it's a powerful story, and i give props to usha.

my grumble is with nicholas kristof and the way he presented the story. the opening line of the column was something like (i paraphrase, because i can't get the original due to the times select barrier, but perhaps someone can help): "the greatest moral challenge of the 21st century is gender equality in the developing world."

and then he goes on to tell usha's story.

i'm all for telling usha's story. i'm extremely annoyed at that intro, however. for kristof to pontificate on the "greatest moral challenge" of the next 94 years and locate it in a way that specifically exempts his own country -- and therefore himself -- is narcissistic at best, colonialistic at worse.

we -- meaning the world -- have numerous moral challenges.

we also have social and economic challenges. reducing the fight for gender equality to its "moral" dimension risks obscuring the specific causes behind gender discrimination and injustice in each setting. in other words, even if i believe gender equality to be a moral cause, i can't turn up in nagpur and tell them to change their way of ordering society simply because it is moral to do so. you have to bring something to the table beyond indignation.

in the wikipedia of my mind, look up "bleeding-heart liberal" and you find a picture of kristof. from darfur to nagpur this dude is all about finding injustice among the natives. again, i am all in favor of usha's story being told. but what we make of the story depends much on how the messenger tells it.

peace & respects

Dude Manish,

I sent this tip to you guys two days ago. I even blogged on this Sunday night.

What happened to "equal" acknowledgments?

Kush, sorry, dude. I choose not to be on the tip line to reduce inbound email. And that should be obvious because the form tells you exactly who gets the emails.

Not to mention the FAQ right on the form:

We credit tipsters when the tip led to the post. If we posted about a tip but didn't credit you, we received an earlier tip about the same story or discovered the story independently.

Not to worry, Manish. I was giving you hard time.

"you have to bring something to the table beyond indignation."

Siddhartha,

I have been saying this since the Day One I started visiting Sepia Mutiny. I agree.

"It’s sick that patriarchy and caste discrimination leads to this even today." I agree about patriarchy, but where is there if any. a suggestion about caste in story? How did you conclude that caste discrimination lead to thuggery?

"How did you conclude that caste discrimination lead to thuggery?'

From Kristof's article. He writes:

For more than 15 years, the mud alleys of the slum were ruled by a local thug named Akku Yadav. A higher-caste man, he killed, raped and robbed in this community of Dalits - those at the bottom of the caste ladder - and the police paid no attention.

PS: You need Time Select subscription to read it entirely

Thanks, I stand corrected.

Can someone post the article here - the one by Kristof

In India, One Woman's Stand Says 'Enough'
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

NAGPUR, India

The central moral challenge we will face in this century will be to
address gender inequality in the developing world. Here in India, for
example, among children ages 1 to 5, girls are 50 percent more likely
to die than boys. That means that every four minutes, a little girl
here is discriminated against to death.

One reason for such injustice is that many women docilely accept it --
even enforce it. But that may be changing, as I found in a slum here
in the central Indian city of Nagpur.

For more than 15 years, the mud alleys of the slum were ruled by a
local thug named Akku Yadav. A higher-caste man, he killed, raped and
robbed in this community of Dalits -- those at the bottom of the caste
ladder -- and the police paid no attention. One woman, according to
people here, went to the police station to report that she had been
gang-raped by Akku Yadav and his goons, and the police raped her.

Neighbors tell how Akku Yadav forced a man to dance naked in front of
his teenage daughter. They say that he chopped one woman into pieces
in front of her daughter, and that another woman burned herself to
death after he and his men gang-raped her.

There was only one family that Akku Yadav's gang didn't torment --
that of Madhukar and Alka Narayane -- because from this squalor they
sent all five of their children through college. In a neighborhood
where many are illiterate and no one had ever gone to college, that
was a heroic achievement, and it made gangsters wary about preying on
them.

