Problematizing Sexual Assault Against Dalit Women: An Analysis of Media Reports in the Hathras Rape Case

Abstract

India is no stranger to violence against women. For decades since independence, ruthless crimes against women, especially rapes, have coalesced into protests that have paved the way for groundbreaking legislation and changes in public perspective. This has always been delivered to the ordinary person through the language of the media. This social construction of violence by media, however, has always been inseparable from the clutches of power dynamics, patriarchal discourse, caste hegemony, rape culture and now polarisation of media and politicisation of violence. This study explores the media reporting on the rape and eventual death of a 19-year-old Dalit girl from the Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh on 14th September 2020. Set in the clear context of post-2012 Delhi gang rape, the research looks to identify the media semantics used in portraying the victims, accused, the incident, the influence of caste and the political importance of this case as seen in major print and electronic media. The study uses feminist critical discourse analysis and intersectionality framework to find that of reporting of gang rape is dependent on the caste of the victim and the accused and the political context in which the case is set. Analysis shows that the unrequited importance given to the political context and politicization of the case by both the ruling and the opposition parties and the media leads to an absence of respectable, legitimate, fruitful discussion in the public sphere on the relevance of caste-gender intersectionality, state impunity and public mentality.