Syeda Mazhar
With a booming economy throughout the 2000s, India was touted as one of the most promising major emerging markets. But that breakneck growth sputtered to a decade low in 2012, with many observers pointing to the corrosive effect of endemic corruption—including a spate of scandals under former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh—as a culprit. Perhaps more than India’s weak currency and rising inflation, the graft problem has undermined institutions and thwarted efforts to reduce poverty and catalyze sustainable growth in the world’s largest democracy. Public revelations of corruption, including major scandals in the telecommunications and coal industry, have galvanized a rising middle class with increased demands for better governance.
Corruption in India can be traced back to the country’s colonial past. The British Raj period, beginning in 1858, excluded Indian citizens from political participation by dividing the country into districts with provincial governments controlled by a commissioner. Narendra Modi’s government’s failure and incompetence is evident. There’s been corruption in India for thousands of years, but what you see is the kind of corruption changing. It still continues to be among the most corrupt countries in the world, according to Transparency International.
Country notoriously known for claiming equal rights for women or better economic reforms or even actively working against corruption is merely putting up a pretense to fool the international community. Barkha Dutt, the renowned television journalist’s “This Unquiet Land: Stories from India’s Fault Lines” is a firsthand account of “the real India”. Ms. Dutt’s bold and incisive exposé of India’s fault lines is identified from her quarter century career in television journalism. Journalists have a front row view of history; their description maybe coloured by their biases, the impact of the unfolding events or influence of the celebrities they have rubbed shoulders with.
Barkha Dutt, in her book, focuses on the “nobodies of India, the people who are on the outside looking in on the political drama in the country, with religion and caste distinctions forming the backdrop. This Unquiet Land efficiently reveals the ugly face of India, where women are denied their basic rights, lower class is trampled on and oppressed by “superior” Brahmins and Hindutva prevails over power politics and rampant corruption stunt’s growth despite tall claims by its politicians.
The writer minces no words when she lifts the shroud from the naked fact of the use of unconstitutional violence by India’s Deep State. In many cases, the political-cultural movements which engage in identity politics seek fundamental juridical changes, political power and, sometimes, cultural hegemony. Minority and women’s rights advocates embrace identity politics because it has increased awareness of the legitimacy and unique experience of different groups.
Critically describing her own maiden experience of covering the Gujarat Riots, she concludes that Hindutva was operating on an alienating agenda. Custodial violence and abuse of police power have emerged a major issue of human rights concern and one of the root obstacles to democracy and development of human well being in contemporary societies. To prove her point, she reasons that the triumph of the political wing of the extremist centre of power Sangh Parivar‘s radical political face the BJP emanates from the 1992 December demolition of the Babri Mosque.
Horrific rapes in India have sparked outrage and large-scale protests nationwide as well as internationally. The ghastly incidents highlight the link between sexual violence, the caste system and the corrupt government officials. Picking up protesters, mostly girls, from INDIA GATE and dropping them in the interior regions of UP and Haryana speaks of the perverse thinking of the government.
Incidents like a Dalit girl who was allegedly raped for several months went to the superintendent of police’s office in the Satna district in the central state of Madhya Pradesh with a six-month-old fetus wrapped in a plastic bag. She accused three upper-caste locals of sexually assaulting her. In the state of Chhattisgarh, a similar case came to light when a 22-year-old woman was allegedly lured away by a priest and raped. The list is long and observers say the incidents demonstrate that caste-based rape is a tool of domination that the upper castes use against “lower-caste” women.
“We have seen this almost on a daily, yet sickening, basis. There is no caste-based data on sexual crimes in the country, but it is there for everyone to see. The women are also targeted more when their men folk leave for urban centers in search of work,” Ranjana Kumari, director of the Center for Social Research.
While dwelling on women’s issues, the denial of equal opportunities for women, she touches a raw nerve when she divulges that even the educated and well off women are victim of harassment and abuse. She ironically chastises the Indian Judicial system steeped in illusions of grandeur of the upper class and bias against women, no relief was provided to a low caste rape victim.
Dutt also spoke about women trafficking and female genocide. Hitting a raw nerve in India by exposing the real face of the already distorted reality which is projected to the world, the writer condemns the misrepresentation of the facts and portrays the truth without any extravagance or glitterati.
