Marital rape is officially legal in India

If an Indian person had posted this thread, it would not be offensive.

Coming from a non-Indian who obviously doesn't know much about his own cultural history concerning this subject, it smacks strongly of self-sanitizing projection.

That's bad enough, but some of the replies are almost cartoon-like in their ignorance, prejudice and knee-jerk automatism.

I am not Indian, but I am South Asian, and what I see in this thread exemplifies the grotesque and contemptible racism I have sometimes been exposed to in my travels through the white-skinned world. In real life, as I know, the true bigots are a minority; but here on ATS, which disproportionately attracts the intellectual scum of society, it is endemic.

originally posted by: Astyanax
If an Indian person had posted this thread, it would not be offensive.

Coming from a non-Indian who obviously doesn't know much about his own cultural history concerning this subject, it smacks strongly of self-sanitizing projection.

That's bad enough, but some of the replies are almost cartoon-like in their ignorance, prejudice and knee-jerk automatism.

I am not Indian, but I am South Asian, and what I see in this thread exemplifies the grotesque and contemptible racism I have sometimes been exposed to in my travels through the white-skinned world. In real life, as I know, the true bigots are a minority; but here on ATS, which disproportionately attracts the intellectual scum of society, it is endemic.

What ^^^^ this guy said, I can't say it better. Get off your high horses people, that holier than thou attitude is getting old. Very old!

The last 2 posts said what exactly. That we're born on planet earth in the 21st century no less, seeing and witnessing crapola from judges in any country, like this. There is no place on earth that I wish to see injustice or inequality, of any kind. That woman was not only raped, but she was drugged and married off forcibly. Those men should be in jail and/or house arrest, for years with massive counseling.

These kinds of things are not subjective, they don't wear culture or skin color. The charge of racism or lack of sophisticated cultural appreciation is not a closet to hide such things behind.

seems to me that there are stupid idiotic people in the positions of power in every system in this world, India included! Also legal systems in pretty much all parts of this world where there are legal systems have corruption. That idiot judge was probably paid off.

originally posted by: ketsuko
Maybe, instead of insisting that everything in the world is "rape culture" here in the US, our feminists ought to go over there and start fighting a real fight where it's definitely needed. There are plenty of women in Middle Eastern and Asian countries who could use someone to educate their men on what "rape culture" actually is.

Indeed, in fairness to India (With a population of over 1 billion people) Rights for women and protection of their bodies is being pursued, feminism will take hold eventually as they become economically developed and education made more readily available for all members of society.

The women there will simply not stand to be treated like cattle and the men will know the wrath of a "fem-nazi" as the misogynists of ATS like to put it.

No educated society would permit rape as acceptable. India isnt there yet.

a reply to: benrl

The problem i have with your post is you aren't telling us really how they derive that from Indian law - We - I - most of us do not understand Indian laws.

Even in a democracy if the majority of the people agree with the rape being legal in a marriage, then it's legal, no matter if it also happens to be a moral issue for many.

Were these laws based on a majority consensus of the Indian people? If so, there is nothing to talk about here.

originally posted by: Astyanax
Coming from a non-Indian who obviously doesn't know much about his own cultural history concerning this subject, it smacks strongly of self-sanitizing projection.

That's bad enough, but some of the replies are almost cartoon-like in their ignorance, prejudice and knee-jerk automatism.

But that's why these threads become so important - so that can be corrected.

We could keep quiet about contentious subjects and let people wallow in their own lack of self-awareness, or... we could deny ignorance. We could be educators and guides.

I rather rattle a few cages if it helps us all grow as a result. Creating and encouraging a taboo is the quickest way to create and encourage ignorance.

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

The problem i have with your post is you aren't telling us really how they derive that from Indian law - We - I - most of us do not understand Indian laws.

These laws weren't made by Indians. They are a legacy of British colonial rule. The same law exists in my own country.

In some countries, notably jurisdictions which have inherited the 1860 Indian Penal Code (such as Singapore, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Burma) and some countries in the Commonwealth Caribbean region, the laws explicitly exempt spouses from prosecution. For instance, under the 1860 Indian Penal Code, which has also been inherited by other countries in the region, the law on rape states that "Sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife is not rape". Source

a reply to: EvillerBob

In principle, I agree with you. I'm certainly all for free speech and public debate. However, a lot of people on this thread are using the topic as a stick to beat Indians, feminists and other groups they don't like. That's just evil natter.

It began with the OP, who assumed without giving the matter any thought that the law must have been made by Indians, rather than being imposed upon them by a European imperial power.

