Meet the Divide and Rule Demon

Over the past few days, I have been depressed and feeling completely let down. I have been reading lots of articles and emails on the groups and internet and the more I read, the more I feel depressed.

I am feeling let down because there is an emergence of a voice within me that says to me that Article 498a was not a result of incompetence on the part of the Government of India.

Contrary to what Bollywood has often portrayed, The Government of India is not collection of by blundering fools and lazy bureaucrats who inadvertently created the monster named IPC 498a.

IPC 498a is probably the most brilliantly laid out strategy of a Divide-And-Rule. The phrase “Divide-And-Rule” for many amongst us may bring images of a British Viceroy ruthlessly segregating Indian population for ruling. It is said in history books that though Hindus and Muslims fought before British came, their fights were largely political. On a social level, they had accepted existence of each other with few sporadic and violence marred attempts of conversions.

When Viewed in this manner, the strategy behind IPC 498a is the ultimate frontier. It divides the fabric of society and the line of demarcation cuts across every house in every country across the world. IPC 498a divides a man from a woman like nothing else can.

The individual who coined the name of “Save Indian Family” for our, this group did zero in on the ultimate devastation that this divide-and-rule strategy of IPC 498a will cause; most (including me) missed upon the objective behind formation of the 498a.

A proverb that comes to my mind is that “One can wake up those who are asleep; BUT one cannot wake up those who are pretending to be asleep”

All of the activities of our group are primarily geared towards collecting men and waking up the government and spread public awareness towards the atrocities that aimed towards the men. All of us are collectively beating up our chests in despair that the government (the mai-baap) does not seem to understand or listen to our pleas.

But, the government is wide awake and listening to us carefully. Alas, it is not listening to us as male victims. It views us as providers of feedback on how 498a is faring. It is just pretending to be deaf, callous and incompetent when we share our traumas due to IPC 498a. The government knows that it was precisely the intent behind IPC 498a. So, when we narrate our side with full emotions, the government is silently congratulating itself and upwardly showing sympathy to us. Government in rare candid moments does show disdain but never budges.

All of our activities are just the fuel that the IPC 498a juggernaut needs to grow: Our painstakingly created websites, our weekly meets, our Dharanas, our attempts to spread awareness, our sarcastic jabs, our direct assaults; our efforts to fight our own cases; our willingness to help other fellow distressed brothers, mothers and sisters will completely work against us unless we bear in mind that actually division is intended.

When we call our ex with word bitch we are dividing and distancing ourselves. Our efforts divide us further from the woman. We all feel angered and we all are focussed on hurting the other side. It is indeed ironic that few angered 498a woman calls her husband Kutta

Now, I suddenly understand meaning of what Swarup Sarkar said to me “The enemy is not your wife but the system”.

As I can all of a sudden visualise, 498a is supposed to divide a man from a woman. All that is required for such division to occur is that both sides feel that they more vulnerable than the other.

British achieved division of Hindus and Muslims by making Muslims leaders realize that minority will suffer under majority rule. For Hindus, they said majority will be denied privileges under minority rule. And, Pakistan was born.

The more we fight in this manner, the harder we fight, the stronger 498a will become. It seems that our efforts of protests were rewarded by the birth to Domestic Violence Laws.

It is like we are part of the Matrix movie. We are part and parcel of the IPC 498a system and our appointed role in this machine is to raise voice and vent out our fear and our anger against our former wives and the female groups reciprocate.

IPC 498a makers used their power to publicise that newly wed wives, not mothers or sisters are harassed in the typical Indian family.

When I saw the movie “Dulha Bikta hai” I was so moved by it that if someone had actually told me that the Indian government had recently formed IPC 498a that would now terrorise the husbands, I would have danced on streets.

Many like me in the Indian society accepted introduction of IPC 498a that had built-in Trojan of Divide and Rule. I've become aware of damages it caused 25 years later.

Hindu scriptures do have anecdotes of demons who grow stronger with every injury because their blood drop on ground will cause more demons. I am beginning to see 498a as something similar. We all need to know who exactly our enemy is and how we are disadvantaged.

Let us all think and share on how we can change gears and not seek to be victims of the ultimate kind.

To be continued: How do we foil this divide and rule strategy?