Every year, on the 13th of April, the festival of Baisakhi is celebrated but unfortunately, this day also marks the anniversary of the brutal massacre in which thousands of people lost their lives just because a man wanted to teach Indians a lesson for being ‘disobedient’ to their so-called colonial rulers. The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre of 1919, also known as the Amritsar Massacre, has completed 102 years today as one of the bloodiest massacres. It was undoubtedly a turning point in India’s struggle for Independence, and the stories and cries of those innocent people still haunt us today.

, was passed on March 10, 1919, granting the government authority to arrest or confine anyone engaged with seditious activity without a trial. This sparked a widespread uproar. 

 to resist the Rowlatt Act. On April 7, 1919, Gandhi wrote ‘

’, an article detailing how to oppose the Rowlatt Act. The British officials resolved to take action against Gandhi and any other Satyagraha leaders; thus, orders were issued prohibiting Gandhi from entering 

 and arresting him if he disobeyed the orders.

, who were symbols of Hindu-Muslim unity, organized a peaceful protest against the Rowlatt Act in Amritsar. On April 9, 1919, 

 issued orders to the Deputy Commissioner, 

, to arrest Dr. Satyapal and Dr. Kitchlew.

As a result, on April 10, 1919, enraged protestors marched to the apartment of the Deputy Commissioner to demand the release of their two leaders. The military picket opened fire on the mob, killing and injuring several protesters. The mob set fire to British banks, killed many British citizens, and assaulted two British women.

, an elderly English missionary, on April 11. According to her account, the mob attacked her, yelling phrases like, “

”. The mob beat her until she passed out and then walked away, assuming her to be dead. However, according to a counter-narrative published in 

, she was rescued by some local Indians, one of whom hid her from the mob and took her to the safety of 

 issued an order on April 19, ordering every Indian man using that road to crawl the length on his hand and knees as a punishment, stating that British women are as sacred as Hindu gods and that they must crawl in front of her as well.

Following the ongoing protests, the British government declared Martial law in most of Punjab, prohibiting any gathering of more than four people. Despite the fact that the proclamation was issued, no effort was made to ensure that the general public was aware of it. Because the public was unaware of the proclamation, a public meeting was planned for April 13th at 4:30 p.m. at 

 The gathering, which drew between 10,000 and 20,000 people, had no political intention and was held to commemorate the 

 celebration. According to documents in the 

, the British point of view was that it was a political assembly to discuss the firing on April 10 and request the authorities to release their leaders.

When the news reached General Dyer, he headed to the Bagh with his troops. Jallianwala Bagh was a six-to-seven-acre enclosed garden surrounded by 10-feet-high walls on all sides, with only one main gate and two or three tiny exits. The few narrow exit points were usually locked, and they were on that horrible day as well. A Samadhi (cremation place) and a large well partially filled with water, measuring around 20 feet in diameter, was located in the center of the Bagh.

General Dyer arrived with a force of 50 soldiers, comprising 25 Gurkhas, 25 Pathans and Baluchs, 59th Sindh rifles, and two armored trucks with mounted machine guns. He closed the exit gates and tried to drive his vehicle in, but the entrance was too small. Instead of trying to disperse the crowd peacefully, he ordered his soldiers to march inside through the main entrance and shoot blatantly at the crowd without warning. The crowd panicked and began running in all directions in an attempt to save themselves. Many people jumped inside the well to escape the bullets and ended up dying. Nearly 1650 rounds were fired, with the firing lasting approximately 10 minutes until they ran out of ammunition.

According to the reports released by the 

, between 200 and 300 people were killed; however, several other reports put the death toll at a different figure. The death of 337 men, 41 boys, and a six-week-old baby was confirmed by the 

 was over 1,500, with almost 1,000 people dead. 

, an Indian nationalist, wrote to Gandhi, stating that 1500 people had died in the tragedy.

Two days after the massacre, Martial law was declared in five districts – 

. As the words of the massacre spread across the nation, 

 gave back the Kaisar-i-Hind medal that he had received for his service during Boer War.

On 14 October 1919, the government of India announced the formation of a commission of investigation known as the 

, which was later known as the Hunter Commission, to investigate events in Punjab. The British government passed the 

 to protect their officers. General Dyer walked clean, except that he was called back to England after resigning.

