Eve teasing: the negative side of Dussehra

(Audrey) Thane covered the best of our Dussehra experience in his previous post, and overall it was a great time. But towards the end of the evening a small incident occurred that is all too common in India: sexual harassment or as it’s often known here, eve teasing. We were walking out, really flowing out in this mad crush of people, when a guy somewhere behind me groped my chest. I turned around to see who it was and couldn’t tell which of the dozen or so men within grabbing range was the culprit. But another guy was stupid enough to do the exact same thing while I was turned around, and him I saw clearly.

Now at this point, I’m unharmed but thoroughly miffed. So I reach back, past another guy that was between us and smack the culprit’s head. Just my luck, a policeman was right nearby (there were tons of them at the festivities due to concerns about terrorism). My Hindi failed me, no doubt a side-effect of my rage, but it took all of 2 second to communicate via gestures and English what had occurred. So, then and there, with people streaming by on all sides, the cop began to hit the young man with a combination of fists, slaps, and a lathi. He wasn’t going to seriously hurt the guy, if nothing else because the mass of people didn’t allow for full swings, but he was going to dispense a bit of painful justice. After seeing a few hits, I turned around and kept moving out of the festival ground with everybody else, happy that this time at least there was some price the offender had to pay.

Eve teasing is exceedingly common in India, particularly in the north some say and above all in Delhi. The government has tried various ways of dealing with the problem, including creating all-women’s carriages on trains and metros and more recently attempting to beef-up security in public places. In my opinion, they’ve got a long road ahead of them to eradicate this practice but they are making progress. For one thing, when I called the cop over he helped me instead of continuing the harassment himself. But one has to wonder, would he have acted differently if I hadn’t been white? It seems a sad constant the world over (that somewhat uncomfortably I benefit from) that cops see protecting white people as one of their primary functions.

One thing about my experience that may also have been different if I was of another race/nationality is my husband’s response. When Thane turned around to see me wailing on a guy and directing a cop to finish the job, he didn’t really need me to explain what had happened. And he was sympathetic. Unfortunately, it is still all to common in many cultures around the world to blame the woman for such things on the basis of her dress, demeanor, decision to be out at night, and so forth. According to some readings, the Ramayana, India’s great epic, even condones this approach. This must change, and it’s a great reminder that not all parts of any given culture are worth keeping.

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Tags: dussehra, eve teasing, police, Ramlila, sexual harassment