05/05/2016
The gruesome rape and murder of Jisha, the law student from Perumbavoor, on the afternoon of April 28 have once again drawn attention to the way we treat women who constitute one half of the population of Kerala. The incident comes as yet another one in a series of episodes of violence against women that the state has been witnessing recently, which are habitually described as 'shocking,' making the word itself nothing but a cliché. The passionate response of our politicians also followed a set pattern: the human beasts who committed the acts were condemned as exception against the majority of morally upright and culturally superior Malayalees; and hollow promises of bringing the perpetrators to book without any delay followed.
Jisha was one of the two daughters of a poor daily wager mother. Rajeshwari, Jisha's mother, had earlier lodged a specific complaint with the local police station, alleging that some people had threatened to harm her daughter. Apparently, the police remained indifferent. Rajeshwari first spotted the mutilated body of her daughter in their one-room makeshift home when she returned from the day's labor. It was later reported that this Dalit family was having an ostracized existence in the Rayamangalam panchayat of Perumbavoor, bringing to focus the caste angle that lies underneath. Media reports have it that nobody from the neighbourhood bothered to provide any form of assistance even after the incident.
The event didn't garner the attention of the mainstream media and the high echelons of the police until the details of the ghastly murder began to trend in the social media. Political parties, too, soon sought to gain mileage out of the incident, as they landed another issue in the run-up to the assembly elections due later this month. The incident then attained tremendous coverage, with television channels throwing up new information every minute in 'breaking news' scrolls.
The autopsy report revealed close to 38 wounds inflicted on the body of Jisha. Her genital organs were mutilated. Intestines were taken out. The murder has drawn comparisons with the horrible gang rape and murder of Nirbhaya in New Delhi on the night of December 16, 2012 that left the nation stunned and embarrassed.
As the identity of the culprit/s and the existence or non existence of a possible motif behind the killing haven't been established yet, it would insightful to look at the way the media narratives have been emerging in the past few days. It was at first reported that some migrant workers who were in touch with the otherwise shunned family of the village was taken into custody. Later on, the possibility of their involvement waned. The urgency with which the police and media glued on to this narrative underscores the Malayalee mentality that the culturally superior Malayalee male won't stoop to commit such gruesome murder of a perverted nature. It was as if a Bengali or an Assamese was needed for such a heinous thing to happen in Kerala. This kind of othering and the pretentions of the moral superiority of the Malayalee haven't come down even after mass reportage of violence against women in our society. It's high time we opened our eyes and looked at ourselves, for only that would reveal the extent of complicity of a patriarchal culture that spawns such events of aggression on the female body.
The increasing visibility of women in the public domain has shaken the patriarchal culture out of its complacency. The women have since been subjected to constant censure in terms of the kinds of dress that she should wear, the hours that she must choose to get out of the home and come back etc. To the advocates of separate moral codes and censure mechanisms for women, Jisha's case presents a big dilemma. It doesn't fit their pattern. She was brutally raped inside her home in broad day light. What we need now is not just the rhetoric of female emancipation and protection: The need of the hour is a mechanism that is receptive to the woman's right to lead a dignified life irrespective of caste or creed.
(Photo credit: European Parliament via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND Photo credit: FREDBOUAINE ? via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND)