THE Hathras incident has brought one more baba into the national limelight. In a country of more than a billion people, there are babas, big and small, and perhaps in millions. The tragedy notwithstanding-and the clear lapses in organising the event-what is baffling is the continued popularity of some of these babas across the country despite all their misadventures. Gone are the days of babas who were hermits, renunciants and ascetics. It's not as if this breed is completely extinct, but they are very few and far between. A large number of today's babas have mushroomed as entrepreneurs, as insecurity management start-ups, catering to varied kinds of clientele. Some, like the 5-star ones, handhold the rich and the privileged facing difficult times in exotic and highly esoteric settings. In the meantime, a vast majority of the ordinary, underclass, both urban and rural people, grappling with all kinds of anxieties and insecurities veer around the rest.
Denne historien er fra August 01, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
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Denne historien er fra August 01, 2024-utgaven av Outlook.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Criminal Amnesia
The focus may have now shifted to the Kolkata gang rape case, but questions about the sexual violence in Manipur since May 2023 remain unanswered
To Rape A Wife
Survivors of marital rape face twin hurdles: a lack of legal framework to deal with these cases and the social stigma that comes with reporting them
A City Violated
Public outburst of anger over the rape and murder of a junior doctor in Kolkata has left the Mamata Banerjee government puzzled, worried
The Forest of Loss
From a legal perspective, justice appears to have been served in the 2017 Gudiya rape and murder case at Kotkhai, Himachal Pradesh. But several questions persist
Here, Nobody Speaks of the Wounds
Muhammad Iqbal Shah's 14-year-old cousin was gang-raped and murdered at Handwara town, Kupwara, in 2007. The family is still trudging along the long road to justice
She Must Have Been Afraid
The 2012 Delhi gang rape is reflective of a systematic failure to cleanse the societal malaise
The Burning Woman
UP has the highest rate of crimes against women, and the district of Unnao has seen some of the State's most gruesome cases
Naked (vs.) Justice
On March 14, 2006, Latabai and her son, six, were paraded naked in a village in Solapur. Less than six months later, four members of a Dalit family were paraded naked; mother & daughter were allegedly gang-raped
Songlines of Chambal
How do the residents of Sheikhpur Gudha, Phoolan Devi's village in Uttar Pradesh, remember her: as a survivor, a rebel, a leader?
Don't You Remember My Story?
A child gang rape survivor's 12-year long ordeal in Sikar, Rajasthan shows how calls for punishment of perpetrators don't always mean empathy for the victim