A woman is within her rights to refuse intercourse with her husband if she has already borne him sons or wants to lead a pious life or is barren or has given birth to still-born or is beyond her fertile age {3.2.45}
A wife may abandon her husband if he has a bad character or is away from home for a long time in a foreign country or is a traitor to the King or threatens the life of his wife or is declared an outcast,or becomes impotent {3.3.48}
A husband who falsely accuses his wife of not sleeping with him is to be punished {3.3.14}
A man raping a prostitute is to be fined 12 panas {4.13.38}
Each participant in the gangrape of a prostitute is to be fined 24 panas {4.13.38}
A man raping a woman living by herself is to be fined 100 panas {3.3.16}
A man raping a girl who has achieved puberty is to have his middle and index finger cut off {3.3.14}
A man raping a pre-pubescent girl is to have his hand cut off or a fine of 400 panas {4.12.1,2}
A man raping a woman already betrothed is to have his hand cut off or a fine of 400 panas {4.12.3,5}
If the girl dies as a result of rape, the rapist is to be put to death {4.12.1,2}
Special punishment for city guards who misbehave with a woman
A man wrongly accusing a woman of not being virgin is to be fined 200 panas and shall lose the right to marry her {4.12.15-19}
Verses from The Arthashastra. Translated by LN Rangarajan. Penguin Books 1992
Right from the epic age, the act of violating a woman against her will was considered amongst the most heinous of crimes and people committing such crimes were considered akin to those outside the pale of civilization. Till even a century and a half back, it was not unheard of clans upon clans sacrificing themselves to protect the honour of a solitary woman. To violate a virgin was a heinous crime and so was doing so to a married woman. Our tales of the old are replete with both instances of severe punishments following such crimes and of the society collectively rising up to avenge moral trespasses and to protect the honour of their womenfolk
It is hence, surprising that the rising incidence of rape has been attributed by many to the sick Indian mindset. Byte and megabytes have been used by the usual cabal of left wing commentators in trying to prove that rapes are a logical corollary to the Indian Religion, its male worshipping fetish, its ‘penile code’, its misogyny and so on. True, Indian society is not perfect by any stretch of imagination. India, particularly in its post medieval period has seen all sorts of heinous atrocities committed on its womenfolk - forced sati, abandonment, sexual exploitation of widows, perpetual dependent status and so on. Our social reformers of this period admitted the shortcomings of Hindu society and then tried to redress them. Today, we are faced with two extreme positions – one which seeks to blame every evil on our societal norms and the other which pretends that such evils are a ‘gift’ of the western civilization.
It thence is a little sickening to find commentators gleefully attributing blame for such atrocities on women on Indian notion of masculinity and our misogyny. Some more circumspect personalities have chosen to blame sexual repression and falling gender ratio as the triggers for rise in these crimes. At the other end of the spectrum are those worthies who choose to blame the victim, her dress, co-education, mobiles and any other totem of modernity.
Not even the most virulent of critics of all things traditional would probably go so far as to claim that rapes are only an Indian phenomenon. The number of rapes, both absolute and per lakh of population, which get reported in far more egalitarian and liberated of societies, Sweden, France, UK US, New Zealand et al are much higher than similar incidence in India. The city of London alone records some 3,000 rapes per annum. Each of these countries have a sex ratio which is higher than 1, have strong law protection and enforcement systems, have higher women participation in workforce and legislature and most significantly, are considered ‘progressive’ as far as all definitions of modernity and sexual liberation are concerned. So, these countries already have reached a level long back, which in the views of many worthies, would free India of the ‘rape’ phenomenon.
On the other extreme, any attempt to equate rape with a by-product of clothes, education et al needs to be dismissed right at the outset. If this were true, we would never see kids, children, senior citizens, nuns and sadhvis violated. Nor would we see any case where demure, ghunghat or hizab wearing, illiterate/ semi-literate tradition upholding women getting abducted and dishonoured.
However, like most human behaviors, no single factor can at all times be said to be the trigger or the cause behind sexual assaults. While there cannot be an instant linkage in between the crime and culture, sociologists and policy makers must analyze if the overt recourse to sex and sexual appear in popular culture, right from sports to entertainment, from personal products to consumer goods, have resulted in a situation where a hyper-sexualised individual constantly, even if sub-consciously scans for opportunities where gratification could be achieved!
Similarly, like with any other crime, the probability of a sexual assault getting committed are higher if the perpetrator feels that he can get away with it. Are strict laws an answer? Probably no, because the criminal fhere eels that firstly he won’t be apprehended and if he does get caught, there is little likelihood of he getting convicted. On the other hand, if there is a certainty that crime will be followed by punishment, the intending perpetrator is more likely to give up the idea of committing the crime. Countries like Congo, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Panama, Bolivia, all with dysfunctional law enforcement systems see high instances of sexual assault. Likewise, sexual assaults happen much more in lands ravaged by wars and riots, the common factor between all the above being absence of law enforcement. Rape is about enforcing power, a power to violate and this can be exercised only when the perpetrator feels both powerful and secure enough to commit this crime.
Harsh laws and an uncritical reliance on an alleger’s complaints are no substitute to a robust criminal justice system. Across cultures, violation of a woman’s right over her body has been recorded along with other crimes like murder and plunder, right from the dawn of civilization and there is little reason to believe (even if we all would like to), that such inhuman acts can be eliminated altogether. In an ideal world, we would not need doors in our houses but the moneys spent on security systems are testimony to use living in a non-ideal world. State protection, thence, cannot be a substitute for a reasonable effort on self-preservation.
Most importantly, let us bring strive to back a little morality and stop trying to search for mitigating reasons for crimes. There cannot be a reason good enough to violate someone’s honour. Unlike what the Hon’ble Supreme Court opines, a drunkard committing rape is not someone who knows not what he does. He drinks before assaulting for the drink reinforces the false sense of power he possesses. For a little regression please!
