The Many ‘Missing Voices’ in “India’s Daughter”

One film came and controversy arose. The furore over India’s Daughter, a documentary based on the December 2012 Delhi gang rape has been a subject of discussion over the past few weeks. Not just the content of the film, but issues like a ban on its broadcast have resulted in the documentary being discussed by people in India and across …

Mocking their Own Sensibilities: What Were Popular Female Actors Doing to Themselves Last Year?

In an outlandish scene in a treacherously banal film called Happy New Year released last year, lead actress Deepika Padukone listens naively awestruck as her co-star, popular Hindi film actor Shah Rukh Khan, taking advantage of her limited knowledge of the English language, makes vulgar comments any woman would be outraged at. Padukone who interestingly made headlines last year for …

Where the Mind is Without Fear

In 2012, I was visiting my family in Kolkata when I heard about the brutal gang rape of a young woman in Delhi. The fear and disgust is still fresh on my mind. It has been two years since that day but news related to sexual violence against women are unabated. Take for example, the recent case of a 25-year-old girl …

Does Woman Mean “Woe-Men” in India?

The janitor in her school raped a good friend of mine when she was less than 8-years-old. She was in the girls’ toilet, all by herself, when this heinous crime occurred. When she came home and told her parents about the violence, most of which she couldn’t comprehend, her doctor father conducted a finger test to ensure whether or not …

Dark Skin Is Dirty

Ever since I was a little girl, I remember the cosmetic industry in India would prey on the insecurities of women—manifested by the society obsession with pale skin—and promote the use of skin-whitening cream. Ayurvedic Vicco Turmeric cream, made with turmeric and sandalwood, was considered the smell of marital bliss for “good” women. Fair & Lovely, another skin lightening cream, promised visibly …