How Men See Rape in India

In the wake of the brutal gang rape of a student on a bus in India, some appear to be blaming women for the sexual violence in the country. Influential men have called for coeducational institutes to be shut down, premarital sex to be outlawed, and girls to dress in more modest clothes as a way of preventing rape. Managing editor of Tehelka Shoma Chaudhury calls the anger against the state that has risen up in the wake of the rapes “hugely legitimate,” but writes that it is masking “the giant shadow” in Indian society. “How endemic is the prejudice that stalks our society? What creates the idea of women as ‘fair game’ for sexual violence? What, in effect, do Indian men think about women?” she asks.