Dyer received a hero’s welcome from the House of Lords and many well known Britons, including the famous author 

 in 1920. In 1927, Dyer died of a cerebral hemorrhage. On his deathbed, he reportedly said, “

so many people who knew the condition of Amritsar say I did right…but so many others say I did wrong. I only want to die and know from my Maker whatever I did right or wrong.”

One of the survivors and eyewitnesses of the massacre was a 21-year old orphan, 

, who twenty-one years later, on 13 March 1940, shot Michael O’ Dwyer at Caxton Hall in London. He was hanged at Pentonville Prison in July 1940 and was given the title of 

The Jallianwala Bagh massacre is widely believed to have never happened if it hadn’t been for one man who wanted to teach Indians a lesson for disobedience. Despite the fact that what has been done cannot be undone, we may express respect and gratitude to all those who have fought and died for Mother India. They will live on in the hearts of all Indians forever.

YAAD-E-JALLIAN

The Koh-i-Noor Diamond, for all its glittering beauty and unparalleled value, is supposedly riddled with a mysterious curse that gave birth to tragedies beyond comprehension and reason. Many hands have been blessed enough to experience the fortune of holding the invaluable stone, but the tales of their untimely demises raise the curiosity of the onlookers – is the infamous diamond the harbinger of a natural conspiracy that leads to doom?

Resting in the Queen Mother’s Crown at the 

 is the world’s richest and the most coveted gemstone, leaving in its wake a bloody history. Behind the sparkling Koh-i-Noor, there are bitter and gory conflicts that have destroyed kingdoms. Throughout history, the diamond traded hands from one dynasty to another, bringing ill-fate to each one of them.

According to myths and folklore, it is said that the diamond is cursed and will bring prosperity to the one who possesses it, but at a price of destruction. The Hindu description of the diamond states, “

He who owns this diamond will own the world, but will also know all its misfortunes. Only God or woman can wear it with impunity

The Koh-i-Noor originated from India probably in 

 in the 13th century at the Kollur mine during the 

. It was described as an oval-cut white diamond – the shape and size of a small hen’s egg weighing 

. The original name of the diamond was ‘

’ (Prince and leader among diamonds). Later in 1739, when 

, the king of Persia, invaded India he referred to the diamond as ‘

’ (Mountain of Light), giving the diamond the name it is known by today.

The diamond was excavated from the Kullur mine in the 1300s during the period of the Kakatiya dynasty which was then ruled by 

. But no sooner had the diamond come into his possession than he was overthrown by 

, marking the end of the Kakatiya dynasty.

 in 1310. However, Alauddin Khilji died just six years later at the age of 50 in 1316. Some people claim that his General, 

, poisoned him. The throne was given to Alauddin’s son 

. But echoing the same trend of natural misfortunes, he became ill a few months later and died at the tender age of 5 or 6. The throne was then handed to 

 after only 4 months of reign, effectively ending the Khilji dynasty.

The diamond was then handed to Ghazi Malik of the 

, died in an accident in February 1325 when the wooden pavilion collapsed during a reception celebration. Many unexplained happenings occurred in the years that followed, and the Tughluq dynasty eventually came to an end as well.

 became the monarch of the Delhi Sultanate, although he was overthrown the same year by the Mughals, inscribing his name in the golden pages of history as the last Delhi Sultan or the last ruler of the Lodi dynasty. All of these are brief periods that end abruptly with war and violence.

 defeated Ibrahim Lodi in the first battle of Panipat after which the Kohinoor went to the 

. For nearly 200 years, the Mughal Empire dominated. The Kohinoor was passed from one Mughal to the next, accompanied by violence and carnage. 

, the fifth Mughal Empire, had the stone embedded into his ornate peacock throne which took seven years to build.

Nadir Shah, the Afsharid Shah of Persia, invaded India in 1739 and carried the Koh-i-Noor, along with millions of rupees, historical gems, and a peacock throne, to Persia. One of his courtiers claimed, “

If a strong man were to throw four stones – one north, one south, one east, one west, and a fifth stone up in the air – and if the space between them were filled with gold, all would not equal the value of the Koh-i-Noor.

