Open letter: Chinmayi writes about atrocities against women, intolerance and freedom of expression

Singer and dubbing artiste, Chinmayi took to her official Facebook page to express her views on the atrocities against women in the society, intolerance and the necessity of freedom of expression in a passionate letter. Here's what she wrote on the page:
"The past few days have been about bans, the Nirbhaya video and now the Dimapur mob killing. To all those who preach eloquently, which include the sadhus and sants, about the 'culture' of India - I wish they would take the pains to do some studying.And read about what India's culture has been and how it has changed and been dynamic through the years, keeping pace with the times and yet being tolerant to others views. Debates was about exchange of intellectual ideas and not about shouting from the rooftops. Debate was about encouraging voices of dissent and not suppressing them. However, agreeing or disagreeing was up to you. The learned acharyas of yore have won many a learned sishya through intellectual debate or/and love. Ramanuja, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Madhvacharya, Sant Jnaneshwar.. the list is long.
Why have we conveniently forgotten this culture that is intrinsic to India? Indian women have always been free, strong, independent, intelligent, witty and historically known to be trained in everything from warfare, arts and sciences. If reading long texts are too tough, flipping through the various Amar Chitra Kathas would suffice to get an idea. Not just queens but even the normal woman in society engaged in various duties has been represented as strong, wise and in various stories from the Upanishads, the woman has been known to pose enough intellectual queries to choose a man worthy of her. Sati was practiced for a reason - to save the women from rape and slavery by invaders. And it was chosen by women of an era out of free will. Somehow evil crept in to continue this practice in society, long after the Mughals were gone. The west, in contrast seems (with my limit knowledge) to suppress the intellectual woman. The woman in the west was only required to procreate. Someone told me that it is only after the advent of the British that the suppression of women began. I would be happy to read something that proves or disproves this supposition.
Mr Akhtar said in debate that this video must be watched to see how many crores of Indian men - and dare I say women too - have this mentality that the woman is inviting rape upon herself if she behaves a certain way. How many parents of girls tell a daughter, when she wants to walk out of an abusive marriage "your education has made you arrogant. listen to your husband/in-laws". How many times have I come across "I will rape you", "I will throw acid on your face" from a man/or perhaps a woman, just because they disagreed with me? How many times has someone's paternity been questioned just because according to Indian society so obsessed with 'culture' think it is one of the best ways to shame/insult someone to silence? How many times do we say it is in the rape victim's destiny, she invited it upon herself?
How do we explain rapes on girl babies? How does Jeans, chowmein and dressing come in to play there? And boy babies. So much noise is being made about the girl baby and the sexual violence on boys is conveniently forgotten. Do we have any idea how many boys are sexually assaulted by their own male family members?
Coming back, when did the mindset that celebrated women change to oppressing her? How did the woman come to be suppressed so much over time? On one side we have the India that is showing progressive women. She is free, seemingly, has a career, is financially independent (or as much her family allows her to be... in most cases the woman earns for all the money to be transferred into the family) On the other there are men who are unable to stomach the progress of that object called woman, who he has been told is supposed to obey him, develop a voice of her own. He is not able to come to terms with the fact that the woman has a voice of her own. We blame her education, her dressing, her looks. We basically blame the woman. With the scary sex ratio, I shudder to think if crimes against women will increase in the future. Some states have appalling numbers. Simultaneously, death sentence to rapists would mean that rapists will now burn their victims someone warned. Even worse, rapes aren't reported as much as other countries in india. we love shaming the victim.
What is the solution, we ask. Rahul, my husband said schools must only be co-education, so that the boys know and learn to treat a girl like an equal. In most of India there are men who haven't spoken to a girl until they marry. How would he know how to treat her with empathy, compassion, friendliness, he asked. When boys learn to be friends with a girl an empathy will develop. He will know and the girl too, will know that shaking hands does not lead to a baby being born. He will learn to help and learn to take help from girls. Treat her like an equal. He says all boys/all-girls schools should be banned. Maybe that is a solution. But will this concept be accepted in rural areas where sending the daughter to school is seen as a big excess and a favor to the girl?
On another note, the way things are, I am not even sure when the issue of Marital rape will even find space for debate in the parliament. A woman is married to a man, she must suffer sexual violence. Because he is the husband, he has the right to inflict that torture. No one will listen. No one will care.
Would the Kamasutra be written and published today? I am sure it will be banned. However nothing like this treatise *seemed* to exist anywhere in the world during that era.
Finally if we are going to have everyone agreeing with us all the time, how will we grow? How can we suppress voices of dissent? If we disagree, lets do so with class. People like Arnab Goswami who get prime time on channels when he is shown as this example, who will interrupt, shout down and argue relentlessly serve as terrible examples to those who watch him, believing this behavior is acceptable.
We have been a nation of tolerance, forward thought, growth and finesse. Let us not celebrate mob fury, bans and suppress voices of dissent. Everyone should have a voice. Freedom of Expression is a fundamental right and it must remain so. When we disagree, we must remember do so with dignity. We can definitely protest - but only in a lawful manner."