A daughter, Usha Narayane, now 27, studied hotel management and seemed
destined to become a hotel manager. But one day in 2004 while she was
on vacation back in the slum, Akku Yadav attacked the next-door
neighbors. The gang warned Usha not to go to the police -- and that's
when she went to the police.

Akku Yadav returned with 40 men and surrounded the Narayane shack. He
waved a bottle of acid and threatened to disfigure Usha's face, and to
rape and kill her. She barricaded the door, shouted insults at him and
telephoned the police, who didn't immediately come.

Finally, Usha turned on the gas, grabbed a match and threatened to
blow up everyone if the gang broke into the house. The gangsters
backed off. (For video of Usha in her slum, go to
nytimes.com/kristof.)

The neighbors, seeing somebody finally stand up to Akku Yadav,
gathered in the street. Soon a mob burned down Akku Yadav's house, and
he turned himself over to the police for protection.

A bail hearing for him was set for Aug. 13, 2004, and word spread
through the slum that he would be released. Hundreds of women marched
from the slum to the courthouse. When Akku Yadav showed up, he spotted
a woman he had raped and shouted that he would rape her again. She
began beating him with her slipper.

Other women pulled out chili powder from their clothes and threw it in
the faces of Akku Yadav and the police. As the police fled, scores of
women pulled out knives and apparently took turns stabbing Akku Yadav
and cutting off his penis. He ended up as mincemeat, and the courtroom
walls are still spattered with blood.

The police arrested a handful of women, including Usha, for the
murder, but she conveniently could prove that she was not at the
courtroom that day. And then the hundreds of women in the slum jointly
declared that they had all joined in the killing, on the theory that
if they all claimed responsibility, no single person could be
punished.

''We all did it,'' affirms Rajashri Rangdale, a young mother. ''We all
take responsibility for what happened.''

''I'm proud of what we did,'' agrees Jija More, a housewife. ''We were
all involved.''

As for Usha, she is out on bail, but the police harass her and her
career as a hotel manager seems over. She is sure that other members
of Akku Yadav's gang will try to seek revenge by raping and killing
her. But, undaunted, she is beginning a new life as a social activist,
and she is now helping the slum dwellers make foods and clothing that
they can sell together to raise their incomes.

I don't want to condone a lynching. But in a land where police are
utterly corrupt, and where so much misery arises from people passively
accepting their lot, I'm proud to know Usha Narayane. She is a
reminder of the difference that education makes, and I hope that she
is a vision of the new Indian woman.

This story is quite old. Almost 2 years now. For those who are interested in further extracts of that NYT article go to this thread by Uma. She also has a thorough line up of other links to this story. I don't know why is there a flurry of reports suddenly. Is there any change in the status of the case? I would like to know if so. Am I missing something?

As I've said over at Uma's post, this case is unique and whatever the outcome it's going to be very interesting and one which will set a precedent. On one hand we have a murder (of a serial rapist, but murder nevertheless), in broad daylight right outside a courtroom in the presence of police. And on the other hand are these hundreds of Dalit women living under the shadow of oppression and humiliation for years. Going by conventional judicial wisdom, somebody gotta pay for the murder...but in this case it was not one but a mob of women which killed him, and who are readily submitting to it. On the other hand, given the facts, the court in its right mind cannot punish all these women. The best part is they are all sticking together, and now allowing any one of them to be taken as scapegoat. The police arresting these 5 women is just a sign of how Indian police/judicial system works, sidestepping the real issues all the time. The court (if it's sane) has to do a tough balancing act, by getting these women freed, yet justify it fully within the legal framework. Then again, this could so easily turn out to be one more case in the pile of lacs of pending cases. After all Akku Yadav did get bail 12 times from the same court.

For those who are further interested, Kalpana Sharma, who writes about women's issues, has written a very thought-provoking piece with her notes from a student's debate organized in a Bombay college and here's the Guardian report.

Thx Articlewallah.

