When Twitter aped a gruesome reality
Two separate incidents last week, unrelated yet connected, provide a good indicator of how despite all our superficial modernity we remain at heart, a backward, feudal and regressive nation. Nothing demonstrates that more than the manner in which we deal with women, not just in the much-reviled rural hinterland but also in an urban milieu, where the denizens are supposed to be more evolved.
Anushka Sharma’s latest film, NH10, paints a grim portrait of life just outside the city borders where the glass-fronted skyscrapers of Gurgaon end and a kind of lawless “Wild West” begins. Faced with lumpen elements who harass her, she goes berserk and lashes out violently to take revenge on those who humiliate her and her husband.
The film delineates the contrast between the insulated city folks, comfortable in their well-mannered lifestyle and the rural universe of honour killings and crude men.
However, the online lumpen who lashed out at Anushka after India’s loss at the hands of the Australians in the World Cup tournament were no rustics. The Twitter population, by definition, would be reasonably educated, techsavvy and well off to possess a smartphone or even a laptop. They would even be familiar with, if not fluent in, English. They are “consumers” of the media — old and new. All this makes them, in some respect, “modern” and also, perhaps, “aspirational” — our portmanteau word for a certain kind of young Indian who is the future of this country.
Anushka’s fault, in their eyes, was that her boyfriend Virat Kohli played badly in the India-Australia game. They posted tweets laced with the most vile abuse and insinuations, suggesting, among other things, that her presence distracted him. A smart alec young commentator Gautam Bhimani asked, “Hey how far is NH10 from the SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground)?” gratuitously linking the film to the game. Other tweets were simply unprintable. Twitter as we know it is a free-forall forum, where the concept of free speech is stretched to its limits and abuse is rampant. The process of filing complaints is not so easy, and even if one were to block, there is no escaping reading the vile obscenities that are written.
The more pertinent questions here are — what has Anuskha got to do with Kohli’s performance in the field? Why should her name come up in any discussion about cricket at all? Are all the other wives and girlfriends (WAGs) fair game? In which case, why were others not mentioned? Would the husbands and boyfriends of sportswomen get roasted if the latter played poorly?
It is easy to see why Anuskha was picked upon. She is a young, glamorous, high-profile celebrity and makes for an easy target. But her greatest failing is that she is an ambitious and successful single woman, the one kind that brings out the vilest sexism in the Indian male.
Unlike her counterparts who come from film background, she has no father, brother, husband, boyfriend or even a powerful Godfather to back her; she has made it on her own and continues to thrive in an industry not known for its kindness towards the unattached and the unprotected. Instead of hailing her as a role model for other young women with dreams, she is seen as fair game. Her path to the top could not have been without struggle and some truly difficult and perhaps sordid times; but who cares about that?
Anushka, who happily flew down to Sydney to see her boyfriend bat, became bait for those who wanted to vent out about cricket and found an easy outlet in her for their patriarchal anxieties. A successful Anuskha reminds them that despite all the hurdles society puts in their path, young women can and do become successful.
The other incident concerns a less highprofile woman but has a strange, symbiotic connection to the harassment of Anushka Sharma. A young married woman, travelling alone, was asked some very intrusive questions by an immigration offi- cer at the New Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport. Bizarre questions like — Do you smoke? Do you drink? Do you sleep with other men? Would you sleep with me? — were thrown at her when she was passing through immigration for a flight to Hong Kong. She tried complaining to his superiors who told her to email her complaint. When nothing worked, she went with her story to the media. The officer has been suspended.
Even without knowing the full story, we can safely assume that the officer was an educated man (or at least, had a degree, without which that kind of job would be impossible to get). She is a married woman with two children, but in this situation, she was alone, and had no man with her to “protect” her. Thus, she was perceived to be an easy target. Hundreds of thousands of instances of harassment are being played out on a daily basis; only a few get reported.
No amount of regulations, laws or sections for misbehaviour — online or offline — will really change embedded mindsets so easily. The laws can only help in setting a legal framework; social change will come about only after a lot of pain and resistance. The fightback by the passenger who refused to take the bad behaviour lying down, and the suspension of the immigration officer will set a precedent for others that there will be real consequences to such misdemeanours. By choosing to ignore the abuse directed at her, Anushka Sharma has shown that she is better than her tormenters. India needs more of them, not the Neanderthals who think they are being brave and macho when they go after a woman.
TS teachers face tutorial ban, March 29). Tuitions help students as it provides personal attention. When both parents work they do not get time to teach their children. Tuitions are a perfect solution for working parents. Now, no teacher is willing to take tuitions due to fear of action by authorities.
Monisha Sai K.
Anushka became bait for those who wanted to vent out
about cricket and found an easy outlet in her for their patriarchal anxieti
es. She reminds them that despite
hurdles, women can be successful