Two diverse yet comparable incidents of hate with other interlaced patterns that disclose the silts of rusted bygone criminal mechanisms. The rancorous practice of ‘Stripping’ is a predominant form of targeted harassment and an instrument to snatch away the very essence of human-dignity from women and even, sometimes men.

If we factor in records of our bloody partition, the accounts of communal riots, ragging incidents around educational institutions and also miscellaneous criminal cases, India has witnessed several such criminalities; where, “taking off clothes” is used as a tool to throw a person down the shaming and embarrassment-tunnel.

These acts, if we look at social, political and legal parameters are violations of Article 21 which establishes the value of human dignity, life and privacy etched by Article 14, 15,16,17,18 of the Indian constitution which together ensure protection against each & every sundry act of discrimination.

But what are the key drives, psychological pits & politics of this felonious practice?

First, we need to amass some criminal instances to reach a condensed and prolific conclusion.

The wall of shame 

1. On August 23, 2023 an undergraduate has been forced to undress and walk through the hostel corridor at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, West Bengal. Police have embarked on an investigation after the pathetic death of the adolescent and reported involvement of hostel- seniors in the case.
2. Recently, the disturbing video of two Kuki women parading naked, had captured the eyeballs of an otherwise desensitised public discourse, igniting anger and revulsion against the brazen act. On May 4, 2023 these women got both assaulted and raped in the midst of the internet shutdown in the first outbreaks of Manipur violence. Has this incident rekindled the snoozing sensitivity of collective consciousness but still the raised concerns on women security issues or do we still have a long way to go?
3. On July 6, 2021 another such video had set social-media abuzz, in which a tribal woman is getting punished by her husband for fleeing with her lover. The police officials testified that the incident took place in a tribal-vicinity, in which the woman was undressed and paraded before villagers in Dahod, Gujarat.
4. A 38-year-old person was forced to walk naked for 45 minutes on an open street in Rajkot, Gujarat after he indulged in an angry “Facebook live” in December 2020. The virtual intolerance exploded in the scandalous vehemence when the man allegedly mentioned the involvement of known figures behind “bootlegging during a cricket-game”.
5. On June 10, 2018, two minor boys from the Dalit community purportedly got stripped, tortured and paraded naked by upper-caste chauvinist goons for accessing water from a well which was forcibly denied their community. This act of violence took place in Jalgaon, Maharashtra before it was widely viewed on social media.
6. Phoolan Devi, the bandit queen, legendary Phoolan Devi also suffered the same fate. She survived after having undergone through caste-based humiliation, brutality & violence. It is said that a clique of Thakur community undressed and postured her naked across the village, Behmayi in Madhya Pradesh.
7. Partition & riots: The partition of the Indian sub-continent contains several sub-texts of such anecdotes of communal riots where people have particularly targeted women, showcasing an upsurge of misogynist violence. Many Sikh, Muslim and Hindu women got stripped, raped and murdered during this cycle of partition produced hate. Forced abductions, conversions and marriages followed.

This peculiar type of hate crime has a special motive. It stems from a desire to humiliate, establish dominance over a particular caste, religion, gender; it is often also just an act of delinquency.

Stripping as an act of ‘voyeurism’

The Indian Penal Code (IPC) provisions classify ‘stripping’ under the definition-shade of ‘voyeurism’, which catalogues the act of doing, watching or spreading an undressing mishap or sexual activity.

This also includes capturing photographs, creating videos or using hidden cameras to record such content. The IPC puts on an imprisonment punishment of at least one year which can outspread to three years and contain a fine for committing such felonies. However, Voyeurism doubled by rape or murder transforms the character of the offence itself.

A tool to invade human-dignity

As clothes are but basic necessities, the act of snatching away clothing is indeed a vulgar attempt to demolish the fundamental sense of human dignity. It shatters any sense of self-respect and self-worth in the prevalent social arrangement. Subsequently, even after the acknowledgment of such activity, legal-aftermaths & police-action, the victim feels embarrassed, mortified and shamed while the criminal does not face commensurate blame, or punishment. Little can be compensated for the mental trauma, loss & and personal-social outcomes of such crime.

The psychology of social exclusion

Earlier dominant sections used social exclusion as a means to “punish”. The act, and repercussions of stripping someone naked translates into creating psychological pressures of and another category of abandonment. It can also goad a person into self-harm or suicide

Experiments with human-nature

A Mob never proclaims liability!

Marina Abramovic, a revolutionary stage performer once experimented with her body to capture and understand the patterns of social behaviour. She stood still for six hours, kept 72 different soft & violent objects on the table and allowed the public to adapt anything. Surprisingly, people undressed her, cut her skin, gave her a gun to check out senses and actually behaved an eerie and sick criminals.

In contrast, Rousseau believes in the genuinely good nature of the human-race in its natural-state.

Today, however, we reside on the rock-hard grounds of the “modern 21^st century” where violent video games, sensational events, fake news, hate-speech, propagandas, manufactured rumours and mediocre triggering films dominate the scene. This encourages a vast section of the people to “consume hostility” by providing them the liberty to remain unidentified. Several criminals who plan, agitate or fuel such crime never get recognised, in the “crowd”.  A nuanced and elevated public consciousness towards such hate crimes couples with responsive administrative and legal mechanisms need to be in place to correct collective sensitivity and, then, step two, alleviate this kind of violence.

 Related: 

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