Every person who has visited India departs
with colorful pictures embedded on their retina, of sari dressed women, for
example. The textile artist Shantipriya Kurada writes: “The beauty of the sari
has never ceased fascinating me. There is something magical about it and it
symbolizes the romantic aspect of India’s women – their
vulnerability, their evasive mannerism and their astounding beauty.”
By Torbjørn Færøvik
Author
For the past two weeks women in sari and
other types of clothing have demonstrated all over the country. Day after day they have stood with clenched
fists calling for protection and justice. The gang rapes in India have shaken a whole
nation. Now what? Everyone agrees that the perpetrators must be
severely punished. It is just as
important to raise the consciousness of both sexes, arm them with knowledge,
provide them with work and give them faith in the future. If the Indian joint project that was started
by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru doesn’t succeed, the ripple effects will
be great.
India was
liberated the night of August 15, 1947. “At the stroke of the midnight hour, while the world sleeps, India will
awake to life and freedom”, said Nehru in his radio address to the nation. And
the midnight children, vividly described by Salman Rushdie, pushed out of the
womb to utter their first cries.
At that time the country had a population
of 340 million people. At the time of
writing, it is nearing 1,266 billion.
The quick-as-a-lightning counter of “India’s Population Clock” makes my
eyes burn. India’s
population grows with 15 million people per year, much faster than China’s. In a few years, perhaps in 2025, the
country’s population will surpass that of China. The two giants will then have
close to three billion inhabitants combined. The staggering numbers illustrate how much is at stake.
India
struggled for many years after liberation to get their wheels moving. Experts spoke with disdain about “the Hindu
rate of growth”. Nehru and his
successors did as well as they could, but the growth rate seldom exceeded three
or four percent per year. It was not
before the 1990’s that it began to increase rapidly. The cause was economic liberalization. Suddenly the population rate increased by
both seven and eight percent, and the stockbrokers rejoiced. During the last few years the global crisis
washed over the country, and the other side of the coin has become more
visible. Not everybody got their share of the progress and millions of women
struggle to hold their own.
The woman whose gang rape resulted in death
studied physical therapy. Her prospects were good. It is far worse for the millions of women who
live in poverty and can’t read or write.
More than 30 percent of India’s
women (over the age of seven) are illiterate. No one could be easier to abuse.
Gandhi and Nehru dreamed of a country where
everybody, girls and boys alike, should receive schooling and acquire
knowledge. Nehru brought to mind that
the mathematical concept of “zero” was discovered by Indian wise men back in
the distant past. So why couldn’t such
people accomplish the greatest undertakings? But something went wrong on the way.
India’s
caste system and class distinction are so deeply rooted and hence have proven difficult
to combat. Much good has been done, but
infinitely much remains.
Without an
educational system that concentrates maximally on helping the weakest to advance,
the country will remain in a bad circle. Such a school system would cost the
Indian treasury dearly, but perhaps they do have the funds? At any rate there are enough privately held
riches under India’s
skies, and the country’s Minister of Defense can afford both atom weapons and
long distance missiles.
Unfortunately is India not in a class by
itself. Its neighbors Pakistan and Bangladesh are, with certain
variations, in the same position. Women
get the short end of the stick and are frequently subjects of abuse, both at
home and in public. The suicide rate of women in China is about the highest in the
world. Both China
and India
are struggling with a surplus of women. Why?
It is because of old traditions and new technology. With the aid of ultrasound it has become possible
to discover the sex of a future child when it is an embryo in its mother’s
womb. The road to the operation table is
extremely short if it is the “wrong sex”.
The New Years’ celebrations in Delhi and other Indian
cities were rather subdued. Festivities
that had been planned were cancelled out of respect for the rape victim. A somber Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress
Party, kept to her home, and the Armed Forces refrained from firing their
traditional salutes. The trail to the future will be more difficult to blaze.
Where is the leader who will light the torch and run ahead? Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a
well-meaning man, but at his age of eighty years he is unlikely able to make
the run. Some are crying for a new
Gandhi, this time for 40 year old Rahul, son of Rajiv Gandhi. But perhaps
mother Sonia now discovers that her time is ripe?
Much is at stake in India in 2013
(Translated by Anne Faerovik)
