[INDOLOGY] Sexual Harassment

Tue Oct 18 05:53:53 UTC 2016

The term 'eve teasing' apparently was first used in the 1960s. Although I
have never been able to find out by whom it was coined. The answer is in
part found here <http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-16503338>: "Eve teasing"
is used in India to refer to a wide variety of behaviour including
molestation, "flashing" or any verbal/physical sexual street harassment
that falls short of rape.

But this from wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_teasing> sums it
up: According to them, considering the semantic roots of the term in Indian
English <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_English>, Eve teasing refers
to the temptress nature of Eve, placing responsibility on the woman as a
tease.[10] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_teasing#cite_note-10>

More importantly, it represents the 'woman as “temptress” who was complicit
in her own downfall... [and] is actually a denial that it is sexual violence
<http://www.dawn.com/news/609882/women-rally-against-eve-teasing-in-south-asia>
'.

Also, the term is not found in the Indian Penal Code.

I don't know, but perhaps it has something to do with the perception that
'rape' etc occurs in 'India' and not 'Bhārat' as RSS ideologue Mohan
Bhagwat
<http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/rapes-occur-in-india-not-bharat-says-rss-chief-mohan-bhagwat-509401>is
fond of saying.  And that it is because it is perceived as a cultural
import from Abrahamic religions
<http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-vhp-defends-attack-on-haryana-church-says-rape-of-nuns-is-christian-culture-2069494>
that have 'dominated' and 'enslaved' the region for several centuries.
Ultimately, this anti-social behaviour is perceived as a result of 'Western
values' and not a local practice. It is considered a colonial byproduct.
This helps create a moral panic to stimulate an anti-western agenda. A
return to 'core/true' Indian values is considered the answer to this
problem. At least in the eyes of the Sangh Parivar.

 Perhaps this is a result of the final stage of Srinivas' Sanskritization
theory, i.e. Westernization? Bhagwat further qualified his essentialised
remark stating that the 'pure village' is devoid of assaults but the
sullied (i.e. Westernised) urban centres
<http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/rapes-occur-in-urban-india-not-rural-bharat-says-bhagwat--bjp-defends-him/1054615/>
are where assaults occur.

All the best,

Patrick McCartney, PhD
Fellow
School of Culture, History & Language
College of the Asia-Pacific
The Australian National University
Canberra, Australia, 0200

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On Tue, Oct 18, 2016 at 3:32 PM, Walter Slaje <slaje at kabelmail.de> wrote:

