In late 2012, the Indian film director Ram Devineni took part in a demonstration in New Delhi following the rape of a young 23 year old student on a bus. A policeman present at the rally said that “no decent woman would walk alone at night”. These words and the indignation they produced in Devineni, detonated the beginning of a transmedia project that is already viral in India: Priya's Shakti.
Priya is a character who has suffered sexual violence to later become the only female superhero in India. Riding a tiger and wearing a colorful sari, she sets out to radically change the mood of the society in which she grew up. Priya personalizes the feelings and experiences of the approximately 93 women who are raped daily in India.
The comic is based on the idea of bringing together the stereotype of classical Hindu narrative with the graphics of new technologies. Priya is an ordinary, dark skinned woman, who, after being sexually assaulted by her countrymen and with Goddess Parvati’s help, dares to face her family and a society that in most cases not only does not defend the victims but puts the blame on them. The choice of Parvati for this cartoon is no coincidence, since it is the Hindu Goddess that relates to humans, which makes her more available.
Created by Devineni and Vikas Menon, the comic presents a narrative that combats gender and sexual violence so that women who have been victims of it can envision a participatory and possible life horizon within their background, using a discourse through which these women and their real stories, can be easily portrayed. In fact, some parts of the cartoon match real events lived by women victims through the use of audios files, videos, animations, and even drawings made by disadvantaged children in Mumbai.
Fortunately, nowadays there already exists a climate of intolerance towards this kind of injustice, especially among the younger segments of Indian society. Its creators plan for the comic to evolve and to be distributed in schools so as to foster a change in mentality. According Devineni, in India there is already sufficient legislation to combat all types of explicit violence against women, but no legislation will be enough as long as victims are not openly supported so that they need not fear the consequences that public denunciation of their abuse may bring.
Sources: yorokobu.es / priyashakti.com/comic/
