Marital Rape: When Marriage Becomes a Legal Shield for Rape

In the RSS Universe, all Indian women, but especially Hindu women, are under threat from Muslim men. Muslim men give Triple Talaq. The Supreme Court having voided Triple Talaq is not enough, it must be criminalised. Muslim men want to lure Hindu women and perpetrate crimes against them, or marry them with devious motives. Conclusion 1: Hindu women are naïve and innocent. They must be protected from this harm. The NDA government opposes criminalisation of marital rape in the Supreme Court. In the Delhi High Court, the government said that such criminalisation will become an “Easy tool for harassing husbands”. The RSS universe is already against 498A, because women abuse the provision to trap innocent men and target their families. Conclusion 2: Hindu women trap Hindu men. Hindu men need to be protected from them. What is family, what is marriage?As per the National Family Health Survey-5 published by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, over 95 percent of women who endured sexual violence identified their husband/ex-husband as the perpetrator. A Mumbai study found 46.4 percent (828 of 1,783 women) confided to counselors they had suffered marital rape when seeking help for domestic violence. “There is nothing called marital rape, marriage is sacred,” said Seetha Annadanam of RSS women’s wing.“Anyone can level allegations against anyone… Nobody knows what happens in a closed room except for the two individuals inside. After a marriage, they are in a close relationship, so how can it be called rape?” said Alka Tiwari, a lawyer and Sah Bhag Karyawahika, Rajju bhaiya division, Vaishali.On 5 December, speaking at an event in West Bengal, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat said the following in the context of RSS opposition to live-in-relationships: “....The family, marriage, is not just a means of physical satisfaction. It's a unit of society. The family is where an individual learns how to live in society. People's values come from there…” Why is India Yet to Label Marital Rape as 'Rape' When Most Other Countries Do?Conclusion 3: Marriage = not just physical satisfaction + society school for individuals = married Hindu men have the right to rape their wives. Raping wives is part of learning how to live in society.“Nobody knows what happens in a closed room” and yet, rape in closed room by a man who is not the woman’s husband, he could be her boyfriend, her fiancée, is = rape. Husband separated but not divorced visits wife’s home, rapes her, but it will not be called rape. Boyfriend could have consensual sex and yet it could be called rape.But wait. Marriage is sacred. Is rape sacred? Very confusing. To get some clarity, we will need to zoom out. But before that, we must summarise what we have learnt so far. If the discussion is about a Muslim man, all women are 100 percent truth speaking survivors. A Triple Talaq, even one given in a “closed room”, must lead to prison for the Muslim man. Muslim men do evil laughter, abandon Muslim wives and trap Hindu women. Clever Hindu men see through Muslim men. They are brave and will protect all women from Muslim Men. In the context of Hindu men, women are conspirational and devious and it is Hindu men who are naïve and innocent. Clear? Ok let’s move ahead. Oh wait no. Let’s move back. Golwalkar. One of the gurus of Modi and RSS. What did Golwalkar have to say? Hear him in his words:“Granting of rights to women would 'cause great psychological upheaval' to men and 'lead to mental disease and distress' [1]." This was one of the things he said while opposing the Hindu Code Bill, which among other things, gave Hindu women the rights to divorce their husbands. They did not have this right till 1956. Muslim women did have it.Shyama Prasad Mukherjee called giving women right to divorce “Unacceptable”. The Organiser, RSS chief publication, said “We oppose the right to divorce revolting to Hindu ideology” and “If the wife is a habitual drunkard, a confirmed invalid, a cunning, a barren or a spendthrift woman, if she is bitter-tongued, if she has got only daughters and no son, if she hates her husband, [then] the husband can marry a second wife even while the first is living, said Swami Karpatri of Ram Rajya Parishad, quoting Yagnavalkya.Conclusion 4: Hindu Women’s Rights = Disease to Hindu Men, Unacceptable. (Important: Rights of Muslim Women against Triple Talaq+Rights of Hindu Women Against Muslim Men) I go back to Bhagwat because I don’t think it can be said with certainty that he lives in the 21st century. In 2013, he said:“A husband and wife are involved in a contract under which the husband has said that you should take care of my house and I will take care of all your needs. I will keep you safe. So, the husband follows the contract terms. Till the time, the wife follows the contract, the husband stays with her, if the wife violates the contract, he can disown her.” He didn’t say if the contract has a clause about rape. He also said “Crimes against women happening in urban India are shameful. It is a dangerous trend. But such crimes won’t happen in Bharat or the rural areas of the country… Where ‘Bharat’ becomes ‘India’ with the influence of western culture, these type of incidents happen.” FHS-5, published by the Modi government falsifies that claim and tells us spousal sexual violence is higher in rural areas vs urban (34 percent vs 27 percent). But this is not true in RSS Universe'But He's Your Husband': My Story of Marital Rape and SurvivalConclusion 5: Marital Rape? No such thing hence no rape. Rape? Only in Rural not Urban. In Urban only because of westernisation. Westernisation is problem, not Rape.And going back to “Family”. A 2023 study for the Delhi Commission for Women, examined 218 reported instances of incestual sexual assaults on minors. Out of the 218 survivors all less than 18, 94.5 were female; 51 percent had been sexual harassed; 49 percent raped; and 16 reported they had been impregnated by their rapists. In 35 percent of the cases, the perpetrator was the victim’s father, in 22 percent an uncle. In 3 percent of the cases, the incestual sexual assault involved more than one family member.In the United Kingdom, the highest number of sexual offences is committed by… Indians. Rape is an epidemic among Indians. Why? There is hardly any democracy where marital rape is not a crime. Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament has drafted a private members bill demanding that marital rape be criminalised. The BJP is in the Supreme Court defending it. The arguments about false cases are a bogey. You realise this, when you ask someone opposing it- would you support criminalisation if there was 100 percent gold standard evidence, if it was on video, if the husband admitted it himself? They will say no. Why? Because Indian culture treats women as property. You realise this is the case, when you see that the rules about what is wrong and right change based on the “owner”. Husband vs Non Husband, Hindu vs Muslim. We should all feel disgust and revulsion that in 2025, the argument that all rape is rape is having to be made. Maybe the BJP will change its mind if someone suggests it should be criminalised but only for Muslims. You will then find all arguments against it evaporating. [1] Paula Bacchetta, Gender in the Hindu Nation: RSS Women as Ideologues (New Delhi: Women Unlimited, 2004), p. 124. (The author is a lawyer and research consultant based in Mumbai. This is an opinion piece, and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)

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Marital Rape in India: When ‘Family Values’ Trump Consent

We should all feel disgust and revulsion that in 2025, the argument that all rape is rape is having to be made.

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