teacher is then pursued by Raja who rapes her and leaves her naked and vulnerable in the classroom she teaches in. Humiliated but still resilient, Mala returns home to her father and a court case ensues. The court eventually sentences that Raja and Mala should be married in order to maintain the "honor" and "reputation" of both families. While the marriage takes place in a hush-hush manner, neither Raja nor Mala are happy with the arrangement. While Mala gradually starts to accept her role as Raja's wife, Raja and his family continue to despise her because of the fact that she belongs to a lower class and would not have been their daughter-in-law had Raja not raped her. Throughout the story, the family members attempt many schemes in order to literally remove Mala from their lives - anywhere from using physical violence (a scene where Raja tries to hit her with his belt) to a poisonous snake her uncle-in-law leaves in her honeymoon lodge when she is by herself to her sister-in-law leaving the gas on so that she can catch fire and lastly, her father-in-law hits her violently with a vase at the climax of the film. In all these instances, Mala comes out unscathed. The snake ends up poisoning Raja instead and she as a "heroic" figure sucks the blood out of him and like a true lover and wife saves his life and the film ends on a "sweet" note when the older brother (who supports Mala finally lashes out at this villainous wife who is no longer evil after her husband's rejection of her ideas) and when the lawyers and cop intervene, Mala lies to them that she had fallen from the staircase saving the "reputations" and "honors" of both her natal and marital home. The film wraps up nicely as both of them are shown getting married with celebrations and pomp.
Yes, the film is embedded with problematic issues and instances and perhaps the most glaring to an unfamiliar eye of India's cultural complexities and nuances will be a) a woman marrying her rapist b) silencing and forgetting all the moments of brutal violence against her - she is only accepted within her society if she remains silent and forgives and forgets all the attempts her in-laws and husband attempted to get rid of her. However, my argument as someone who is familiar with these complexities will suggest that the film was not a commercial success and is now among the forgotten films still alive in Youtube's search engines because it drives home the important points of silence and honour that continues to be so relevant to the society. There is always an uneasy silence that surrounds domestic violence in India (among other countries). The decision that the court did that encouraged the rapists to marry the victim is something that by no means that I endorse but it calls into question the ethics behind why the law would ask for such a decision and that is where it gets sticky. This is a practice that has been done for centuries but truly it makes you question WHY that is the case!
You also have to give credit to Mala for everything that she does - she attempts to find a happy medium between her vocal and strong character and her choice to still comply with traditional customs that is expected of her. Her husband eventually too gains respect, stands for her, and is even willing to take revenge for her against her perpetrators. The filmmaker's attempt to make a controversial film in the late 90s when Yash Chopra musicals were enjoying commercial success is something to think about. These are issues that no one wants to discuss or hear about. Furthermore, this film is definitely produced with a low budget even for its time. Lastly, I really like this film because it suggests that there are many women like Mala who exists who I would argue choose silence (from the law and the outer society) to enjoy a peaceful life with their families. she could have easily complained to the law and gotten her in-laws and husband jailed for their continuous brutal violence upon her but why did she choose not to speak to the law? Why was this the director's choice? Would the film have given the same message if the ending had not been the way that it was? I would suggest that because the film's ending was an eerily "sweet" one, it allows us as viewers and consumers of the film to take up the issues that are unresolved within the framework the film. Although the film speaks of issues we want to close our eyes to, I think the film makes a remarkable impact on the broader repertoire of Indian films that represent domestic violence and beg us to take a look at them again.
Kudos to the filmmakers who attempt to make movies that compel us to rethink glaring issues that impact the status of women in India.
Source Image: upload.wikmedia.org, static.indianexpress.com, static.ibnlive.com, i.smash.saavncdn.com Video Source: Youtube
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