• The Delhi Rape Case and India’s Urban Middle Class

    Author(s):
    Pramod Ranjan (see profile)
    Date:
    2013
    Group(s):
    Cultural Studies, Political Philosophy & Theory, Race/Ethnicity in Classical Antiquity
    Subject(s):
    Rape, Racism, India, Dalits
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    nirbhya, Delhi rape, Indian Studies, molestation
    Permanent URL:
    https://doi.org/10.17613/7hy0-xs50
    Abstract:
    The demonstrations against the 16 December 2012 Delhi gang-rape incident shook Raisina Hill, right up to the ornate iron gates of Rashtrapati Bhavan. This was the second time since Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement that the urban middle class took to the streets in such a big way. As compared to Anna’s movement, these protests saw a much larger participation by youth. So much so that the ruling party as well as the opposition – in fact everyone who has stakes in the Delhi ‘gaddi’- heard the footsteps of the Arab Spring in it. What is the reason that in a country where one rape takes place every hour and an attempt to rape or an incident of eve-teasing every half-an-hour, the rape of a commoner triggered such a big protest in Delhi? Is it because Delhi is India’s capital and the news media keep a close eye on it?
    Notes:
    The same middle class is clamouring for death for the accused in the Delhi gang-rape case. What was so special about Chatterjee that the hands of even the hangman would have trembled while executing him? Chatterjee was a Brahmin. Under Manusmriti rule under no circumstances, including murder and rape, can a Brahmin be hung. It was maybe for the first time under India’s new Constitution, that a Brahmin was sentenced to death by the state.
    Metadata:
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    Published as:
    Magazine section     Show details
    Pub. URL:
    https://www.forwardpress.in/2013/01/the-delhi-rape-case-and-indias-urban-middle-class/
    Pub. Date:
    February 2013
    Magazine:
    Forward Press
    Section:
    5-2
    Page Range:
    10 - 13
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    11 months ago
    License:
    Attribution

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