Why India Is So Damn Violent
Why India Is So Damn Violent - India Real Time - WSJ
The anger, outrage, and collective soul-searching we’ve seen in the wake of a young woman’s brutal gang rape in Delhi has only been magnified by her death in Singapore in the early hours of Saturday.
Protests in Delhi and other major cities across the country have seen men, women and children calling for justice and an end to violence against women. Many others in the social and conventional media have added their commentary to the chorus.
While there were some voices debating seriously the roots of violence against women and the deficiencies in the Indian criminal justice system, some others — at least from chants and photographs of placards held up by protesters, and commentary on blogs, TV, Twitter and Facebook — called for extreme punishment. One grisly placard captured by a journalist in Delhi called for the public dismemberment of rapists, while others repeated calls for chemical castration, public stoning, hanging, and the death penalty.
Columnist Vidya Subrahmaniam referred to an online comment by a reader suggesting that a rapist should be sodomized by a group of homosexual men as the appropriate punishment.
This isn’t necessarily the view of the majority of Indians, but certainly represents, at the very least, a vocal minority that is giving vent to deeply held frustrations.
