A history of violence

silence-storm

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Not many believe this any more, but former journalist and author Kalpana Sharma in her new book, 'The Silence and The Storm: Narratives of Violence Against Women in India' says that is what she finds in the context of 30 years of her observing and writing on women's issues. “The cord of violence that binds women's history in contemporary India seems almost indestructible,” she says in her introduction.

While the political and economic factors surrounding violence against women are all too well known even though hardly addressed in any significant way—the Nirbhaya case verdict and subsequent amendments to the CrPC notwithstanding—Kalpana breaks an untrodden ground when she says sexual assault and rape are not the only forms of violence. The development policy and environmental destruction also wreaks violence on women, their health, workload and mobility, she argues.

The stories she recalls have an impact, for the scar remains, possibly not visibly on the skin, but deep in the heart of society, and its conscience keepers. The custodial rape of 16-year old Adivasi girl Mathura is as heart-wrenching as the rape and murder of the eight-year old in Kathua last year. And the impact of communal violence is reinforced with the story of not just Manorama and Sharmila from Manipur but Bilkis Bano's as well.

Many young readers may not know the story of Bilkis. For their benefit, it will be worth culling out the relevant paragraphs from Kalpana's book.

Bilkis Bano's story is one of those stories from the 2002 Gujarat carnage that few can forget. A young Muslim woman, six months pregnant, runs for her life from village when rampaging mobs attack it on 28 February. She has with her a three-year-old daughter, her mother and other relatives. They move out of their village under the cover of darkness and hide in a field, hoping to escape. Instead, the next morning they are confronted with a mob of twenty to thirty men carrying swords and sickles who assault and gang-rape the four women, including Bilkis and her mother, kill many of the others, and kill her three-year-old daughter by “smashing” her on the ground. Of the seventeen who left the village, only three survived, the bodies of eight were found and six are still missing.” As Kilpana 's next line says, “The horror does not end there”.

But for more one has to read the book, full of real stories, with facts and without bias.

Cut to 2019, and the protests against the CAA and NRC. There is no Bilkis story, but the anger and the fear are the same.

Title: The Silence and The Storm: Narratives of Violence Against Women in India

Author: Kalpana Sharma

Publisher : Aleph

Pages: 200

Price: Rs 599