Just yesterday, my friend showed me a video in which a few young girls were demanding a middle-aged woman to apologise to them for her indecent remarks. The woman, pointing at a girl’s attire, allegedly said, “She should be raped on account of her ‘indecent’ clothes as such ‘indecent’ clothing induces men to rape”. Downright disgusting, truly!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAbWJs-HGpU
But while the comments made by the woman are indeed abysmal, there was so much in this video that kept me perturbed. Firstly, how can a woman say such horrible things to girls who looked her daughter’s age, or to women in general? Secondly, why didn’t she apologise, even when another lady tried to intervene? Thirdly, how should I react to the body-shaming of this middle-aged woman, considering that the other lady said, “The girl has a body to flaunt, you don’t have it.” Towards the end, one of the girls even said to the woman, “You are jealous”. Lastly, I saw people sharing this video in numbers, some saying “Let’s make this woman popular” by which they meant “infamous” and “Let’s give this woman unwanted internet fame” etc.
This isn’t for the first time that a person has been trolled for blatant racist, sexist and prejudiced statements; our lives are now interspersed with such viral content on a very regular basis now. I was immediately reminded of how sometime back a young lady brought forth a list of professors calling them “sexual predators” without providing any legal or proven records. Even though her list had no legal truth in it, yet somehow she was able to arouse a latent feeling of suppression, and legitimise her claim which garnered a huge reach. In a few hours, India’s topmost intellectuals, including the likes of Ashish Nandy and Dipesh Chakraborty were being trolled in the list of sexual predators.
Now, as I tried to piece together these events in the wake of this incident, the picture seems to be larger than it appears. Two things are important to consider here: first is the broader realisation, that our country is witnessing a surge of Populism; second, we are also a nation which is strongly pushing the gender revolution, with women (for example, marital rape) and LGBT+ movements etc.
Those who know a little bit of the history of Populism would see that one of its features is the rise of a popular leader who powerfully assails majority emotions to gain popularity, and on its basis carries out authoritative actions often bypassing the established laws. Modi is that Populist leader, who can decide to demonetise, walk to Pakistan to celebrate birthdays, all by himself.
Now, we must understand that while the distrust with established laws in delivering justice is there, we must greatly be aware that populist reactions are never a guarantee to radical or even significant changes. In the case of Soma Chakraborty, the impulse of women liberation and a populist impulse in the ethos of our country coalesced together.
Even though the young girls had threatened Soma with the police (the established law), they seemed more resolute on putting her on social media (choosing a populist, cyber-shaming alternative). Now the sense is, of course, that injustice was done to these girls, for they were attacked with such abominable words, but what is it that we should call justice in this case?
Normally, justice is understood in the sense of retribution, also called “retributive justice” in which an adequate punishment is given to the offender, which in this case could have resulted in a police case under IPC Section 294– Punishment for obscene acts and words in public, or Section 509– Word, gesture or acts intended to insult the modesty of a woman, as far as my knowledge of IPC is concerned. But, because the case would have involved both the parties in a redressal mechanism, which is super lengthy, we are left with two options.
First, what seems to have happened in this case- trolling a person and cyber-shaming her/him by reaching out to certain numbers who empathise with the predicaments of women and the failure of laws in dealing with them. This might have a larger disciplinary and gender-sensitising effect in building a more gender-sensitive future.
Second, a call for restorative justice- a way of justice in which reconciliation between the offender and the victim becomes possible when the former accedes to apologise, and the latter is willing to accept the same.
But because, as I said, this issue involves the elements of two very powerful waves (Populism and Gender Sensitisation) I fail to understand how can we choose to disparage the body-shaming that Soma was subjected to, in the same video? Is body-shaming in itself not a terrible counter to her sexist outlook? Is body-shaming not as big an issue as a woman’s dignity? Isn’t body-shaming Soma, a reflection of how a woman’s body is expected to be moulded as a marketable and flaunt-able commodity?
Suppose, the girls would have called the police and lodged an FIR against her or had a fine should been levied upon her, wouldn’t that have been a better way of shutting Soma’s sexist outlook up? Can the self-contradictory rationale in the video help us sensitise our gender outlook?
These questions give rise to too many questions in the mind. What exactly determines our judgment of viral content? Can this incident be called a form of cyber-lynching, where solution is sought by bypassing the law and where both the parties escape the procedures of law? Will such viral videos help us become more disciplined and gender-sensitive? Who has the authority to set or prioritise the narratives?