Then there was the person who summed up his understanding of Indian culture as 'you can't eat a cow but you can rape your wife.' Nobody, by the way, is going to stop you eating a cow in India, if that's what you want to do. Just don't expect it to taste very good, because few Indians — understandably — know how to prepare beef properly. Among my friends, though, the person who grills the best steak is of Indian descent.

Then there was the person who thinks there are cities in India without women in them. Yes, the disproportionate incidence of female-fetus abortions is a real problem all over Asia (not just in India) but evidently some folk will believe anything that suits their prejudices.

There are so many similar examples in the thread, it would be wearisome to quote them all.

Kudos to glen200376 for pointing out that this is, in fact, part of Victorian British jurisprudence, and applied in the home country as well as the colonies until very recently.

Gay people in many former British colonies (again, including my own country) also suffer under the iniquities of these outdated legal codes. Most people who follow the news are aware of how, in Malaysia, an old colonial law against 'sodomy' has been exploited by the ruling clique for political advantage. Though I don't suppose many of the people who are fulminating over Indian marital law in this thread will lose any sleep over that.

Wow....very colorful first few posts . Generalizing an entire society and culture as evil,women abusers etc seems to be common denominator among the Holier than though westerners in this forum. Am hoping these hypocrites are in the minority

and for the genius who told you can't eat cow in India , India is one of the BIGGEST EXPORTERS OF BEEF

In India Marital Rape can be charged under Domestic Violence

Forced sexual intercourse by a husband with his wife should be treated equally as an offence just as any
physical violence by a husband against the wife is treated as an offence. On the same
reasoning, section 376

In 2005, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 was passed which
although did not consider marital rape as a crime, did consider it as a form of domestic violence

Though i personally would prefer Rape to be changed as sexual assault no matter what gender , age married or unmarried.


BTW

www.rainn.org...

www.rainn.org...

Every 2 minutes, another American is sexually assaulted.

Here's the math. According to the U.S. Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey --there is an average of 237,868 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year.

There are 525,600 minutes in a non-leap year. That makes 31,536,000 seconds/year. So, 31,536,000 divided by 237,868 comes out to 1 sexual assault every 133 seconds, or about 1 every 2 minutes.

Its a rape every 22 minutes in India and in Britain is a rape every 20 minutes as per wiki ...

world.time.com...


Since the gang rape of a 23-year-old student on a moving bus in New Delhi last year, India has become the world’s rape capital. An American website recently satirized the problem by joking about an upcoming rape festival in the country. You can call it a reflection of the way the world thinks of India or you can call it bad taste (depending on which part of the world you are in) — but you know the image of India as rape hell has stuck when most readers of the article failed to realize that it was satire. Rape is a serious problem all over the world. So why does it seem so much worse in India?

1. More rapes are being reported now: Along with the modernization of society, more Indian women are being educated and are going out to work. They are breaking out of the subservient mold that society had given to them and are more independent. While this means they are more likely to be sexually abused, it also means they are more likely — compared with women of a previous generation — to report rapes and confront sexual predators. In the three months after the Delhi gang rape, the number of rapes reported in the city more than doubled to 359, from the 143 reported in January-March of 2012. This doesn’t necessarily mean more rapes are happening now, just that more women are emboldened to come out and report.

2. India actually has a high conviction rate for rape: According to the Guardian, just 7% of reported rapes in the U.K. resulted in convictions during 2011-12. In Sweden, the conviction rate is as low as 10%. France had a conviction rate of 25% in 2006. Poor India, a developing nation with countless challenges, managed an impressive 24.2% conviction rate in 2012. That’s thanks to the efforts of a lot of good people — police, lawyers, victims and their families — working heroically with limited resources.

3. The media report everything: According to Dave Prager, the American author of Delirious Delhi, crimes that “wouldn’t garner even a sentence in an American paper because so many bigger crimes would elbow it out of the way” are obsessively reported in Indian news publications. Post the Delhi gang rape, Indian media have faithfully recorded each and every rape case, highlighted them for the world and continue to do so.

4. Most Indians, men and women, hate the reputation that rapists have given their country: No country in the world can claim to have witnessed protests against rape on the scale of India’s, where people turned out in the tens of thousands to voice their shock and sadness. It was people power that forced the government to change existing rape laws and drew the world’s attention to the problem. What happens in other countries? This may not be a typical example, but the rape of a teen girl by high school football players in the Steubenville, Ohio had many in the town sympathizing with the rapists and not the victim.

as per the above article

India actually has a high conviction rate for rape: According to the Guardian, just 7% of reported rapes in the U.K. resulted in convictions during 2011-12. In Sweden, the conviction rate is as low as 10%. France had a conviction rate of 25% in 2006. Poor India, a developing nation with countless challenges, managed an impressive 24.2% conviction rate in 2012.


I hope that clears things up ....