Indian Gov't Wants Worldwide Ban On Rape Documentary, Including Online

An anonymous reader writes India's far-right Hindu Nationalist government headed by Narendra Modi has banned telecasting and viewing online of a BBC documentary on the 2012 Delhi rape which shocked the nation. The documentary consists interviews of the rapist Mukesh Singh, his lawyers and the victim's parents seems to expose the male dominant nature of Indian society. Indian government is now attempting to ban the documentary worldwide. Critics of the Indian government's action has accused it of not addressing issues women face and instead trying to hide the dirty secrets of its culture from the world. Some Indian websites have also reported that the views expressed by the rapist are echoed by policemen, lawyers and politicians of the nation. So far the government's attempt to ban the video online is with mixed success.

Comments

Well, I guess I've got to watch it now.

[jcr]

Someone has to teach Modi what "Streisand Effect" means.

-jcr

Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now.

[Dutch Gun]

Also, "worldwide ban". Good luck with that. Indian government, the attempt at a ban says much more about you than the documentary itself does.

The fact that this incident sparked mass protests, on the other hand, shows that many people in India are good and decent, and of course abhor things like this. I wish them the best of luck in taking control of their government someday. It's something we're still struggling with ourselves on a regular basis.

Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now.

[K. S. Kyosuke]

He's technically correct. Anywhere where there are dark skinned people, there's going to be trouble. That's because anywhere where there are people, there's going to be trouble.

Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now.

[Luckyo]

Most of the people in India agree with him, including women. That is the main problem with Indian society in relation to rape. It's not just "policemen, politicians and lawyers" but average people as well. Views like "women are responsible for what (rape) happens to them if they dress in a certain way and go out in the evening alone" are commonplace.
Those opposed are mainly educated people in the cities, and even among them, there's no real consensus. Remember, this is a huge country with a large portion of rural dwellers, caste system that persists in spite of being banned by government and very conservative views on many issues.
It's also a country where most people will rather buy a slightly more expensive phone than replace their outhouse with a running water toilet.

Streisand effect is working in his favour on this one, even though his intentions are obviously impossible to achieve, simply because it shows his constituents that he shares their world view.

Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now.

[Shadow of Eternity]

No, it's not. In fact it's so far in the opposite direction that our top scholars and professors of law are publicly referring to our policies as "madness".

Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now.

[BarbaraHudson]

So, rather than admit there's a problem, just sweep it under the rug. Not gonna happen.

Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now.

[Nethead]

Yeah, I got about 20 minutes in before I was about to put my fist through the monitor. The main perp said that only 20% of women are decent? I though we had rednecks in the US. Nothing like these total pieces of shit.

Now I see why women avoid IT jobs with all the H1-B dudes roaming the halls.

Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now.

[Anonymous Coward]

Views like "women are responsible for what (rape) happens to them if they dress in a certain way and go out in the evening alone" are commonplace.

It's pretty common here in the States as well...

No, it's not. What is common in the US is the point of view that if you do stupid, reckless things then bad people will take advantage of you. In India, the view is that if a Woman doesn't follow traditional social protocol, then good Upstanding citizens will rape her as punishment.

Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now.

[msobkow]

Which is precisely why the world should see this video. Because those "ideals" are far too prevalent in Indian society, and the nation should not be allowed to gloss over just how backwards so many of their people are beneath a veneer of respectability. It wasn't until this case that rape was even really taken seriously by the government itself, and then only because of mass protests.

It's not that all the people support the viewpoint by any means.

But it's important to show the world just how entrenched that viewpoint is in Indian society so that the rest of the world can apply pressure for things to change.

Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now.

[Immerman]

> a strange culture, who would rather put a lot of effort in denial rather than on fixing the problems
What's strange about that? Sounds like pretty much every culture I've ever heard of. Try to get "brogrammers" to admit they have a misogyny problem. Try to get _rabid_ feminists to admit they have a misandry problem. Try to get religious fundamentalists to admit they have a rational plausibility problem. Try to get economists to admit they have a "no actual clue about anything" problem.

Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now.

[Anonymous Coward]

The campus rape cause is one that that's typically been taken up by middle and upper class folks, a number of whom have been raped on campus. This is because this is primarily the demographic that ends up at university in the first place - the lower class are far less likely to end up at university.

The issue is that for that demographic, campus is far and away the most likely place these people will be raped, more so than the middle class neighbours they grew up in, and more so than the middle class neighbours they'll likely live in when they graduate and enter the working population with a graduate salary.

From their perspective therefore it is a big problem, it is the place where most rapes happen to people from their background, but the reason it doesn't look such a relative problem compared to overall rape statistics is because most rapes occur in lower class neighbourhoods, and with relatively disturbing regularity.

