Hindutva and Violence Against Women

In this monograph, one of India's leading, most committed political and

human rights activists examines how women's safety, dignity and security have

been undermined in the decade since the Hindu right rose to near-absolute

power. Hindutva-the guiding philosophy of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak

Sangh (RSS), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the rest of the Sangh

Parivar-is at its core a majoritarian, militant and regressive thought system

that draws inspiration from casteist, communal and misogynistic texts and

ideologues. While injustice in cases of violence against women is not new in

India, writes Brinda Karat, the political supremacy of Hindutva since 2014

has changed the nature and extent of this injustice. The religious identities of

the victims and the perpetrators determine the approach of powerful leaders

and their governments, the police, and, increasingly, the courts. This creates

new rape cultures that ultimately affect the processes of justice for all women.

Examining some of the most horrific instances of majoritarian violence against

women and the official response (or lack of it) to them-the release of Bilkis

Bano's rapists; campaigns in favour of the men who brutalized little Asifa

Bano; the covert cremation of the body of the Hathras victim; the rape and

murder of Kuki women in Manipur-Karat shows how, when sexual crimes

are communalized, women of oppressed castes are denied justice just as

women of religious and ethnic minorities are.

Impassioned, rigorous and forthright, this is a necessary book for our times.