Brinda Karat defines herself as an Indian woman communist. She is currently a member of the Polit Bureau of the CPI(M). In her over half a century of involvement in struggles for social change, she has served in various capacities—as an office bearer in trade unions in Delhi; as the General Secretary of the AIDWA—one of the largest women’s organizations in India; as Vice President of the Adivasi Adhikar Rashtriya Manch; and as a Member of the Rajya Sabha from 2005 to 2011. She is the author of An Education for Rita: A Memoir 1975-1985; Notes from Women’s Struggles: Survival and Emancipation; and Food Matters. She writes articles on contemporary issues for several newspapers.
<p>In this monograph, one of India’s leading, most committed political and human rights activists examines how women’s safety, dignity and security have been undermined in the decade since the Hindu right rose to near-absolute power. Hindutva—the guiding philosophy of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the rest of the Sangh Parivar—is at its core a majoritarian, militant and regressive thought system that draws inspiration from casteist, communal and misogynistic texts and ideologues. While injustice in cases of violence against women is not new in India, writes Brinda Karat, the political supremacy of Hindutva since 2014 has changed the nature and extent of this injustice. The religious identities of the victims and the perpetrators determine the approach of powerful leaders and their governments, the police, and, increasingly, the courts. This creates new rape cultures that ultimately affect the processes of justice for all women.</p><p>Examining some of the most horrific instances of majoritarian violence against women and the official response (or lack of it) to them—the release of Bilkis Bano’s rapists; campaigns in favour of the men who brutalized little Asifa Bano; the covert cremation of the body of the Hathras victim; the rape and murder of Kuki women in Manipur—Karat shows how, when sexual crimes are communalized, women of oppressed castes are denied justice just as women of religious and ethnic minorities are.</p><p>Impassioned, rigorous and forthright, this is a necessary book for our times.</p><div><br></div>
