In the last 24-48 hours, social media has been going bezerk
with posts, tweets and blogs on “India’s Daughter”, the much-debated, even
maligned BBC documentary that has stirred the entire world, never mind India.
With the dust having somewhat settled, it is now time to take stock. Having
written nothing but scientific papers during the last several (seven to be
precise) years, I now feel that the opportune moment has come to break free of this
‘work-related shell'…. to come out in expression…. to ride the crest… to put
what might’ve otherwise been merely fleeting thoughts into words. Have no
illusions -- the aim of this piece is not
to assess the quality of the documentary itself -- personally, I have to say I
was a tad disappointed in the quality. Nor is the aim to elaborately sympathize
with those who have suffered, and/or have been emotionally shaken (myself
included) by it. Rather, the aims are to drive home the idea of why it must be
aired, and its significance in exposing our delusional perceptions of India
being a “progressive nation”…
First, let us put aside the no-brainer. Even as many
(including myself) found the documentary disturbing, its petrifying contents
are precisely the reasons why it MUST be aired. It is saddening, although not
unsurprising, that the Govt. has lacked the courage to bite what seems to be a
bullet from its own making via sustained ineptitude/ negligence. Whether the
lay-person chooses to watch it, or chooses to hear about its spine-chilling
contents from another individual is entirely a call of personal-judgement,
bound to show strong inter-individual variation. A second, irrefutable reason
for why it should be aired is that it is a one-off, or more accurately, a ‘first-off’.
At least to my knowledge, it the first globally recognized film that exposes
the causal factors behind heinous domestic crime (more accurately, rape) in
india.
It is imperative to cast aside this myth that it should not
be aired because it “shows India in a bad light”. I can only ask (beg) those
taking that perspective to wake up and smell the coffee (I suppose we have
traditionally been a country of tea-drinkers). The shocking reality of the
patriarchal mindsets of many common Indian men may be a bitter pill to swallow,
but swallowed it must be. Further, the viewer is deluded, and is clearly
missing the bigger picture if he/she believes that the documentary addresses an
India-centric problem. While it particularly focused on how medieval social
organizations and schools of thought lay platforms for the brutal treatment and
diabolical acts conducted against Indian women, the reality is that there are
other, equally chilling socio-psychological causal factors behind rape and
sexual harassment around the world. In other words, the film may well be
considered as just one segment of a novel, global-scale venture to use
Television media to understand the social and/or psychological basis behind
domestic violence and crime. “Showing the US in a bad light”, Americans
frequently publicize the thoughts of some of the most notorious serial killers
and mass-murderers behind bars in their country. Chilling details of how
seemingly hidden yet highly widespread, troublesome phenomena such as negligent
or abusive parenting, deranged, anti-social childhoods, and/or forced
suppression or concealment of (homo)sexuality, could all lay the foundations
for propensities to commit heinous crimes are revealed to the public, via TV
and newspaper interviews, books, and indeed, documentaries on criminals. That
is not to say that the fine line between criminal mindset exposure and the
provision of a stage for criminal glorification is never crossed; for every Ted
Bundy, there is a Charles Manson! The point here is that in America, understanding
the socio-psychological bases of violent domestic crime is actually an
interdisciplinary science: of criminology, sociology,
anthropology and behavioral psychology. In India, going by the ban imposed on
“India’s Daughter”, it may well be (farcically) considered a crime in itself!
To summarize, our honorable PM,
ever-intent and -eager on blindly borrowing and reproducing ideas of economic
policy from the US (e.g. Raeganomics -> Modinomics), seems to have turned a
conveniently blind eye towards some of America's bold, scientifically
captivating ventures to understand and address its domestic problems. Finally,
there are those who contend that the BBC has gone on a “hate-India”
propagandizing mission-of-sorts. I would ask as to where these same people were
when the channel has, in the past, aired pleasurable documentaries that cast
into light India’s rich cultural (“The Story of India”) and bio-diversities
(“Land of the Tiger”). Daggers well-and-truly sheathed then have been pulled
out all of a sudden, with people ready to caste blame instead of facing up to
cold reality.