So you're right that rapes off campus are far more likely, but not for the people who typically attend university - if a university goer gets raped in their lifetime it's far and away more likely to occur whilst they're at university. The problem is that where the general statistics show higher levels of rape outside of university it's a result of a broader problem - the higher levels of crime that occur in lower class neighbourhoods in general.

Of course, these aren't the only two walks of life where there's a distinct rape problem- the military has a rape problem, and prisons have a rape problem.

So whilst you're right, that there is more rape outside of campus than on campus, I'd warn against using that very generalised overall rape statistic of on campus vs. off campus as a justification to ignore the problem of rape on campus. The fact is that rape occurs in these different walks of life for different reasons. Changing the culture of the military so that staff can report rapes without fear of killing their career will do nothing to lower levels of rape in poor areas where social cohesion and respect for the law has been completely lost, just as dealing with rape in prisons will do nothing to stop the preppy jock who after a few beers and a life of entitlement believes he can just take whatever woman he wants knowing they're away from home and their family support network and more vulnerable.

These are all distinct problems, and simply pretending rape has one single cause, and one single solution such that single trait campus like university rape can be ignored is counter-productive. All rape must be stopped, but there's no one single solution to do so - rape on campus isn't a fairy story for the demographic whom it's most likely to effect, it's a real problem, just like rape in the military, rape in prison and so forth also are.

The only thing that shouldn't be surprising is that the rape on campus problem has come to the fore because it's a problem that affects the demographic of society with the most money and the greatest ability to be heard - poor people, soldiers, and prisoners don't much get listened to when they have problems. Is it unfair that those folk can raise the issue more easily? yes absolutely. But it doesn't mean there isn't still a problem to be solved there.

Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now.

[Baloroth]

The fact the you just blamed the victim by saying it's their fault shows that it is common in the States. Most rapes are about control, so the messed up people who are rapists think that have to put women (and men) in their place. It's not the victim's actions but how people react to them that is the problem-worldwide.

No, he didn't "blame the victim by saying it's their fault", and the fact you claimed he did means you are part of the problem. Look at it this way: if I drive a Porsche into a bad neighborhood, leave it unlocked with the keys inside, and it gets stolen, are you going to say I didn't mess up? No, of course I messed up, because failing to lock the doors on your car is stupid. That doesn't mean I'd bear the responsibility for the car being stolen, but it does mean what I did was stupid, and I would partially bear responsibility for a chain of action that lead to the car being stolen, and I could maybe have prevented the car being stolen. Since I cannot control the actions of other people, only my own, what I can do to prevent my car from being stolen is to take the proper precautions: lock the doors, don't park in bad neighborhoods, install a tracking system, etc.

For women (or men: rape works in both directions, though it's generally a vastly worse problem for women, especially attractive ones), that means not wearing revealing clothing while drunk at 3AM in a bad alley, watching their drinks closely, only hanging out with groups of people they trust and know well, etc. None of that means they're the ones responsible for the rape if they do get raped: but it does mean they can lower the probability of rape happening by being smart, and since the goal is to stop rapes from happening, we should encourage them to be smart, and discourage them from being stupid.

In other words: we can't blame the women for being raped, but we certainly can blame them for being stupid. Yes, everyone should be able to be as stupid as they want with no fear of other people doing bad things to them, but so long as we live in the real world, that will never happen (though we can still strive towards it, of course), so we should tell people to stop being stupid, because that means bad things are less likely to happen to them.

Only cowards censor

[UnknownSoldier]

Hey India: "Sticking your head in the sand ignoring the issue doesn't make it go away!"

Deal with it.

Re:Only cowards censor

[Black Parrot]

Hey India: "Sticking your head in the sand ignoring the issue doesn't make it go away!"

I suspect you could say that to all governments, on lots of issues.

Will watch

[moondo]

An issue that I never cared about suddenly became interesting. Thanks Indian government for stimulating my interest.
And thank you to the people who posted links here.

Pot vs Kettle

[dbIII]

It was illegal to do that in India a few year before it was illegal for you guys to keep slaves - you should have thought about that before you played the "backwards savages" card.
The current situation is based on current problems that can exist in places other than India (or toga parties in the USA).

Re:Who would have guessed male dominance?

[Megol]

Yes men are sexually assaulted by men and women. Yes men are raped by men and women. So what?

What this article is about is a culture that accepts rape and even murder for someone that dresses wrong and does the wrong thing. IFF they are women.

Your attempts of misdirection is simply pathetic.