The U. S. is a distant second to India in the complexity of social interactions as governed by the myriad influences within the country. Dozens of different languages, all the major religions, and many strata in each category make for a most complicated set of rules of behavior.
A few days before our arrival in Delhi, a young girl (now known by the pseudonym of Nirbhaya) was raped and tortured on a bus and left on the road with her male companion semi-conscious, naked, and bleeding. For two hours pedestrians and vehicles would stop and look but proceed on their way. Finally someone called the police, who spent another half hour discussing in whose jurisdiction the "incident" occurred.
The story took over front page coverage in the Asian papers, displacing the shooting in Connecticut. Students in Delhi took to the streets. We saw them at India Gate near the president's house chanting and carrying signs of protest. Three weeks later it is still the main topic of discussion, despite the earthshaking news that the greatest cricket player in Indian history retired from One Day International competition during the tumult.
The head of police blamed modern society and urban attitudes, but the stats show that 75% of the reported rapes are in rural areas. The editorial pages are filled with stories about the status and treatment of women. The role of religion and culture are weighed and considered at length.
In our capacity as tourists, Jacquie and I are just learning the basics of the history of the subcontinent, mostly from our excellent guides. Four major religions started in India - first was Hinduism, then the nearly simultaneous offshoots Jainism and Buddhism. More recently, Sikhism has become the fastest growing religion in the world. Oddly, some of its greatest leaders were Muslim. Also, a large Portuguese population took over western India and brought in Christianity. (Remember the Pope's Line of Demarcation? Portugal "got" Asia, Africa, and Brazil while Spain "got" the rest of the western hemisphere. Sorry everyone else!)
Hinduism remains the most popular in India. As our Mumbai guide Perin told us, Buddhism is too ascetic for them. They want lots of gods, flowers, and ritual. Buddhism spread to the rest of Asia and Jainism holds steady here due to its adherents' good business sense. The Sikhs practice equal treatment of women and are very generous to the poor. Every Sikh temple in the big cities runs a vast soup kitchen where anyone may come in and have a meal. I've never seen such huge pots of food being prepared.
The proletarian appeal of Sikhism probably explains its popularity, and also explains why other Indians look down on them as lower class. The one joke our Jaipur guide told us was a racial slur on the Sikhs. (It was also funny.) Despite the personal prejudices, India prides itself on religious tolerance. Some past rulers have alternately levied taxes on unbelievers (Muslim kings vs. infidels), or tried to reinstate Hinduism as the national religion, but the most revered kings like Akbar and Shah Jahan encouraged freedom of belief and equal treatment under the law.
Perin is Parsi. Her people came to India from Iran and have maintained a strong community in Mumbai, even though the dogma seems to ensure their demise. It is not possible to convert to Parsi. If a Parsi man marries a non-Parsi woman. only the children are recognized as Parsi. If a Parsi woman marries and non-Parsi man, not only is her family excluded, so is she. Not a lot of growth potential there.
How does a nation govern itself fairly and allow so many cultures and belief systems to thrive? Where does the law step in if women are being oppressed or allowed to be abused? What kind of society raises a fifteen-year-old boy to brutalize a young woman with such abandon? Of the six assailants in the Delhi rape, the youngest was the most violent and may go unpunished due to his age.
A few days ago "Nirbhaya" was flown from Delhi to a Singapore hospital for special medical care. She died there two days later. Gandhi just made another turn in the smoke of his pyre.
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