Violation

–

Indian men, we worship goddesses,

And grind women into the dust;

When we pretend we are in love,

We are merely in violent lust.

–

Love is not love when woman loved

Is denied her otherness;

But when she screams “no, no, no,”

We think she must mean “yes.”

–

Which is when we unleash the brute,

And make plain the resultant harm

Should woman cling to her own mind.

And refuse the privileged norm

–

Set out in books of religion wise,

Marking woman appendage,

And requiring that she submit to man

Whatever be her age.

–

Time we learnt that woman is

Nor goddess, nor brainless body,

But a mix of thought and will and want,

Like any man, good, bad, or shoddy;

–
And that the rule book gives to her

The full rights of citizen;

No longer lay a lecherous hand

And not be sent to prison.

–

Cowed no more by the trick of shame,

Women are boldly out

With the shame of men, big and small—

A great good change is about.

–

—-Badri Raina