Kush quotes Kristof:
For more than 15 years, the mud alleys of the slum were ruled by a local thug named Akku Yadav. A higher-caste man, he killed, raped and robbed in this community of Dalits - those at the bottom of the caste ladder - and the police paid no attention.

Incidentally, Yadavs are recognized by the govt as OBCs. In other words, lower caste. Ironic, since Yadavs have been notorious for caste based killings in the north ever since they gained political power.

...and not allowing any one of them to be taken as a scapegoat...

Laloo Yadav has raped over 100 women like this and gotten away with it. I guess Akku Y. didn't have Mrs. Sonia Gandhi's support......

I agree, Kristof is the epitome of "bleeding heart liberal", but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing, Siddhartha. The stories he raises are unknowns in the majority of Western media outlets (who have abdicated from their responsibility in this regard IMO). By raising awareness, he creates attention, and subsequently often, donations. It isn't just indignation, it's more.

That being said, I definitely think the neo-colonialist angle you raise has merit. I do wish he was more careful with language, but I also think Kristof uses hyperbole to illustrate his vision. The Times has many columnists who raise America's complicity in the moral and/or global challenges we face. Kristof's niche is different.

isn't Lord Krishna a Yadav? If so, isn't that a Kshatriya class, since he was born in a royal family? Casteism sucks. The reservations are enough to drive any person up the wall. Rather than putting reservations, they should increase education at the grassroots levels so people are on par once they reach college. But that is another issue altogether. Have you seen Mrityudand? My mother had dreams of becoming prims Minister and showing this movie free to all rural women. The stagnation in India, if you're a housewife watching soaps, or a woman who's hoping she'll mary well despite her education, somehow naturally makes complicity in the patriarchal mission inevitable. The idle mind is the devil's workshop indeed. the idle penis... the devil's tool. The whole concept of rape renders men more childish than if they were to murder other men. tsk.

::It’s got overtones of Mirch Masala, Krantiveer and Bandit Queen:

And here's the original.

According to an old curse attributed to Krishna himself, his kind, the Yadavas are supposed to be on a self-destruct mode. They will fight each other to death.

I wonder how powerful the caste system was in Krishna's days, if he was an historical figure...

isn't Lord Krishna a Yadav? If so, isn't that a Kshatriya class, since he was born in a royal family?

Not exactly. Krishna's adopted family were Yadavs. Krishna himself was born to royal Kshatriya parents, as you've correctly stated.

According to an old curse attributed to Krishna himself, his kind, the Yadavas are supposed to be on a self-destruct mode. They will fight each other to death.

Assuming I remember those old TV episodes of Mahabharata correctly, apparently he was cursed as above by one of the female characters of the story for having the power to prevent the slaughter but not doing enough directly to stop it.

So Samurai Jack finally got his man...

I thought this happened long long ago. I read about this more than a few months ago.

since when did Yadavs become a high caste?
freakin goras with their white mans burden theory wanna save the browns now....lol.
what next?high caste harijans:)?

Cool Ladies. When 5 or women get together they are like powerful. Like Women Self Help groups in India.Women in a group can influence a lot. I like the spirit of women. this story proves it. I feel bad for them, becuase of what Men do, even Good men, Just with one moment of stupidity.I feel bad for People's ignorance against Women. I seen strong Women, they shouldnot have been considered as weak, the Women who worked in farms to feed us, the women who silently have suffered pain,the Pain that women suffers when she gives birth to the child, the pain that Men give - they silently suffer. i have seen intelligent women who suffered just because they were Intelligent - either they wait for time to heal or women like usha narayane who take justice in their own hands -remember Rani kittur Chennama.

Please read readers digest July or august 2007 issue - a story of women who waited for about 20 years for her bf to die - who scared her to death - another story of Waman - and this happend in USA - a delusioned scizophrenic and a Intelligent and caring Woman.

yup its July issue of Readers digest - a different story but something related to women - Article is: Possesed by Love