{"id":1316,"date":"2024-09-25T12:26:27","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T12:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/?p=1316"},"modified":"2024-11-25T12:27:12","modified_gmt":"2024-11-25T12:27:12","slug":"child-abuse-in-indian-english-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/child-abuse-in-indian-english-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Child Abuse in Indian English Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Goldie Kasturia<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indian English literature has radically contributed to world literature. The Indian English writing is both innate and imbibed, as it has come to the fore by coming across the East and the West. The literature of a country where it originated is closely related to the traditions, languages, cultural heritage, histories, and experiences; however, Indian English literature is more associated with a colonial encounter, as a critic has remarked: \u201cThe literature written in English has an altogether different history and is linked with the global process of colonization. However, it has also grown out of an Indian ethos and is responsive to the changing conceptions of Indian nationalism and self-interest.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Litterateurs powerfully focus on political, social, and economic struggles. Writers from the earliest stages of Indian English writing like Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Sri Aurobindo, and others were treating their writing as a document for social change and as a weapon of the nationalistic struggle. This idea was taken up by the early greats of Indian English fiction, namely Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, and others who used their work as an attempt to portray social truths and as a vehicle of change and reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Indian English novel in its present state has overcome the clich\u00e9s, emerged from the limited sphere, become confident, and attained maturity and a certain universal status. The Indian writers of the post-independence era adopted English as a tool and in its varied innuendoes to express widely differing cultural experiences. In works like Rushdie\u2019s Midnight’s Children and Arundhuti Roy\u2019s The God of Small Things, the creative and imaginative use of the language of the coloniser shows how these writers use the language as a dynamic medium to explore the complex Indian reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third generation\u2019s Indian writings in English have enlightened the literature with its quality and vividness[i]<\/a>. And have concentrated their themes around social content\u2014particularly in its representation of the conflict between the individual and the community. Although the writings profoundly deal with regionalism, they crossed the natural boundaries with universal themes, including feminine subjects, science and technologies, explorative writings, and much more. Under socio-issues, child sexual abuse finds an elaborative mention. Further, dealing with child incest, the writings throw more light on the effects of forced sexual relations on the individual’s psyche, which gets intensified with time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the renowned poet of English literature P.B. Shelly wrote, \u201cIf winter comes can spring be far behind,” he was not possibly talking only about the change of seasons but also about the fact that change is the law of nature and it has to happen sooner or later, and yes, sometimes it comes with a heavy price. Children and adolescents, irrespective of their race, culture, or economic status, appear to be at approximately equal risk for sexual victimisation [ii]. Child sexual abuse is outlawed nearly everywhere in the world, generally with severe criminal penalties, including, in some jurisdictions, life imprisonment or capital punishment. An adult’s sexual intercourse with a child below the legal age of consent is defined as statutory rape based on the principle that a child is not capable of consent and that any apparent consent by a child is not considered to be legal consent. Child Sexual abuse is engaging a child in any sexual activity that he\/she does not understand, cannot give informed consent for, or is not physically, mentally, or emotionally prepared for. This includes using a child for pornography, sexual materials, prostitution and unlawful sexual practices. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is an international treaty that legally obliges states to protect children’s rights. Articles 34 and 35 of the CRC require states to protect children from all forms of sexual exploitation and sexual abuse. Accurate statistics on the prevalence of child and adolescent sexual abuse are difficult to collect because of problems of underreporting and the lack of one definition of what constitutes such abuse. Nineteen percent of the world’s children live in India, which constitutes 42 percent of India\u2019s total population. A total of 33,098 cases of sexual abuse in children were reported in the nation during the year 2011 when compared to 26,694 reported in 2010, which increased by 24%. It is estimated by the government that 40% of India’s children are susceptible to threats like being homeless, trafficking, drug abuse, forced labour, and crime. In India, every second child is being exposed to one or the other form of sexual abuse and every fifth child faces critical forms of it. [iii] The effects of child sexual abuse can include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, propensity