Nadir Shah was assassinated in 1747. The diamond was handed to his successors, who were all dethroned and ritually blinded until Nadir’s grandson gave it to 

, in exchange for his support in 1751. The diamond descended to his grandson 

, who wore it as a bracelet during Mountstuart Elphinstone’s visit to Peshawar in 1808. However, he was overthrown a year later and fled to Lahore, where the diamond came into the possession of 

When Ranjit Singh realized how valuable Koh-i-Noor is, he kept it safe at the Gobindgarh Fort when it wasn’t in use. On his deathbed in June 1839, Ranjit Singh appointed his eldest son, 

 as his successor. A day before his death, he had willed the Koh-i-Noor and other gems to the Jagannath Temple in Puri, but his son and ministers refused to deliver the diamond to the temple or to be taken out of Lahore following his death.

The diamond was taken by Dhian Singh’s brother, 

 – after the new emperor Kharak Singh was overthrown in a coup carried out by his Prime Minister Dhian Singh on 8 October 1839. Kharak Singh died in prison, while his son and successor 

In January 1841, Gulab Singh handed the diamond to Emperor 

 in an attempt to gain his favor. Later, in a coup headed by 

 on September 15, 1843, both Sher Singh and Dhian Singh were killed. The assassins were murdered the next day in a counter-coup organized by Dhian Singh’s son 

. At the age of 24, Hira Singh succeeded his father as the Prime Minister and crowned five-year-old Duleep Singh as the Emperor. The Koh-i-Noor was now fastened to the arm of the young emperor in Lahore’s court. Following the assassination of Hira Singh on March 24, 1844, and the commencement of the Anglo-Sikh war, Gulab Singh headed the Sikh kingdom as the prime minister. Despite the defeat, he became the first Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir on March 16, 1846, under the Treaty of Amritsar.

The Kingdom of Punjab was formally annexed to the Company rule on March 29, 1849, following the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Singh War. The Last Treaty of Lahore was signed forcefully by 

 and the Maharaja’s other possessions to the Company.

 presented the Koh-i-Noor and Duleep Singh as trophies to 

. But it wasn’t long after the diamond arrived in England that cholera took hold, killing hundreds on board. Queen Victoria was attacked with a cane shortly after it arrived, and less than a month later, in July 1850, the country’s prime minister, 

, died after falling from his horse and being trampled underfoot.

The British Empire gradually shrank and is now limited to the United Kingdom. The British royal family was well aware of the curse of the Koh-i-Noor – that’s why it has always gone to the wife of the male heir to the British Throne since Queen Victoria’s reign.

Whether or not the diamond is cursed, nobody can deny that its history is shrouded with 

. Whether people believe in the curse or not, the stone’s history is undeniable and the threat of the Koh-i-Noor curse is enough to make people cautious.

The Curse of Koh-i-Noor

According to the 42nd Amendment of the constitution of India implemented in 1976, the Preamble to the constitution asserted that India is a secular nation. Secularism may be defined as the separation of religion and state i.e., religious groups don’t interfere in state affairs and vice versa. It protects both believers and non-believers and gives them freedom of religious beliefs and practices. It does not give advantages or disadvantages to any citizen based on their religious beliefs. In this light, may I dare to ask, “Is India truly a secular country?”

India is viewed as a model of a secular, diverse nation, but the growing discrimination, hate speech, violence, and lynching, tell a whole different story. 

,’ a methodology for identifying the events leading up to a potential genocide, has warned that genocide could occur in India. Genocide is the systematic destruction of a specific national, ethnic, racial, or religious group or community. It is a process, not a single act, as the 

Holocaust did not begin with gas chambers, it began with hate speech.

The demand for India to be declared as a “

” by some right-wing Hindu organizations is a glaring illustration of India’s pseudo-secularism. Since July 28, 2020, there have been petitions before the Supreme Court of India to 

Infantry regiments in the Indian army are still divided by religion 

, with members of other faiths, ethnicities, and regions forbidden from serving. Food taboos alike ban on cow slaughter and restrictions to not selling eggs openly, as it upsets some caste sensitivities, impacted the minorities. The upper castes may worship the cow, but 

 do not. Many Muslims and Dalits were attacked based on the rumors that they’ve killed cows.

