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Innocent victims of scornful prejudices

Considering the socio-cultural ethos that mark our society and morals we have been brought up with in Himachal, being disrespectful to our elders is deemed as a big shame, leave aside an utterly bizarre idea of raising a hand on them.

Innocent victims of scornful prejudices

The victim, Rajdei, with her daughter in Hamirpur. File photo



Rajesh Kumar

Considering the socio-cultural ethos that mark our society and morals we have been brought up with in Himachal, being disrespectful to our elders is deemed as a big shame, leave aside an utterly bizarre idea of raising a hand on them. However, what happened in Mandi on November 6 when a mother figure like Rajdei was beaten up, garlanded with shoes and her face blackened by none other than her own co-villagers did make us hang our heads in shame. Surpassing all limits of moral turpitude, the de-humanising act put to rest all talks on forbearance, endurance and resilience our rich culture proudly boasts of. 

Among hundreds of temples dedicated to the deity culture in Kullu district, the temple affairs of most of them are managed by male ‘Kardaars’, barring three —one being dedicated to deity Luxmi Narayan at Dhawgi village, for instance, where the responsibility is shouldered by women ‘Kardaars’. It is nothing short of an honour for women. But doesn’t the Mandi incident speak volumes of our society’s duplicitous locus standi on issues of women empowerment and gender equality when it holds one woman in such high esteem and treats another so shabbily and that also on misplaced charges of her being a sorceress? Even if she had been one, as was claimed, no amount of rationale behind their inhuman action, religious sanctification notwithstanding, could be justified given her advanced age. 

Literally petrified, the trauma she had been through was writ large on her wrinkled and somber face with teary eyes that couldn’t muster enough courage to face the cameras out of humiliation she had suffered. Her pictures when flashed in newspapers did evoke emotive reactions from all but surprisingly not a collective societal response of condemning the reprehensible act in one voice on a desired note not until videos went viral on social media. We are perhaps in times when we need techno-innovations to awake our conscience not our morality! Anyway, Kudos to today’s technology that did play an onerous role of arousing much-needed compassion and empathy for the poor lady, who seemingly had no immediate shoulder to lean on after having endured societal atrociousness and brutality of the order that may put to shame even a devil.

And if the brutality emanates from deeply-ingrained superstitious beliefs, as it did the other day, the task ahead of course correction is inarguably humungous. It becomes more so when the state police end up being a mute witness to it with eyes wide open but hands tied firmly behind their back, or for that matter, when pseudo-enthusiasts of our society who do talk passionately of women emancipation and justice are found wanting in evolving it from deep-rooted superstitions and scornful prejudices that are victimising her still.

There are misconceptions galore and misplaced notions aplenty vis-à-vis our faith and belief in the divine we earnestly adore. Dispelling the same through sublimation of deviant attitudinal propensities of ours towards fellow beings is perhaps the need of the hour. And the purification process ought to manifest in nuanced sensibilities and thoughtfulness behind our conduct towards other constituents of society. How does demonizing a poor woman like her reflect we are headed in the right direction? 

We are in an age when we can afford to be a bit conservative in our religious belief and faith but perhaps not narcissistic to the extent of being superstitious in its blind pursuit. Nor can we afford to listen to unredeemable commands, aka diktats, of divine voices that only get vitiated when are attempted to be heard through highly fallible beings. The voice of divinity needs no interpreter nor any medium for it is very much audible, even to a deaf, and traverses swiftly through the lightness of featherlike tender human subtleties that delve largely in rationality and rationale. Intricate profanities posed by compulsive human behaviour only make it latently vague.

Hers was a clear case of ‘witch-hunting’ — a practice that ought to be nipped in the bud by putting in place a legislation which may prohibit and prevent it, punish the perpetrators of the crime and provide due protection to the victim. The legislation must also provide for assessing the collateral damage caused, compensating the victim adequately and most importantly, rehabilitating her in the same society which splotched her with an inerasable stigma of being labelled as a ‘sorceress’ for the rest of her life. 

A unanimously arrived at political consensus on the need for the law in question is, however, unlikely, given the nature of Himachal polity and its inexcusable compulsions that are likely to ride roughshod over Rajdei’s dire need for rightful justice. No political party would dare tinker with age-old religious beliefs of various communities whose unflinching faith in the commands of their local deities would tolerate no intervention, whatsoever, not even legal.

But if a grievous harm, physical or psychological, intentional or induced, is caused to any human being, as it did in her case, it should be a reason justifiable enough to put in place a legal safeguard to check further victimisation of hapless women like her.  

(The writer is a resident of Una)

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