71-year-old nun gang-raped in West Bengal convent attack

A 71-year-old nun was gang-raped during a robbery at the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Ranaghat, West Bengal, on March 14, 2015. A gang of men broke into the convent school in the early hours, tied up the guards, looted the premises — and assaulted the elderly nun when she tried to resist. She was hospitalized and survived. Police made arrests in the days that followed.

The attack, in a town about 80 km from Kolkata, horrified the country. It also became a political flashpoint. Surendra Jain, general secretary of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), made remarks widely condemned as justifying the climate around the attack: "There are no Christians living in the village or around it," he said, claiming the church existed "for the purpose of conversion" and that locals had "warned against it." He added, "Will the Christians allow us to make a Hanuman temple in the Vatican?"

No grievance about conversions can excuse the rape of a 71-year-old woman. The answer to communal suspicion does not lie in sexual violence.

The Ranaghat case echoed an earlier one: a nun raped during the 2008 anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal, Orissa, whose attacker was convicted six years later — a reminder of how slowly justice moves in such cases.

From a 7-year-old girl to a 70-year-old nun, the vulnerability of women in India demands more than outrage. It demands that we ask, as a nation, whether we are doing enough to end the rape culture.

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Based on reporting by the BBC and others, March 2015.