From the Brink of the Inferno to the Long Road to Innocence: an Anatomy of Rape

Sandhya S. Nayar

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Chapter 4 From the Brink of the Inferno to the Long Road to Innocence: an Anatomy of Rape

In: Eight Faces of Revenge

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Sandhya S. Nayar

Sandhya S. Nayar
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 38–52

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004380257_005

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Abstract

‘Mother, they should not be hanged but burnt to death’. These are the words of ‘Nirbhaya’ or the fearless one, the gruesome gang rape victim of Delhi whose valiant fight for survival shook the amnesic conscience of a nation. Around the same place but millenniums ago, as recounted in the epic Mahabharata, Queen Draupadi was dragged by her hair to be disrobed in the royal court after her husband lost her in a game of dice. She took a terrible vow of vengeance, of leaving her beautiful long tresses untied until they were bathed in the blood of the violator. Phoolan Devi becomes the ‘Bandit Queen’ and avenges the series of rapes that she was subjected to but in the process she transforms herself into a bloodthirsty criminal. Bhanwari Devi, an epitome of indomitable will, battled relentlessly for justice though ostracised by her community and accused of perpetuating the lie of being gang raped in the presence of her husband. Her long fight is a triumph of the human spirit and resulted in the legal provisions against sexual harassment at the work place. The case studies of these four women reveal the three broad categories of rape according to the intention of the rapist as mentioned by Nicholas Groth, namely anger, power and sadism. Rapes at the time of wars, communal riots, and the archaic custom of bride kidnapping, also fall under these categories. The paper is a study of the divine qualities as mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita, the cultivation of which bulwarks one against the vicissitudes of fate, for eventually it is spiritual strength alone which shields one from the onslaughts of the trine evil forces of ‘lust, anger and greed’. Thus it is not vengeance but time, justice and spiritual strength that assuages a victim.

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Eight Faces of Revenge

Series: At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries, Volume: 105

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004380257

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 15 Nov 2018

Subjects
- Philosophy
  - Social & Political Philosophy
- Social Sciences
  - Cultural Studies

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Chapter 4 From the Brink of the Inferno to the Long Road to Innocence: an Anatomy of Rape

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Eight Faces of Revenge

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