” have been reported. In the year 2020, between the morning of February 25 and the midnight of February 26, 9 Muslim men were brutally killed and thrown into a drain in 

 when they refused to chant the slogan. The attacks were planned on a WhatsApp group named 

 was passed, which allows amnesty to non-Muslim immigrants from three neighbouring countries (namely, 

). During the rally, eighteen Muslim activists were charged with violating an anti-terror law. The 

 conducted an independent inquiry into the 

, which resulted in the deaths of 53 persons, and found that the violence was planned and targeted, with some police officers engaged.

Muslims in India has been referred to as 

 is a conspiracy theory which claims that Muslim males lure Hindu women and 

 This has resulted in mob violence and the passage of anti-conversion legislation in various states. Hate groups and officials accused the ‘

‘, a Muslim religious group, of hosting super spreading activities, using the name 

’, it allows customers to purchase a Sulli. 

 is a derogatory term for Indian Muslim women used by right-wing Hindu organizations. Soon after, another auctioning app called ‘

‘ appeared. Following the investigations, police arrested the true mastermind of the app- 

 Jha, a 21-year-old engineering student, 

, a 21-year-old pursuing Engineering from Vellore Institute of Technology.

In August 2021, goons were witnessed whilst brazenly shouting “

Muslims will be killed in the name of Ram

. Right-wing Hindu organizations keep attempting to prevent Muslims from offering Friday prayers, and ancient mosques are being targeted for conversion to temples. 

 has recently been mentioned by a right-wing group, which is an 

 by a 4000-strong mob led by a police officer. Their bodies were buried and covered by a cauliflower and cabbage plantation.

On the internet, a recent conference organized by 

 monks went viral. The speakers were anti-Muslim and advocated for the execution of Muslims. Still, no action was taken against these hatemongers. “

Get ready to kill or be killed, there is no option. Just like in Myanmar, every Hindu, including police, army, politicians, should start the cleaning (of Muslims) like it happened in Myanmar

In December 2021, a group of six Muslim students in the state of 

 were prevented from attending classes because they wore the 

. They were told that if they wanted to attend classes, they needed to remove their headscarves. On January 4, 2022, Hindu students in 

 against their hijab-clad classmates. The protests continued, with a clash between students wearing saffron shawls and others wearing the hijab. While the Karnataka High Court has prohibited religious symbols from being worn in schools and colleges, the state of 

’ has become so common since 2014 when 

 came into power but a deadly violence against Muslims did happen in 2002, when 

 was the Gujarat’s chief minister. Mobs stormed the state, looting, raping, and burning, in response to a rumor that Muslims had set a train carriage carrying Hindu pilgrims on fire. Over 2000 Muslims were killed, and tens of thousands were displaced. A senior police officer and minister who was later assassinated, had said that the attacks were well-planned and Modi had instructed the police not to get in the path of the killers.

We take an oath to fight and kill (Muslims) to turn India into a Hindu only nation

 of India, which has already been well-fractured. The violent activities have become an everyday occurrence. Is there any hope for India to restore its original secularism?

India: A So-Called Secular State

Have you ever wondered about the origins of fairy tales that usually begin with “Once upon a time” and shape our “happily ever after”? The magical, adventurous, romantic stories of Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow-White, The Little Mermaid, which used to be our bedtime stories, don’t have a colourful or dreamy beginning but contain horrible elements like rape, cannibalism, kidnapping, and physical abuse. Additionally, the familiar tropes in most of these stories are motherless girls, evil stepmothers or stepsisters fighting over a man, and sexual violence. These are the stories that were later sugarcoated by Disney and presented to us with a so-called “happy-ending”. Our beloved fairy tales aren’t as innocent as they sound.

Once upon a time, a princess lived in a castle beyond the sea. She was extremely beautiful with her blue eyes, rosy lips, tinted cheeks, and cascade-like hair; therefore, her evil stepmother locked her in the castle tower. Every night the princess looked at the moon through the window, hoping that someday someone would come and rescue her. One day, a handsome prince gets lost in the forest while hunting and finds that castle beyond the sea. He looks above the window and gets mesmerised by the princess’s beauty. He then defeats the evil witch (stepmother) and rescues the princess (as his so-called “

”). They both get married and live happily ever after.

