By Deepa Majumdar
Residents of Meghalaya, I am sure, are tired of hearing the word “rape.” But fatigue and despair will not make this heinous act go away – unless strict, swift punishments are meted out by the judiciary and the community. Normally I am against mob justice. But in this situation, where helpless minors are being molested and raped by monsters who bring shame to their gender – a few examples need to be made. I do not mean anything violent – but total shaming. Shame stands at the threshold – separating crime from punishment. So long as a person is still capable of shame he can be shamed into redemption. Punishment is unnecessary. But when a perpetrator goes beyond shame, only punishment can rectify the problem – I mean redemptive (not vengeful) punishment of course. Someone shameless can no longer be shamed into reforming himself. Whether the rapists currently under scrutiny in Meghalaya, have crossed this invisible boundary of shame, is for the community to decide. No law can make such refined judgments. Moreover, in the case of a crime as egregious as rape – especially rape of a minor – it is imperative that punishment be added to shame – not because we are inquisitional, but because our response must be proportionate to the crime. The crime of rape is so serious that ordinary shaming is not adequate – all the more in a hypocritical puritanical culture where the victim of rape is usually the one shamed as somebody “polluted.”
What kind of punishment would be redemptive enough to turn around the soul of a rapist from that of a predator, to that of someone with self-control – and hence respect for women? Indeed, the fact that even toddlers are being raped today, proves the chasmic-but-surmountable difference between lust and the parental love that comes in the wake of self-control. It proves as well that we are no longer dealing with ordinary rapists – but among the more depraved of such criminals. What kind of punishment fits the crime of rape? Rare is the punishment that is proportionate to the crime – leave alone redemptive. Reality therefore sometimes demands that we settle for second-best – namely punishment that deters, but need not redeem. For rapists, this minimum punishment aimed at deterrence, it would seem, should be life imprisonment. But what kind of life should a rapist lead behind bars? To add a redemptive aspect, rapists should be required to spend their lives – not only reflecting on their misdeeds, as all criminals should – but serving women survivors of rape and domestic violence. Serving them indirectly of course – for until they have reformed, they do not deserve any direct contacts with any woman.
The act of rape comes in degrees, beginning with adulterous thoughts. Such thoughts and the licentious actions that follow, can and do happen often within “respectable” marriages. I shudder to think of how many wives keep quiet about being raped by their “respectable” husbands. But when such adulterous thoughts morph into the action of rape – especially towards a minor – even a toddler – one has to wonder if we are any longer dealing with a human being or a monster. There is, in fact a huge gulf between adultery and rape. Where adultery can happen between mutually consenting adults, rape, by definition, cannot. Neither consensual, nor mutual, (except in sick sado-masochistic relationships) rape is unmitigated in its uni-directional assault. Where adultery can be amorous, rape is violent. Where adultery is always morally corrosive, and mutually so, rape is corrosive for the rapist alone. In fact, rape has uncannily similar – but contrasting impacts on the survivor and her rapist. The act of rape destroys both – but in opposite ways. If rape is, as is well known, a death of soul for the rape survivor, then it is a far deeper death of soul for the rapist – leading to impotence (both physical and spiritual), incapacity for intimacy, and dire consequences in the afterlife. The act of rape ruptures the libido, leaving the survivor not only unduly touched and laden with grotesque memories – but spiritually open and engaged in outward behavior that resembles lust. For the survivor goes from one man to another, seeking catharsis and a closure to her wound. In puritanical societies such behavior can be misunderstood by patriarchal lust as wantonness – which is why rape survivors are sometimes flogged in the most brutal societies of our day. All put together therefore, the rape survivor’s experiences are unfathomable in their horror. But the cosmic punishment that follows in the heels of the rapist is even more unfathomable in its horror.
Where the survivor not only survives, but blossoms to unusual spiritual heights in later life – as part of her journey of healing – the rapist spends his life in the deepest inner ferment, to be relieved by nothing less than life-long atonement. But reality is often otherwise. Most rapists do not atone for their hideous deeds. In fact, most rapists do not even make it to the courts of law and are never prosecuted. In cultures that are particularly mucho, some rapists are even lauded for their “conquests.” But unlike human law, cosmic law is limitless. If the physical, mental, spiritual toll on the rape survivor make us shudder, so should the moral consequences of rape, upon the rapist – in this life and in the hereafter. Rapists should therefore beware of committing this heinous crime.
It is sad that the ancient classics, world-wide – perhaps because they were written mostly by men – warn against adultery – and rightfully so – but not against rape. If the Ten Commandments were written today, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” would be replaced by “Thou shalt not commit rape.” The Laws of Manu detail many punishments in this life and in the hereafter. Notwithstanding his sexism, Manu is more drastic than we are where rape is concerned – recommending “corporal or capital punishment” (8.364) for the crime of rape. Neither corporal nor capital punishment is redemptive. They should both be rejected and replaced by life imprisonment. Rapists should spend their lives behind bars, earning their keep by serving women who have survived rape and domestic violence.