The 'Nirbhaya' Movement: an Indian Feminist Revolution Garima Bakshi
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'Nirbhaya' Movement The 'Nirbhaya' Movement: An Indian Feminist Revolution Garima Bakshi In December 2012, New Delhi witnessed a horrifc crime – a female medical student was violently gang-raped on a moving bus and then dumped onto the highway, injured and unconscious. While she didn’t survive the attack, Nirbhaya, as she was named by the media, sparked a revolution in India and its neighboring countries. Tis paper delves into the many aspects of the movement, examining it as a whole by drawing on the theories of Castells, Jenkins, Papacharissi, and Sundaram. It examines the protests that took place on digital forums which then transcended onto the streets, the afective nature of the movement, and international responses it elicited. Garima Bakshi is a Master's candidate at New York University's Media, Culture, and Communication department. Her research focuses on the intersections between feminism, youth movements, and creative protest in South Asia. gnovis • 43 Volume 17, Issue 2 •Spring 2017 n the night of December 16, 2012, protestors took to candlelight vigils and medical student Jyoti Singh and her peaceful demonstrations at India Gate, friend Avanindra Pandey, looking eventually leading to a change in criminal Ofor transportation home, boarded a private laws, and the setting up of a fast track court bus in South Delhi. Immediately after the to prosecute the attackers (Harris and four other men in the bus turned of the lights Kumar, 2015). and snatched Singh’s and Pandey’s phones. Tey beat them up with iron rods, leaving Te outrage that followed the attack opened Pandey half-unconscious (“Delhi Gangrape up a previously nonexistent space for victims Victims Friend Relives the Horrifying 84 and those close to them to speak out against Minutes of December 16 Night”, 2017). sexual violence. Following the protests, Tey brutally gang-raped Singh, inserting there was a remarkable increase in the an iron rod into her genitals, and then number of rapes being reported annually, threw both of them of of the bus onto indicating that survivors of sexual assault the main road (“Delhi Gangrape Victims were more willing to report it than before Friend Relives the Horrifying 84 Minutes (“‘Frightening and heartening’, Rape Cases of December 16 Night”, 2017). A highway Skyrocket in Post-December 16 Delhi,”, patrol van picked them up and took them 2013). In 2011, there were 572 rape cases to a hospital; Avanindra Pandey survived, reported in Delhi. Te number rose to 706 in but Jyoti Singh died on December 29 in a 2012, more than doubled to 1,441 in 2013, hospital in Singapore, where she was fown and increased to 1,813 in 2014 (Pandey for treatment (“Delhi Gangrape Victims et all, 2013) (“Delhi is Now India’s Rape Friend Relives the Horrifying 84 Minutes Capital, Show NCRB Data”, 2015). “What of December 16 Night”, 2017). After was novel about Nirbhaya was the nation- news of the crime broke, it sparked anger, wide as well as international attention it disgust, shame, and horror across the world. received in the new age of social media, Te media named Jyoti Singh ‘Nirbhaya’, compelling politicians and civil society alike meaning ‘the fearless one’; the movement to deliberate over a previously underreported that followed also came to be known by the issue”, writes Heba Adawy in Te Spark Of same moniker. Tis paper aims to analyze ‘Nirbhaya’: Indian Feminist Interventions, the December 16 Delhi gang-rape case Common Challenges And Prospects (2014). as a movement, by examining three of its Te heinous nature of Singh’s rape, its aspects- frst, its comparison it to the Arab urban and supposedly safe setting, and the Spring and Occupy Wall Street; second, its indiferent attitudes of the authorities held afective side as a digital media movement; responsible led to the voicing of demands and lastly, the international coverage of the for a structural change in the way that rape movement. is perceived. Te movement demanded that sexual violence be seen as an afront to a Tis case, in many ways, was the tipping woman’s autonomy, and as stripping her point for an urban population in the capital of her rightful agency, in opposition to the that had been dealing with rising crimes, commonly held patriarchal perception of corruption, and inadequate security for rape as a dishonor to the victim’s family. more than a decade (Sundaram, 2009). It incited raw emotions of anger and dissent Nivedita Menon in her book Seeing Like a at the State and Central governments, and Feminist points out the distinction between the police forces. Tousands of civilian how rape is viewed by patriarchal forces and 44 • gnovisjournal.org 'Nirbhaya' Movement feminists. “For patriarchal forces, rape is crime, a debate for changing juvenile laws evil because it is a crime against the honor had opened up. Most importantly, a space of the family, whereas feminists denounce for public discussion of sexual violence that