On the 16th of December 2012, a 23 year old female physiotherapy intern took a private bus with her male friend in the Munirka neighborhood of South Delhi. Six in the bus, including the driver, raped, beat and tortured the girl, and beat her friend. They left her lying on the street- naked and bleeding internally. Within thirteen days of her assault, she was pronounced dead. The nation raged in fury: protests broke out in every corner of the country and the victim was called ‘Nirbhaya’. Her name is Jyoti.
On the 14th of September 2020, a 19 year old Dalit girl was at the farm collecting fodder with her mother and elder brother in the village of Hathras, Uttar Pradesh. The girl who loved to buy new hair accessories and bangles, was the youngest in the house of seven. Four upper caste men showed up at the farm and grabbed her by her chunni. They raped her and allegedly cut her tongue. Her brother had left temporarily for home and her mother had a hearing problem- meaning she only noticed later that her daughter was gone and her screams went unheard by the mother. They later found her bleeding from the nose and mouth and her neck was severely damaged. Fifteen days later, she succumbed to her injuries in a Delhi hospital. Her name is Manisha.
The nation is angry - at the rape and at the unconsented cremation of her body by the UP police.
Protests have broken out in all parts of the country even with an ongoing pandemic, some calling Manisha the ‘Nirbhaya of Hathras’. For a girl whose body was burnt down at 3:30 AM in an attempt to make sure that no forensic report can be carried out properly, it is not only objectively wrong but impertinent to call her so.
The family of the victim were forced to lock themselves in their house in fear of being beaten up by the UP Police when her body was being taken away. The District Magistrate showed up at their house asking them to allegedly change their statement and to fear the dire consequences of media attention. The Chief Minister of the state has denied that a rape even happened.
When Manisha was first taken to the Chand Pa police station, they were denied registering an FIR. They knew she was a Dalit woman. They told her family that she must first be rushed to the hospital given her condition. The nearest hospital facility told her family they could not admit her because her injuries were too severe. The family somehow managed to move her to the Delhi’s ANU hospital, where she took her last breath. The FIR was lodged six days after the incident.
This is in sharp contrast to how Jyoti or Nirbhaya was delivered justice. Arrests were made within 24 hours of the incident - although it took eight years for the accused to be convicted by the Supreme Court. Her body was swiftly handed over to her family to perform the last rites. In his book ‘Between the world and Me’, Ta-Nehisi Coates explains to his fifteen year old son:
‘The question is not whether Lincoln truly meant “government of the people” but what our country has, throughout its history, taken the political term “people” to actually mean.’
Denying the Hathras rape case the underlying connotation of caste only goes on to show the convenience with which we talk about rape and privilege in this country. It is denying them their truth.
Dalit women in specific have been particularly targeted by upper caste men in order to put them in ‘place’. It is these upper caste people that often form the power holders in this country, screaming for the richness and pride in their culture while shying away from acknowledging the caste difference. Shying away from calling out their fellow caste members. Shying away from the fact they have been wrong. This poise downplays the differences the Dalit people are subject to each day, denying them yet another one of their truths.
‘Nirbhaya’ is now baptised into this new immortal identity she would hold for years to come, to be the country’s reckoning in times like these. When we speak of the great achievements of the country, her name will be the one that will silence masses but Manisha and Hathras and Dalit will be the echo. They should never be silenced or worse, forgotten.
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