> I am sorry the diacritics I use for vedic accents and the hácek (inverted
> circumflex) *never* show in my emails. This is beyond my control. My
> apologies for the inconvenience.
>
>
>
> I was also reminded that the thread is „sexual harrassment“, not „rape“ in
> the strict sense. This is correct. Might I, with your permission, then add
> the innocent question why public sexual harrassment in India is widely
> known as „Eve teasing“?
>
> The vast majority of victims are Indian girls. So, why an English – but
> not an Indian – forename to designate a crime committed by male Indian
> youth gangs against Indian women?
>
> I have never quite understood the background of this bizarre denomination.
> I am afraid in this particular case attempts at linking it to the premodern
> past of India are bound to fail. Are there any explanations on offer?
>
>
>
> Yours, cluelessly,
>
> WS
>
>
> 2016-10-17 22:25 GMT+02:00 Artur Karp <karp at uw.edu.pl>:
>
>> > Iva Fiser
>>
>> Let's please retain Prof. *Ivo **Fišer*'s Czech family name.
>>
>> Artur K.
>>
>> 2016-10-17 22:17 GMT+02:00 farkhondeh iran via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info>:
>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> ---------- Wiadomość przekazana dalej ----------
>>> From: farkhondeh iran <iran_farkhondeh at yahoo.fr>
>>> To: Walter Slaje <slaje at kabelmail.de>
>>> Cc: Nityanand Misra <nmisra at gmail.com>, indology <
>>> indology at list.indology.info>
>>> Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2016 22:16:11 +0200
>>> Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Sexual Harassment
>>>
>>> If I may again, I agree with Prof. Slaje on the danger of anachronism
>>> and the need to go back to the Sanskrit words. The word kanyā-dūṣaṇa does
>>> not occur in KSS XII, 2, 105 cd but the Sanskrit is crystal-clear: it is a
>>> case of abuse as the girl is not willing and as the vidyādhara has
>>> undertaken to abduct her by force.
>>>
>>> upetya tām anicchantīm haṭhād dhartum pravṛttavān, KSS XII, 2, 105, cd
>>> I. Farkhondeh
>>>
>>> Le 17 oct. 2016 à 21:54, Walter Slaje <slaje at kabelmail.de> a écrit :
>>>
>>> Before rashly jumping to a discussion of “rape” by tacitly presupposing
>>> a 21st century Western understanding of its concept and performance
>>> also for ancient India, a clarification is required of the concept(s) of
>>> “rape” prevailing in premodern Indian thought. What unambiguous words and
>>> matching notions have so far been recorded that would correspond to "rape"
>>> in accordance with modern Western standards? What normative boundaries of,
>>> e.g., “legal” types of marriage such as *rākṣasa *and* piśāca* – clear
>>> cases of “rape” in Western terms I suppose – needed to be transgressed that
>>> facts of rape would have been considered as fulfilled in premodern India?
>>> Was *kanyā-dūṣaṇa* the same as “rape” in our understanding, or simply
>>> the spoiling of a virgin so that she could no longer be married off and
>>> became a serious damage to her parents?
>>>
>>> In what way can the absolute power a husband would have exercised over
>>> his wife (or wives) be categorised in contexts of "rape"?
>>>
>>> Is there any connecting factor of the past that could be related to the
>>> extraordinarily high number of filed gang rape cases in present-day India
>>> as continuously reported by the Indian media? In this latter regard, a good
>>> starting point could perhaps be Gyula Wojtilla's "Women at Work and
>>> Their Enemies. A Reappraisal of the Kāmasūtra V, 5, 5 – 10" (I lack the
>>> bibliographic citation of his paper at the moment).
>>>
>>>
>>> In a more general sense, BĀU (M) VI 4,7 could also be revealing*, *if
>>> just *ati-√kram* is not understood in line with Śaṅkara’s unconvincing
>>> attempts at downplaying the matter, but in accordance with Iva Fiser's „overcome
>>> her forcibly“ (*Indian Erotics of the Oldest Period*, Praha 1966: 116,
>>> a book not without its merits).
>>>
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> WS
>>>
>>> -----------------------------
>>> Prof. Dr. Walter Slaje
>>> Hermann-Löns-Str. 1
>>> D-99425 Weimar
>>> Deutschland
>>>
>>>
>>> 2016-10-17 20:08 GMT+02:00 Nityanand Misra <nmisra at gmail.com>:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 17 October 2016 at 22:48, Artur Karp <karp at uw.edu.pl> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Dear All,
>>>>>
>>>>> Should I understand that there are no traces, no mentions of sexual
>>>>> harrasment in the entire - vast - corpus of ancient/medieval Indian
>>>>> literature?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> A search for *rape* as the Text Word in the Puranic Encylopedia under
>>>> http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/PEScan/2014/w
>>>> eb/webtc2/index.php shows up the following:
>>>>
>>>> Rape of Rambhā by Rāvaṇa (VR, UK).
>>>> Rape [sic] of Vedavatī by Rāvaṇa (VR, UK). In the VR, it is harassment
>>>> but not rape. Probably the rape is described in some other R.
>>>> Rape of Madanamañjarī by Rāvaṇa (source?)
>>>> Rape of Cañcalākṣī by Rāvaṇa (KambaR)
>>>> Rape of Arā, daughter of Śukra, by Daṇḍa (VR UK)
>>>> Rape of Ugrasena's wife by the *Gandharva* Dramila (SB, 10th Canto)
>>>> Attempt to rape Vinayavatī by Raṅgamālī (Kathāsaritsāgara)
>>>> Attempt to rape Pramati by Nala, friend of Sudeva (Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa)
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
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>>>
>>>
>>
>
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