Hindu Nationalism and Marital Rapes: Select Short Stories of Shashi Deshpande

Abstract

The incidence of sexual violence during Hindu-Muslim conflict has been attributed to the Militant ideology of Hindu Nationalism. Justification of sexual violence against Muslim women is at the core of their ideology. The patriarchal ideas have normalised sex as a normal expression of male desire. Sexual violence is hardly understood as violence but as sex. The other important issue that we often fail to see is the rapes in domestic sphere. The core values of Hindu Nationalism has contributed to the domestic rapes. The refusal by the  Indian law to accept marital rape as criminal act shows how the institution of marriage is placed above women. In the Hindu Nationalism, women have always been defined by the men in their lives, they are somebody’s wife, daughter, sister whose honour has to be protected. It either praises or vilifies them who is under the control of  men or they are sexually free and a danger to society. Their sexuality is controlled through the institution of family. It is believed that if a woman does not perform this role as dutiful mothers or wives, then the family suffers and then the nation.