The above is the basic plotline of almost every fairy tale. These chronicles were our bedtime stories and happy escapes to a universe where the world begins with: “

Once upon a time. The universe reminds us of a time when the world was magical, beautiful miserable princesses and handsome princes were found everywhere on land, and the princesses awaited men to come and change their lives so that they could live happily ever after

The creators of the first fairy tales were a coterie of 17th-century French female writers known as the conteuses (storytellers). These tales were passed down from generation to generation verbally until it was collected and written down. Two women, 

, struck back at the misery of their failed marriage by telling fairy tales that didn’t have happy endings. Countess de Murat was a part of the Salon of Paris, where she used to tell stories on marriage and other topics. Baroness Marie Catherine d’Aulonoy coined the term 

’ in 1697 after publishing her first collection of tales that critiqued the existing patriarchal norms by giving the women in her fictitious tales agency and freedom to choose her lover. When women had no choice and rights and were only expected to be good wives to their husbands and good mothers to their children, these fairy-tale stories allowed women to create strong female characters as they fantasised.

 began collecting and publishing folktales. They dismissed the conteuses, modified old folktales created by women & claimed to have reframed the stories as children’s tales. In Grimms’ collected fairy tales, women were oppressed, silenced, and sexualised in the name of discipline and moral values. Many fairy tale stories with which we grew up trace their origins even before the 17th century, and most of these stories have evolved and changed over time. Our beloved stories like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, The Little Mermaid, etc., have disturbing origins. 

 later sugarcoated with magic and romance by omitting the horrific elements of rape and cannibalism, torture, abduction, etc. The truth is, these fairy tales were never made for kids.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair, so that I may climb thy golden stair

” is the famous dialogue from the story of a girl who was locked in a tower in the woods by a cruel witch. The original version is much more disturbing, where the prince visits her every night to give her a silk handkerchief which she can sew into a long ladder. She had a sexual relationship with the prince and was pregnant as well. The wicked witch soon discovers it, cuts her hair, and banishes her into the wilderness. The wicked witch hauls him using severed hair when the prince comes to visit her. The prince jumps out of the window when the thorns below prick his eyes, and he goes blind. He wanders around and finally finds Rapunzel, who is now the mother of his children. They reunite, and when her tears fall on his face, his eyes heal automatically.

“, where the prince rescues the princess Aurora from the curse of an evil witch after kissing her (without consent), has two original versions. In the alternate version, a married king, after finding the princess unconscious in an abandoned castle, rapes her and leaves. Raped by the king, the princess gives birth to twins. While playing, one of her twins sucks an enchanted splinter out of her finger and wakes her up. After finding children around her upon waking up, the princess begins to care for them. One day the lecherous king wishes to fulfil his carnal desires again, but he is shocked after finding the princess awake. Like a “

,” the princess forgives him and accepts him. The king’s first wife becomes suspicious, and after finding out that his husband is sleeping around, orders to bring the princess and her children. She then orders them to be cooked like food, but the Cook saves them. The king finally arrives, burns his first wife, and marries the princess. They then live “

” (or maybe until the king finds another unconscious woman and rapes her).

Similarly, in the other stories, like “

“, the stepsisters cut off their heels and toes to fit the slipper, and the prince was dumb enough to not notice it until the dove (not the fairy godmother) informs the prince twice. In the end, the dove pecks the eyes of stepsisters, and the prince and Cinderella live happily ever after. In “

“, the prince pretty much kidnapped her when she was unconscious, and in the end, the wicked queen danced wearing glowing hot-iron shoes till she dropped dead. In “

‘, the wolf makes the protagonist eat her grandmother’s meat, and in another version, the little red riding hood consummates with the wolf in the end. In “

 ”, the princess, instead of kissing the frog, throws him against the wall and beats him up until he transforms. In “

‘, the prince marries another princess; therefore, the mermaid jumps into the sea and becomes foam. Later, the ending is modified, and the mermaid becomes “

” instead of turning into the foam, waiting to go to heaven, which still means she is dead. In 

, which is considered one of the oldest fairy tales, the dwarf appears to help the young girl spin the straw and demands several creepy things, including a baby, in return for his work.