to further victimization in adulthood, physical injury to the child, and many other problems. Sexual abuse by a family member is a form of incest and can result in more serious and long-term psychological trauma, especially in the case of parental incest. In 2007, the Ministry of Women and Child Development published the \u2018Study on Child Abuse: India 2007\u2019. The study’s main findings suggest that 53.22% of children reported having faced sexual abuse. Among them, 52.94% were boys and 47.06% were girls. The ‘Protection of Children against Sexual Offences Bill, 2011’ was passed by the Indian Parliament on May 22, 2012<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2008) claims, \u201cWhile physical injuries may or may not be immediately visible, abuse and neglect can have consequences for children, families, and society that last lifetimes… The impact of child abuse and neglect is often discussed in terms of physical, psychological, behavioural, and societal consequences. In reality, however, it is impossible to separate them completely. Physical consequences, such as damage to a child\u2019s growing brain, can have psychological implications, such as cognitive. \u00c2\u00a0delays or emotional difficulties. Psychological problems often manifest as high-risk behaviours, depression, and anxiety…\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we consider some of the literary works of eminent writers like Akhil Sharma\u2019s \u2018Obedient Father\u2019, which unfolds the story of a corrupt government official who repeatedly molests his daughter. Ram Karan, the antihero of Akhil Sharma’s novel, “An Obedient Father,” molested and raped his daughter when she was 12 years old. Ram would prefer that this skeleton stay in the closet, but now that his recently widowed daughter Anita and 8-year-old granddaughter Asha, have moved into his tiny flat, he’s somewhat short on closet space. This becomes especially difficult when the daughter catches her father developing an eye for his granddaughter. The close circle of relatives realises the need for Anita to leave her father\u2019s house for her well-being and the safety of her daughter, but they also admit that homes \u201cdon’t grow on trees.” Literature reviews show that domestic violence takes on many forms, and here has prodded the author to focus on one of its many dimensions, and that is child abuse. The author categorically captures the sequences of how a child thinks that the happenings are circumstantial of her faults and relatively exposes the abuser\u2019s tactics of domination by fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mira Nair\u2019s \u2018Summer\u2019<\/em><\/strong> echoes Sharma\u2019s focus on incestuous sexual abuse of children and challenges the silence that often protects the abuser. [iv] Arundhati Roy\u2019s \u2018God of Small Things’ is one of the most memorable and haunting books written in an innovative style [v]. A landmark in Indian English is not only for the celebration of the human spirit against cruelty and suffering but for the interesting manner in which the local is interwoven with the global. It discusses the abuse, exploitation, and neglect of girls and their rights in Indian society and how traumatic childhood experiences affect the perspective of a person towards life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Child abuse is a major problem in our world today. It is a very sobering reality that children are being abused every day by adults who are meant to love and care for them. Along with the physical damage that is being done to children, there are also equally devastating emotional wounds created by harsh words or neglect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[i]<\/a> https:\/\/www.arcjournals.org\/pdfs\/ijsell\/v3-i12\/7.pdf<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[ii]<\/a> https:\/\/www.omicsonline.org\/open-access\/trace-evidence-analysis-in-a-child-sexual-abuse-case–silence-dares-to-speak-2157-7145-1000S4-001.php?aid=62197<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iii]<\/a> https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC4311357\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[iv]<\/a>http:\/\/www.academia.edu\/9129499\/The_Taboo_in_Indian_Literature_in_English_Expanded_Ways_of_Writing_and_Reading_Indianness_in_Essays_on_English_Language_Writers_from_Mahmoet_to_Rushdie_<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[v]<\/a> http:\/\/shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in\/bitstream\/10603\/67552\/8\/08_chapter%202.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo courtesy: Artyom Kabajev<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Goldie Kasturia Indian English literature has radically contributed to world literature. The Indian English writing is both innate and imbibed, as it has come to the fore by coming across the East and the West. The literature of a country where it originated is closely related to the traditions, languages, cultural heritage, histories, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[180],"tags":[354,351,355,352,353],"class_list":["post-1316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-simply-express","tag-akhil-sharma","tag-childabuse","tag-god-of-small-things","tag-indian-english-literature","tag-mira-nair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1316"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1318,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1316\/revisions\/1318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/takhte.in\/VoiceofViews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}