Great post. Up voted.

On the street harassment stuff, I still have a hard time buying it. This stuff happens everywhere (I've been groped and stalked in England, and I'm a man) and we'd need a lot of evidence to really know if it's particularly bad in India or not.

You only need to look at UP Brahmins' treatment of Dalits to see caste is very much a reality for Indian apart from the marriage issue.

Thanks for the suggestion; I'll do that.

While the rape hype might be exaggerated relative to other countries, the other issues we both mentioned are not. The gender problems are a subset of a larger and deep-rooted problem of tribalism with caste and class politics as they key differentiators. You only need to look at Indian politics every election cycle to see this in action. I appreciate your skepticism and resistance to Western journalistic condescension, but downplaying these issues isn't helping anyone.

I agree. I wish there was more focus on solving the actual gender (and other) problems India faces (and yes, the legality of marital rape is definitely one of them). There's so many actual issues, I'm not sure why we need this gang rape sensationalism. If anything, it's doing more harm than good. I don't mean to downplay India's actual problems; I just want to shift the focus onto the many issues we both agree on. I'd love it if domestic abuse and female infanticide were as widely discussed and rare occurances like gang rape and sati are. It would be much better for the country.

Yeah, I agree with the nationalists on some things (western bias, economy, the ineptitude of the INC) but it's hard to take them seriously when they oppose criminalizing marital rape or act like Hindus are the only true Indians. Modi has talked about female infanticide and sex ratios in Punjab though, to be fair.