The sugar-coated stories of famous fairy tales and their blockbuster commercial reiterations conveniently mask the horrific elements they signify. These stories have fed us with tropes of women degrading and hating other women. We can observe them through countless instances of motherless girls being tortured by evil maternal figures or sinister witches and sisters fighting over a rich, handsome man, who, in the name of rescuing miserable girls, kisses them without consent or, worse, rapes and abducts them. Furthermore, fairy tales have played a significant role in romanticising sexual violence and teaching girls to rely on men for everything in life.

I’m used to writing fairy tales that can be somewhat dark, and the truth is that in fairy tales, romances are always problematic. They may end happily ever after, but someone’s getting pushed into an oven or has blood in her shoe

The Culture of Sugarcoating Fairy Tales à la Disney

In recent years, the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has been used widely on social media against racism towards the Black people, especially African-Americans, but this injustice is not something new. Black people have been suffering and facing discrimination even before the 17th century. The Africans were brought to Europe as slaves, and even after the abolition of the slavery system after the American Civil War, the discrimination against the Black people continues. In the 1940s, a psychologist couple experimented to study the effect of discrimination on Black children. One of the conclusions of the study was that a Black child is aware by the age of five that “to be colored in….. American society is a mark of inferior status”.

 has gained global popularity on social media platforms. The slogan began in July, 2013 after a shooting that resulted in the death of an American-African teen 

 on the night of February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida. The use of #BlackLivesMatter widely spread worldwide when a 46 years old African-American man was brutally murdered on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis after being handcuffed and pinned to the ground by 

, a white police officer. Many similar incidents against the Black people, especially the African-Americans, have been reported but the injustice against the Black people is not something new. It has its roots in the slavery system back in 1619 when the European settlers brought 20 enslaved Africans ashore in the British colony of Jamestown, Virginia to fulfill the labor needs. The American Civil War had 

 the discrimination against the Black people. They continued to face the effects of racism and racial segregation and this was officially known as the Jim Crow laws.

 were enforced right after the abolition of slavery in the United States that legalized racial segregation. African-Americans were forbidden to enter public parks, and the theatres and restaurants were segregated. Places as common as the waiting rooms in bus and train stations, water fountains, restrooms, building entrances, elevators, cemeteries, jails, amusement park cashier windows, phone booths were segregated as well. Segregation of other public places including hospitals, schools, public pools, asylums, residential homes for the elderly and handicapped was also done. Some states even required separate textbooks for Black and White students. It was also very common to see signs posted at the town and city limits warning African Americans that they were not welcome.

One of the most affected victims of these oppressive Jim Crow laws were African-American children. They had to face racial discrimination from a very young age and they grew up with the mindset of ‘

’. Looking at the oppressive nature of the Jim Crow laws, many African-Americans stepped forward against the so-called “

” doctrine. In the 1940s, psychologist couple 

 conducted a series of experiments on black kids to study the psychological effect of segregation on African-American children. The experiment grew out of Mamie Clark’s master’s degree thesis. She herself was a victim of the oppressive Jim Crow laws, studying in a segregated school made her realize how society treated Black and White humans. This later inspired her to study the racial discrimination among Black children.

The experiment was originally known as ‘

Emotional Factors in Racial Identification and Preference in Negro Children

’. The study was done among African-American children attending segregated schools in Washington, DC versus those in integrated schools in New York. Among the children, 134 were from the south that went to segregated schools and 119 were from the north that went to mixed schools. The children were presented with two dolls identical in all aspects except the color. One doll was black with brown hair while the other was white with yellow hair. The children were asked questions like: which doll is a nice doll, which doll is bad, which doll has a nice color, which doll would you like to play with, which doll looks like you etc. All the children preferred the white doll over the black doll when asked which one is nice, which one looks good, which one would you want to play with; while they chose the black doll when asked which one was bad and ugly. The reasons given by kids for choosing the white doll were “

cause his feet, hands, ears, elbows, knees, and hair are clean

”, and reasons for rejecting the black doll were, “

”. When asked which doll looks like you, “

two children run (sic) out of the testing room, uncontrollable, convulsed in tears

The experiment was presented in the Supreme Court case in 

 that ended segregation in public schools. The case was also supported by the 

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)

 to end legal segregation. Finally, in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court under chief justice 

 declared segregation in public schools as 

“To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority as to their status in the community that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely to ever be undone.”

