News From The Sub-Continent

[FredPuli43]

Police have arrested 13 people after a young woman was gang-raped in a brutal punishment allegedly handed down by tribal elders after she was found to have an intimate relationship with a man from a different community.
The 20-year-old unmarried victim admitted being involved with a man outside her insular community in West Bengal. Her punishment was decided by the salishi sabha, the eastern state’s caste-based village court system, which is known for issuing stern punishments for moral offences. The local judiciaries exert great influence throughout much of rural India, particularly in the north, despite attempts by the Indian Supreme Court to limit their authority.
Police said the punishment was levelled after the woman’s parents said she was too poor to pay a fine of 25,000 rupees (£243). She was held captive for more than 12 hours and then tied to a tree, with her male companion, before the brutal assault began in the village of Subalpur, 149 miles west of Calcutta. She was later admitted to hospital, where her condition was said to be critical but stable. [The Times, extract].

Any comment?

[emmie]

sandyr

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_%28practice%29

[emmie]

we to some extent were quite a civilising influence, i am not suggesting that all the Empire stood for was right, but the rule of law, government and many other colonial institutions made the country somewhat better. I also believe though i would need to read up that it was the British who outlawed the practice that sandyr was referring to, sati, or suttee, the widow throwing herself on the bonfire of her husband, can't think of a more barbaric way to go, and it wasn't necessarily the woman's wish to do so.

[jake-the-peg]

AOG

//And some class it as racist to state that we are superior to them.//

Yes it is

Much as if the Chinese were to point to Fred West as evidence that they are superior to us.

You really just don't get it do you?

This is not seen as acceptable behaviour in India, and it is not representative of India as a whole

[emmie]

according to many women who live in India it is quite representative, the various programmes that have featured women across India, and the many news items with women protesting about the way rape is treated should make them sit up and take notice, it hasn't obviously, it doesn't make us superior, but i confess we have more rights over these matters, more laws to protect us, and that includes men, i wonder you don't see that.

[emmie]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/23/india-gang-rape-case-sexual-violence

[anotheoldgit]

jake-the-peg

/// You really just don't get it do you? ///

No I think it is you who just doesn't get it, read what I put not what you wished I had put.

/// This is not seen as acceptable behaviour in India, and it is not representative of India as a whole ///

Where have I said or even hinted that this type of thing is seen as acceptable behaviour in India?

This is what I put;

"Well compared to people such as this, and call me racist if you must, but I certainly compare myself superior in this case".

The secret is in those words 'compared to people such as this'.

But then there is no fun in stating what I actually put, much more fun making things up eh?

[FredPuli43]

What does "call me racist if you must" add, AOG ? It suggests that you think your words can be taken as racist, which itself suggests that you are not clear what is and what is not racist. You have, in the past, asked whether something was racist, so it would be natural to have doubts about your understanding