rape because it is a crime against the had not existed before was created. autonomy and bodily integrity of a woman. Tis diference in understanding rape Similar to USA’s 2011 movement Occupy naturally leads to diametrically opposite Wall Street the Nirbhaya movement in proposals for fghting rape” (Menon, 2012). Delhi was also a leaderless movement with In the patriarchal framework, the victim a decentralized structure, comprising of is responsible for her rape, because either a networked community (Castells, 2012). she stepped outside the prescribed female While the Occupy movement targeted bounds of the private into the public or unfair capitalist practices and “set out to she didn't dress like a traditional woman occupy Wall Street, the key node of the should, hence tempting the rapist. In such global networks of fnancial domination of environments, where rape is seen to be the the world”, the Delhi movement mainly fault of the victim rather than the rapist, targeted a deep seated cultural acceptance women often choose not to report the crime, of sexual violence against women (Castells, and stay silent instead (Menon, 2012). 2012). Manuel Castells, in Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the India's Arab Spring Internet Age, explores the roles that social media platforms like Twitter, and Tumblr Often hailed as India’s Arab Spring, the played in organizing and planning protests ‘Nirbhaya’ case was marked by unprecedented and the occupation of public spaces in the public outrage on social media as well as on Occupy movement. He describes the advent the ground (“Is Tis the Start of India’s ‘Arab of social media as leading to a participatory spring’?,”, 2013). Te protesters had several culture, since the public visibility of tweets demands that battled against insufcient and Tumblr posts enable a many-to-many and incompetent security; inadequate and model, increasing visibility and contribution. unreliable public transport; an insensitive Since these networks are horizontal in police force that often blamed rape victims structure, they are also more independent for the crime inficted upon them; and from state regimes than traditional media bureaucracy and red tape surrounding sexual like television and radio, providing spaces for assault and rape cases. Te intensity of these criticizing political powers and governmental protests led an otherwise lackadaisical authorities. Hence, for Castells, social media government to implement certain changes. plays a crucial role in mobilizing the masses, Justice Verma was appointed chairperson cultivating enhanced levels of participation. of a committee tasked with the reformation It also helps in the dissemination of of the anti-rape law. More female ofcers information that traditional news media were added to Delhi’s police force; security wouldn't report, like, for example, the was tightened and night patrolling was police tear gassing peaceful protesters. increased; the police now had to undergo Like in the Delhi December 2012 protests, gender sensitization courses; six fast track “Communication networks were the blood courts were set up to specifcally deal with vessels of the Occupy movement” (Castells, rape cases; laws against sexual assault were 2012). Both movements united people made stricter; and, since one of the accused across political ideologies and classes, and was seventeen years old at the time of the both faced “violence against a non-violent gnovis • 45 Volume 17, Issue 2 •Spring 2017 movement” at the hands of the police and he concedes that social media alone isn't other state security forces (Castells, 2012). enough, and that “a hybrid networked movement that links cyberspace and urban But, as Castells writes, the Occupy space in multiple forms of communication.” movement’s “fundamental achievement is required (Castells, 2012). Te use of online has been to rekindle hope that another spaces to channel energies onto physical life is possible” (Castells, 2012). Bad spaces is what distinguishes new ‘social weather conditions and clashes with the media movements' from the traditional police resulted in many abandoning the form of protest. movement altogether, raising the question of whether the movement was built to last. A Digital Movement While the achievements of the anti-sexual violence protests in Delhi still leave a lot Like in Occupy Wall Street, online spaces to be desired in terms of a cultural change, were used to channel potentials onto they did translate to tangible legal changes. public spaces. Historical spaces like India As Anthony Alessandrini points out in Gate and Jantar Mantar were occupied by Revolutionary Egypt: Connecting Domestic demonstrators, and protests were also held and International Struggles, unlike the Arab outside then Chief Minister Sheila Dixit’s Spring movements, the Occupy movement residence, and the police headquarters had neither the temporality nor the physical (“Delhi Gang Rape: India Gate Turns into labor required for it to sustain itself and result a Battleground”, 2016).