Though the test was opposed and questioned by many, Clarks’ doll test proved to be influential evidence for the Brown v. Board decision. The test was recreated several times and even after so many years, the results were found to be white biased. People continue to associate positive attributes with lighter skin tones, and negative attributes with darker skin tones. We live in a society where white skin, blue eyes, yellow hair are still considered to be pretty, and attractive while the black and brown skin tones are considered to be ugly, nasty, unattractive, and awful. 

Black is everyone’s favorite until it comes to the skin

At this point, Albert Einstein’s words ring true: “

It’s very depressing to live in a time where it’s easier to break an atom than a prejudice

The Black Baby Test

Social media platforms can be inspiring but are equally vicious when it comes to minorities. Women on social media face various threats, insults, and personal attacks on a daily basis. They are body-shamed, abused, sexualized, threatened, and harassed. With the COVID pandemic driving more and more people online, abusive content has increased by a dangerous margin, majority coming from men. Many women are quitting online platforms and many others are facing depression, eventually leading them to suicide. Instead of stepping back, women should use the same platform to spread awareness against ‘Digital Misogyny’, using ‘Digital Feminism’.

“It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a woman in possession of an opinion and a computer will cop a heap of sh*t. Insults, personal attacks, and threats of physical violence are par for the course.”

— Emma Jane in her book ‘Misogyny Online: A Short (and Brutish) History’

In the last few years, hatred towards a certain gender or religious groups has risen, the source of which is mostly social media, and is mostly targeted towards either ‘

’. Imagine waking up to your social media account hacked, followed by threats of circulating “

” on the Internet; imagine being body-shamed or sexualized or have opinions thrown at you for the way you dress. To perceive the mental, physical, and social strain on the person who had/has to go through all of this, is not easy.

According to a recent report, the use of misogynistic content increased by 

 accounting for more than half of the content. These include words such as ‘

’ along with local language slurs, and were posted 

 of the tweets in India are from self-proclaimed members of “

’, and others where they claimed men as the real victim of domestic violence by labelling feminism as a “

”. The organizations also made arguments of “

” cases, suicides among men due to harassment by women.

, an author and media commentator who is currently running a three-year federally-funded research project into the impact of gendered cyber-hate called ‘

’, said that after receiving threats and abuse on the internet, one of the withdrawal methods women use is removing all pictures of themselves from the social media or replacing their profile shots with heavily stylized images or images that don’t contain humans at all. Some even go as far as to remove all visual representations of themselves from the internet. According to a recent survey conducted by the girls’ rights organization ‘Plan International’, one out of every five women quits or reduces their use of social media. Abuse has been perpetrated on girls even as young as eight-year-olds.

‘s 10-month-old daughter received rape threats after the Indian cricket captain chose to support 

, who was being abused after India lost a 

. Similar incidents occurred last year during the IPL, when MS Dhoni’s 5-year-old daughter Ziva was threatened with rape after 

, an Indian journalist, was recently featured in a bogus pornographic video and has received numerous death threats. “

If you are a critic of the government and a woman, who also happens to be a Muslim, this ticks all the boxes to be humiliated and to be discredited

Ayyub went on to say that these online threats must be taken seriously because the line between online and offline is 

. It’s time that our countries make it safer for us to stay where we are and not feel compelled to flee.

Articles by Maria Aqdas

YAAD-E-JALLIAN

The Curse of Koh-i-Noor

India: A So-Called Secular State

The Culture of Sugarcoating Fairy Tales à la Disney

The Black Baby Test

Digital Feminism Must Be the Answer to Digital Misogyny

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN TRIPURA?

YAAD-E-JALLIAN

The Curse of Koh-i-Noor

India: A So-Called Secular State

The Culture of Sugarcoating Fairy Tales à la Disney

The Black Baby Test

Digital Feminism Must Be the Answer to Digital Misogyny

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN TRIPURA?