Everything but Pooja

Try, just for a moment, to shift your gaze from that bare body to the naked emotion on that tragic visage: the pain in those glazed eyes, the vulnerability of the parted mouth, the defiant tilt of the chin. It’s a face that would melt a heart of stone. But as 22-year-old Pooja Chauhan discovered, India is made of sterner stuff.

Tortured and abused by her husband and in-laws, her story is commonplace — too commonplace even for token outrage. Yet, ironically, her unique protest has provoked nationwide embarrassment and moral indignation.

It wasn’t Pooja’s first attempt to grab attention. After several endeavours to register a complaint against her family, she tried to immolate herself outside a police station. But the protectors of the law coyly looked the other way. Then, snubbed for trying to give up her life for justice, she says she decided to forfeit her “honour” — in this country, a sacrifice presumably greater than death.

Yet, the real tragedy is that Pooja has been abused not just by those who promised to love and cherish her — but by us all.

• First, by her own mother, who advised her to be “patient” with her tormentors. (That’s how every well brought up girl must behave, no?)

• By the police who finally awarded her a second look, and toyed with the idea of booking her for indecent exposure, before dismissing her as “mentally unstable.” (Indeed, which sane woman would take such a brazen step?)

• By Pooja’s city, Rajkot, where an initial, stunned silence gave way to righteous glee. Angry citizens demanded an official inquiry into her “dubious character” while her in-laws — reluctantly arrested at last — claimed their bahu had a previous “marriage.” (Clearly a crime worthy of severe punishment, which any decent lady would have borne with dignity).

• By fellow females in general, and one struggling Gujarati actress in particular, who theatrically retraced Pooja’s fateful march swathed in pristine white — to “erase her blot on womankind.” (Proof, if it is needed, that women are their own worst enemies).

• By the “liberal” media, which generously supported her “feminist” cause, with reams of gratuitous footage and front page spreads. (Meanwhile, in Rajkot, video clips of Pooja’s “roadshow” — as one newspaper sensitively described it — are selling faster than fresh, hot ganthias on a Sunday morning).

• By the ministry of women and child development which conducted an inquiry into the “shameful” incident, and hinted darkly that Pooja may have been sexually exploited or “trafficked” before she was harassed. (Obviously, mere cruelty is not criminal enough).

• Finally, by every Indian citizen who watched mutely while a fellow human being bared body and soul to plead for justice and compassion.

Meanwhile, stalked by liberals and bigots alike, our hapless heroine has vanished into hibernation. “My life is over” she says. “I have lost everything.” Come back, Pooja; it is we who have lost.