“THE past is never dead. It’s not even past” wrote William Faulkner, the American writer and Nobel Laureate.
Faulkner could well have been commenting on the two barbaric instances of ‘justice’ sentenced on two women. In both instances the victims were women. They were prey to actions based on a twisted and an evil primeval sense.As news broke of the barbaric savagery of a Naga woman unleashing her frustration and anger on the ‘other woman’ in the life of her ex husband even after their divorce, news of a similar act of revenge amounting to a gang rape by thirteen men on a woman for “falling in love with the wrong man” in West Bengal went global.
The latest incident on Monday night in West Bengal revolved around a relationship between a woman belonging to the Santhal tribal group and a non-tribal man from a nearby village in Birbhum district. The crime was for ‘falling in love” with the wrong man despite a relationship which had been on for almost five years.
When the man visited the woman’s home on Monday with the proposal of marriage, villagers spotted him and organised a kangaroo court. During the ‘proceedings’, the couple were made to sit with hands tied,” according to the Birbhum police chief C Sudhakar who told the BBC. He said the headman of the woman’s village fined the couple 25,000 rupees ($400; £240) for “the crime of falling in love”. The man paid up, but the woman’s family were unable to pay, police said. The headman, who is a distant relative of the woman, then allegedly ordered the rape, Mr Sudhakar said.
The instance in Nagaland is no less shocking. The degree of barbarism in both the cases compete with each other. The woman and the three male youth who connived, planned and executed their ‘insane’ primeval judgement on their victim acted like the kangaroo court of the Santhals,in West Bengal’s Birbhum district.That they chose to abduct their victim, cut off her hair ( a method in practice pre Christianity amongst most Naga tribes by men to punish a woman in the community), rip off her clothes, kick and stab her pregnant stomach with scissors and then parade her nude in her locality is no less guilty of a criminal act than the order of the headman of the village of a kangaroo court sanctioning a gang rape on the woman of his village.
The incident that has come to pass is gross and horrific. A terrible sad reminder that the Naga race has missed something so central to living “the sacredness of life”. We kill, we abuse, we condemn, we cheat, steal at our jobs and in our relationship with each other and the world around us, even nature and wildlife that surrounds us. We appear to hold nothing ‘sacred’. No words, no protests, or action, can be enough to condemn the savage, barbaric, brutal, cruel and high moral attitude which provoked a woman to attack another of her kind in so vile a manner. Ancient Chinese believed that time is not a ladder one ascends into future, but a ladder, one descends into past.
Our experiences are what shape us and therefore they live on with us, they never leave us. Therefore, the past is never dead, it never passes, it lives on forever within us. “It shapes us … it teaches us, it becomes us.”
All day one has been trying to understand what could have prompted a woman to take recourse to such an act on another woman.No clear answer is out there.. But perhaps Nagas may remind themselves of how far they have come in the analysis provided in the aftermath of the incident amongst the Santhals.
Soutil Biswas a Delhi correspondent for the BBC writes that the Santhal gangrape was least expected. Because not only are the Santhals one of India’s largest tribes with a population of 10.5 million honour punishments are virtually unheard of within the community
“There seems also to be a sentiment of honour among them; for it is said that they use poisoned arrows in hunting, but never against their foes,” wrote Charles Dickens about the Santhals. “If this be the case – and we hear nothing of the poisoned arrows in the recent conflicts – they are infinitely more respectable than our civilised enemy the Russians, who would most likely consider such forbearance as foolish, and declare that is not war.” Tribal elders fear their community cohesion and customs are being eroded “They have a five-tier system of community chiefs for self-rule and settling disputes and resolving conflicts. It is all very civic and democratic. Such violence is unheard of,” says Kunal Deb, a researcher who works with the community.
The tribe practices clan endogamy, the practice of marrying within the clan.
“But such a heinous incident is unprecedented in our community,” Nityananda Hembrom, the chief of West Bengal’s six million Santhals, told me. “If a man or woman in our community marries outside, the couple is told that they cannot participate in our rituals and festivals.
“If they don’t agree to that, they can live away from the community peacefully. There is no question of unofficial village councils sitting in judgement and ordering any kind of violence against them “
Tribal elders fear their community cohesion and customs are being eroded .But, over the last decade, the community has been challenged as it grapples with its traditional values in a fast changing society that often sends out confusing messages about modernity and tradition.In 2010, at least three Santhal women from Birbhum were stripped and forced to parade naked in front of large crowds for having “close relations from other community.
There have been some tensions between the Santhals and Muslim community living in close proximity in Birbhum. “I know of a case when a Santhal woman was paraded naked by her community after she was spotted having lunch with a Muslim man in Birbhum. Santhals have often blamed Muslims for promising to marry their women with an eye on their land. Muslims deny it,” says Mr Deb. The idyllic, cloistered life that the Santhals used to enjoy is also fraying at the edges. They work on their parched farms in largely arid regions and are nowadays forced out of their villages to work as construction workers. Traditional livelihoods are being threatened and tribal wisdom is getting lost.Community elders say that television and video cassette players ushered in the first change as the young community members got exposed to pornography, among other things. Now many Santhals have mobile phones, which they mostly use for listening to music and watching pictures and videos, they say. “There is a lot of confusion and tension in the community as they come into close proximity with the outside world,” says Mr Deb. “And then there is greed and violence.”
The fate of the Santhals and Nagas is incomparble then is ‘greed and violence’ shaping our society?
