India's Winter of Discontent

Some Feminist Dilemmas in the Wake of a Rape

Bibliographic Data

ID4894846
AuthorsDebolina Dutta (0000-0002-7170-1977), Oishik Sircar (0009-0009-9498-5501)
Year2013
Volume39
Issue1
Pages293-306
Publication date2013-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0046-3663 • E-ISSN: 2153-3873
PublisherProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/fem.2013.0023
OpenAlexW3162750368
LanguageEN
Citations received30

news and views India's WinterofDiscontent: Some FeministDilemmas in the Wakeofa Rape Debolina Dutta and OishikSircar Few people in India had a problem shaking a leg to Punjabi rapper Yo Yo Honey Singh's songs until the December 2012 brutal gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh Pandey. After this incident, numerous objec tions arose to the misogyny in the lyrics of his songs such as "Main Hoon Balaatkari" ("I'm a Rapist"), which describes raping a woman out alone in the night, and "Choot" ("Cunt"), which describes his vio lent sex with and urination on a woman. Buoyed by the popular pro tests against JyotiPandey's rape, an online petition and social media posts called for a ban on Honey Singh's performance at a hotel on New Year's Eve.1 The petition also demanded that he be arrested. The show did get canceled, and the police registered a complaint against him.2 This incident highlights the debated connections between rep resentations of violence, actual violence against women, and the call for censorship, which together comprise a familiar feminist dilemma. Several of those calling for a ban against Honey Singh were not avowedly feminists and—in their call for censorship—were echo ing a logic similar to those used by the Hindu right wing, which has launched violent campaigns in its calls for censorship over depictions FeministStudies39, no. 1. © 2013 by Feminist Studies, Inc. 293 294 Debolina Dutta and OishikSircar of women's sexuality and sexual agency in such works as Deepa Meh ta's film Fireand M. F. Hussain's painting Saraswati.3Many feminists in India who identify with the sex-positive politics of queer feminism and would otherwise resist censorship also signed the petition. Shilpa Phadke, a feminist academic from Bombay, expressed her dilemma after signing the petition. Once we go down the slippery slope of banning where do we stop?... Censorship is no friend of feminists Feminists who sup port censorship often find themselves on the same side of the fence with the most undesirable of collaborators.4 Critiquing the move to ban Honey Singh, queer feminist and gay rights activist Ashley Tellis wrote the following: Just calling it sexist and offensive and attempting to shut it down only offer collusion with the moral police that is ever-ready to shut all manifestations of the sexual down, especially when it comes to women and sexuality.5 Did the act of signing, or not signing, this petition mark a political difference? The contrast in positions has become pronounced in the months that have followed, and fault lines within feminist thinking and activism have emerged. Simultaneously, the unfolding of events has opened up possibilities for revisioning feminist responses to sexual violence. Following the gang rape of JyotiPandey, who was a twenty-three year-old female physiotherapy student, Delhi saw unprecedented public protests. India's otherwise indifferent middle-class youth took to the streets. A sustained and market-driven media campaign fueled public outrage and mobilized people to occupy roads; protest marches led to the president's residence in Raisina Hill, encounter ing police violence. Similar protests were held in other metropolitan cities across the country, but in Delhi the protests became so intense that the government imposed curfew orders in parts of the city and the police resorted to beating the protesters.6 It seemed, as so many people in India have remarked in the wake of these protests, that the Arab Spring for India had arrived—but in the midst of the Indian winter. Debolina Dutta and Oishik Sircar 295 There has been a surfeit of writing on the incident and the pro tests on blogs and social media.7 There was widespread international attention, with statements from the United Nations and international human rights organizations.8 Media from across the world covered the protests and provided regular updates, many of them recreating the colonial imagery of premodern victimhood.9 The incident also provided fodder to a range of motley actors—from spiritual gurus to the Indian president's son to Hindu right-wing leaders—whose misogynist drivel was widely covered by the media and decried by many feminists, progressive commentators, and protesters.10 The form

Agency (philosophy) · Art · Censorship · Literature · Lyrics · Media studies · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · South Asian Cinema and Culture