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She Told Relatives She’d Been Raped. They Paraded Her and the Suspect. Videos of the girl and her alleged attacker as violent crowds shamed and beat her created outrage in India. By Sameer Yasir March 31, 2021 阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版Leer en español The distraught teenager told family members that their neighbor had pushed her to the floor, stuffed a cloth in her mouth and raped her. The relatives, with a number of villagers, found the man she had accused and beat him. Then, declaring that the 16-year-old girl had brought shame to the family, the group tied the girl to the suspect with a rope and paraded them through fields and markets in a village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Some spectators kicked, punched and spat on her. Videos of the shaming this past Sunday circulated widely on social media, triggering a nationwide outcry over one of the most distressing aspects of India’s rampant problem with sexual violence: victim blaming. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/31/world/asia/india-rape-paraded.html

Its just symbolism. Kali is the goddess of war, destroyer of demons and evil, so its no surprise her image was carved onto swords and other weapons. Other deities associated with war were used as well. While South Asian Muslims refrained from using images of humans and used patterns instead, Sikhs were Ok with depicting images of humans or human like figures. And I'm guessing the gurus were Ok with it as well. Another popular image was a tiger/lion chasing a deer. You can find this motif at Hazur Sahib and at Harmandir Sahib as well. I'm sure other old Gurdware which were demolished had this motif as well. Tiger chasing deer is also found on puratan shastars as well. The deer in Indian art represents beauty, pride, temptation etc while the tiger chasing it represents the destroyer of these emotions. So its no surprise old Gurdware have this image. Here's one from Hazur Sahib. You can see a tiger chasing a deer while the deer looks back. So all these things, kali, durga, animals they are like symbols representing different emotions. A bit like how when going to war Singhs used to sing ballads about wars between gods and demons, krishna vs kharag singh etc these ballads woke that warrior spirit in them, a desire to kill! Just like that these images we see in old Gurdware and puratan shastar were no different, they evoked an emotion, either of bir rass or spirituality. But we don't see this kind of art in new gurdware so some people misunderstand it. I think the tiger chasing deer looks quite cool! though I think some Sikhs today would consider a image like that in Gurdwara offensive, lol.

Crazy woman! I remember reading about her. I think she stabbed herself in the thigh and blamed him for it. More and more men are ending up in jail because women falsely accuse them of rape. Like that British slapper who had a gang bang in Greece with some local men and then accused them of gang rape. Perhaps Mohammed has learnt his lesson and will keep it in his pants and not cheat on his wife! He's lucky his wife is still with him.

These incidents, including nurses sexually abusing patients, are in the news every other day now. Doctors, teachers etc are people that you are supposed to have trust in, I guess that is partly the reason why so many of them sexually assault, they take advantage of their position.

Qutab minar, the minar that Muslims said the call to prayer from, surrounded by ruins of demolished Indian temples. This Jain pillar survived though as it apparently weights tons! so they couldn't pull it out.

I'm sure the Muslim call to prayer has a religious purpose, but in India it was basically a proclamation of Islamic superiority. The Sikh Misals were quite harsh towards Muslims especially the Bhangis, they had the Muslim call to prayer banned, as in those days it was a symbol of Muslim superiority over Indian kafirs. The perfect example is the Qutab Minar complex in Delhi. I've been there and its a large complex of destroyed Hindu and Jain temples. Just ruins of pillars, arches, walls, statues. Right in the center is the Qutab Minar, tallest brick building in the world, where the qazi screamed the call to prayer from. The minar is made out of the destroyed Hindu and Jain temples scattered around it. Destroying the temples of the indigenous people and building an Islamic structure right in the center, tallest brick building in the world, where they scream their prayer from, it was a symbolic way of telling the kafirs who the boss is. Right on top of the minar was a crown like structure. If I remember the information on the tourist boards correctly, when the British invaded Delhi they decided to remove the crown like structure from the minar, symbolising that they are the new power in Delhi, not their Muslim predecessors. Its the reason why the Sikh mislas banned it in Lahore. Sikhs today have forgotten that... In fact today Sikhs themselves are helping Christians and Muslims build Churches and Mosques in the villages, where only the Gurdwara/Guru Granth Sahib ji should have religious authority.

What the hell ?

Thanks. You replied 2 hours ago but I got a notification for your comment just 8 mins ago! odd. Ok I just remembered its because of the link.

I would suggest that to them, but unfortunately my family aren't religious at all ? More superstitious than anything else, even the superstitions they follow are basically out of fear.

haha its so true. Initially they look cute, they look like little people lol, with their hands, feet and expressive faces, but when they see food in your hands they go crazy! The males and also the females with babies clinging onto them can be quite aggressive!

Yeah fear plays a big part, if you don't serve the tomb then people fear they will face consequences. That's why you should stay away from these places and not get involved. Its the same with the Muslim graves. My mothers brother who lives here in the UK, if he doesn't do tuf or light diva for the jagga on Sundays, he starts seeing a black figure! So even though the jagga is all the way in India, if he doesn't light a diva and tuf he starts seeing a dark figure in the house here in the UK! He can't tell if its a man or a woman! one day he was going down to the basement and started seeing flashes of a dark figure on the staircase. But when he lights a diva and tuf he stops seeing the figure. Its messed up! I've told my mother I'm not going to get involved in any of this, lighting divas for it etc People should stay away from this stuff. Our guru doesn't frighten us like that when we forget him or get lazy, he has subtle ways of reminding us, we just don't have the ears or eyes to notice these subtle reminders. These jaggas on the other hand frighten the life out of you!

In Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh is very beautiful. The highlight of my trip was a monkey turning the tap and then drinking water! it happened right before me lol he literally bounced onto the ground, turned the tap and then stuck his face under the water and had a drink, lol.

Yeah, I don't know that much about baba Balak Nath. As a boy basically lived in an old ladies house who he treated like a mother. He used to look after her cows etc but the cows used to eat the crops of other farmers and they would always complain. The lady that Baba Balak Nath lived with wasn't a very kind or motherly lady! one day the farmers came and complained to her how baba Balak Nath always lets her cows into their fields and eat their crops. The lady then got very angry with baba Balak Nath and told him he is ungrateful etc, He then said he will leave her and never bother her again, she then said first pay me back all the years I made roti for you! He then performed a miracle and all these rotts(sweet bread) started falling from a tree. She then realized that he was no ordinary kid and begged him to stay but he refused and went off! apparently she spent the rest of her life looking for him but never found him. That's all I know ... I have no idea how he ended up becoming so popular in Punjab ...

But that's basically tomb worshipping. Jagga is basically a tomb or "resting place" for the soul. Both my fathers side and mothers side worship an ancestral tomb, in fact that's their main belief. They light a diva there every Sunday, whenever its a wedding they place a wedding card in the tomb, so they basically are inviting the dead relative! in winter they wrap the tomb up with a blanket etc We have a photograph of the tomb from my fathers family and my dad lights diva in from of the photo every Sunday and does tuf. Its scary, because I've heard some terrifying stories of what happens if you don't serve the jagga! Once you start serving these places they demand worship! But that's basically tomb/grave worshipping. Yeah its the same at Baba Balak Naths jagga as well. The actual cave that he used to meditate in, no woman is allowed to go near it. We were allowed to do matha tek in the cave thing where he did tapasya, while my cousin sister had to stand on this balcony/bridge kind of thing, around 8 meters away and do matha tek from there. I understand why though, Baba Balak Nath was a Brahmchari so he stayed away from women, so to respect the place where he did tapasya women aren't allowed to get close.

Does anyone's family believe in baba Balak Nath? Both my families do! I've been to his shrine once, it's high up in the mountains in Himachal Pradesh. What do you think of baba Balak Nath? Hes quite a popular deity in Punjab. Does any Sikh literature mention him? Or has a sant brahm gyani spoken about him ?

I've seen those Guru Nanak Dev Ji murtis in Southall years ago, not sure if they still sell them. And then there's the rakhri card with bibi Nanki ji and Guru Nanak Dev Ji. But that goes back to how people can just not let go of idolatry and rituals. See one could argue that people in India do these things because they are illiterate, but many young people in Punjab are not illiterate like their parents, many go into further education, many of them work in offices, doctor surgeries, banks etc but they still take part in idol and tomb/grave worship and rituals. In fact some educated Sikh youth who have jobs in the shahr they decide to start practicing romanticised version of Hinduism, like doing bollywood style karva chauth etc Most graves/tombs places I've been to in India, almost 50% of the people there are young people. In my dads pind, our neighbors are a retired couple, both were teachers in a college in the shahr. They both speak fluent English and encourage everyone in the pind to adopt a healthy lifestyle, like eating healthy, exercise, yoga, walks etc they do organic farming and all that kind of stuff but! they both are into grave/tomb worshipping and visiting mandirs etc in fact the wife is heavily involved in black magic! so no one invites her to weddings or other functions. And these are supposed to be the educated people leading the rest! I used to think idolatry and odd rituals were practiced mainly by illiterate people, but unfortunately that does not seem to be the case.

I agree, not sure why you got so many down votes! I've said the same in the past as well, vast majority of people from Sikh background will assimilate into Western people and culture. In fact its already happening. They attend Gurdware only when invited for weddings etc they name their kids with Black or White people names, they decide not to teach their kids their language Punjabi. This is assimilation into the culture of the countries we live in. You start shedding your own identity and start adopting the ways and identity of the country you live in.

We sometimes forget how lucky we are! Just today, a Pakistani guy who I went to school with, is now on drugs and he approached me asking me if I have any spare change. He looked mentally unstable, but still recognised me Really sad ...

Same, I don't really tell my family what they should do or what they shouldn't. They can believe in what they want to believe. Though if they do something which I don't agree with, and it offends me, then I tell them. For example, how people started carving their names in karas! I told my family in India that I'm strongly against that, and that it goes against what I believe. For a minute they were like "oh yeah, that's true, its wrong to do that" and then they went straight back to talking about getting their names carved in karas! Other than that I've never given my opinion! When I go India they take me to all the odd places that they worship at, but I just pretend that I'm praying, lol

I worshiped the paintings till I was around 14 lol Yeah I stopped rakhri too, my parents still get upset about it, but i don't feel comfortable wearing sparkly and colourful strings around my wrist!

Yeah, but that's just my limited understanding of it, perhaps someone who knows more about shastar puja can answer. Dusherra was celebrated in the Sikh empire. They would do shastar and cannon puja, extra charity, and then mock fighting, where one Singh would dress as Raavan and the other dress like Raam.

How I see it is, that when they worship idols, trees, animals, graves etc they pray to it, so they ask it to answer their prayers. Like they go to a grave and ask the grave to answer their prayers and if the person buried under the grave answers their prayers they buy a green sheet and cover the grave with the sheet. But with Shastar Puja, from my understanding, they aren't asking the shastars to answer their prayers, neither do they pray to them, or ask them for guidance.

Oh Ok, they do that here too, but I guess they have too lock it at night. But in Punjab they lock it up throughout most of the day other than in the morning or afternoon.