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

Posted by timothy on from the oh-that'll-work dept.

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.

15 of 356 comments (clear)

  1. Well, I guess I've got to watch it now. by jcr · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    -jcr

    --
    The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    1. Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now. by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    2. Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now. by Luckyo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

    3. Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now. by jcr · · Score: 5, Informative

      Well, I'm watching it, and 20 minutes in I want to not only strangle all the perps, but both of their lawyers. Jesus Christ, what a greasy, evil, stupid and vicious pair of shysters.

      -jcr

      --
      The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
    4. Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

    5. Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      You mean the "campus rape crisis" that doesn't actually exist on the campuses where women are actually less likely to be raped than women in the general population? The entire thing is based on poor statistics, something for which the users of those statistics are at least as responsible for as the originators.

      Any rape is too much rape, but by creating fairy stories about the prevalence, causes and definition of rape you won't do anything useful to reduce that figure. In fact you'll probably make it worse.

      Posting ac because, unfortunately, it's just too dangerous to say things like this in connection with one's IRL identity these days.

    6. Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now. by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Did you know that over 90% of those in prison for violent crimes are men? Men are evil! But wait - 99% of men have never had and will never have a conviction for a violent crime, so saying men are evil is flat out bigotry as bad as any Klanner roaming the backwoods with a length of rope and a shotgun.

      When you project the crimes of a miniscule minority onto much larger groups, you're a bigot.

      A similar principle applies here. Let's take for example this article which claims a woman is raped in India every 20 minutes. While it goes without saying that any rape is too much rape, this makes it sound like India is the world's rape capital. Once every 20 minutes, my god!

      Except the population of India is 1.25 billion, so counting the number of 20 minutes in the year we get around 26297. Divide 1.25 billion into that and look, we get 0.00002, or two per hundred thousand, which is considerably lower than most western countries. A very different picture emerges. Yes, scumbags and psychos exist in India the same as everywhere else. No that's not an indictment of Indian society, and what they're trying to do is protect their national reputation in the same way they're prioritising a space programme over indoor plumbing.

      What happens when hysterias like the feminists and other carrion creatures manufacture for fun and billions in profit take hold is people suffer and die, torn to death by mobs without trial or due process. Trying to spin this call for a ban into the government protecting rapists is just more of the same - the government is acting in a confused and not terribly intelligent manner, but it doesn't want the country painted in a bad light.

      And that's before we start talking about dowry law abuses, domestic violence law abuses, and maintenance law abuses, of which there are a great many. A quarter of all male suicides in India are directly attributed to family problems.

      So, we have well provisioned westerners sitting behind their screens, tut tutting at the dastardly H1-B dudes roaming the halls scaring off all teh wimminz, suckling at the teat of hyped up outrage, squinting myopically through their little electronic rectangles at a world they've never experienced and have little understanding of, proudly touting the merits of skepticism in their signatures while massive human suffering goes unnoticed.

      Still, that outrage feels good though eh?

    7. Re:Well, I guess I've got to watch it now. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

  2. Tech Support by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    How can a country that hosts so many of the world's call centers still have no idea how the internet works?

  3. Re:Bittorrent by roc97007 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So what's the bittorrent name for the file? I've got to grab it just in case the Hindu fanatics win.

    This is the internet. The fastest way to make anything ubiquitous that can be electronically transferred, is to attempt to ban it.

    I would expect bittorrent links pretty much everywhere by right about.... now.

    --
    Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  4. It's on youtube by walterbyrd · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here is the link.

    BBC Full Documentary- 'India's Daughter' on Nirbhaya Delhi Gang Rap | Jyoti singh | HD | Banned

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxkMzBqjgw8

  5. Re:Who would have guessed male dominance? by rubycodez · · Score: 5, Informative

    uh, your information is dated, they don't do the fling-yourself-on-the-pyre thing any more. It was outlawed in 19th century in India, and in 1920 in Nepal.

    "Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs." -- Commander in Chief in India, to Hindu priests complaining that they couldn't do the Sati thing any more.

  6. Re:Only cowards censor by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  7. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  8. India is murder on women by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'm of Indian descent. I used to live there, and frequently visit. I speak one of the main languages. I'm well aware of their culture.

    India is missing 50,000,000 girls. No typo, that's FIFTY MILLION. If you don't believe misogyny is a fundamental part of the national fabric, why don't you tell me WTF happened to these girls?

    Here's another way to look at things:

    Chance of being killed in Syrian Civil War: 1 in 300
    Chance of dying before five years of age if you're a girl in India: 1 in 20

    No opinions, those are numbers. If you doubt them, research the latest Indian census, World Bank data on child mortality, wartime data from the Human Rights Data Analysis Group, among many many others.

    Is the picture becoming clearer?