The 2008 Aarushi Talwar murder case is still regarded as one of India's most notorious criminal investigations because it revealed pervasive class prejudices and to date remains unresolved. Aarushi Talwar, 13, and Hemraj Banjade, 45, the family's domestic servant, were the two victims at the centre of the case. However, the huge differences in how the police, media, and general public saw, looked into, and talked about these two people expose long-standing biases against the working class, especially domestic workers.

Aarushi was discovered dead in her Noida, India, bedroom on May 16, 2008. Hemraj, the family's live-in domestic servant, was initially suspected. But his own body was found on the terrace of the Talwar house the very next day. A disorganised and intensely contentious inquiry ensued, tainted by media sensationalism, police ineptitude, and shifting narratives that mirrored society's biases.

The case took several turns: Dr. Rajesh and Nupur Talwar, the parents, were charged, detained, found guilty, and then found not guilty. Police leaks, moral assessments of Aarushi's personality, and overt class discrimination—particularly in treating Hemraj—were the investigation's defining features. Hemraj's murder was mainly an afterthought, with his identity reduced to that of a "servant" rather than a victim who likewise deserved justice. Still, Aarushi's death was met with shock and sympathy.

The police’s casual treatment of Hemraj’s disappearance and the subsequent discovery of his body highlights a hierarchy of human worth. Had he been of a higher social class, the police might have treated his absence with more urgency. Instead, they treated him as a mere employee, whose murder was secondary to the crime against Aarushi.

The Role of the Media: Cultivating Class Divisions

The case was sensationalised by the media, which frequently exacerbated preexisting class biases. Aarushi's life, friendships, and rumours about her relationships were the main topics of news coverage. Even while it was problematic in and of itself, Aarushi's moral policing helped to keep her in the public eye. However, Hemraj was frequently an anonymous or hardly recognised victim.

Hemraj's name was hardly featured in the headlines that cried out for Aarushi's murder. The fact that he was referred to as a “Nepali servant” further alienated him. There were overt racial and class stereotypes in the conversations around his supposed "affair" with Aarushi or her mother. It wasn't evaluated impartially; rather, the whole notion that a domestic worker could have relationships with an employer's family was presented as scandalous.

India's ingrained caste and class prejudices are reflected in the glaring disparity between Aarushi and Hemraj's media treatment. Hemraj was mainly perceived as a “servant,” a designation that seemed to obscure his humanity, but Aarushi was perceived as a victim, a daughter, and a student.

Systemic classism was further exposed by the deficient police inquiry. Simply put, carelessness tainted the crime scene. Important evidence was lost, and Hemraj's body was handled in a very heartless manner. He had a delayed and subpar forensic analysis and post-mortem. The fact that it took so long to find his body at all indicates that the police did not take his disappearance seriously.

(CBI) and the police were unable to produce solid evidence when the case later shifted against Aarushi's parents. Rather, the case was based on conjecture and circumstantial evidence, including antiquated ideas of "honour killing." The Talwars appeared to be the target of the trial because they deviated from accepted social norms rather than because of compelling forensic evidence.

Class prejudice was still visible, though, since the police treated Hemraj's murder with more contempt than they did the Talwars, who were accused of killing their daughter. His family's struggle for justice in Nepal received little media attention, and they were mostly left out of the story.

Overcoming Class Prejudice: An Appeal for Systemic Reform

It should have been possible to challenge the long-standing injustices in Indian society, especially about the treatment of domestic workers, through the Aarushi Talwar case. But even though the case generated a lot of public discussion, the class inequalities it revealed were never really addressed. The greater societal indifference to the working class is reflected in the selective compassion for Aarushi while ignoring Hemraj's story. Class-based discrimination is pervasive in media narratives, institutional practices, and daily social interactions; it is not merely found in the legal system.

India's ingrained class prejudices are reflected in the Aarushi Talwar case, which is more than just a legal enigma. Inequalities that still exist in Indian society are best illustrated by the glaring disparity in the treatment of Aarushi and Hemraj in the media and the legal system. Justice will remain a privilege of the wealthy while the working class is left open to prejudice and disregard as long as our society does not acknowledge and confront these biases.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of The Jamia Review or its members

The Aarushi Talwar Murder Case: A Case Study of Prejudice and Class Bias in Indian Society 

The Mental Asylum where the story is set is in total domination of men, this setting is reflective of the patriarchal society where spaces are in absolute monopoly of men, which is in absolute opposition to the experiences of those of women, which are less or not at all given importance to or spoken about. This absence speaks volumes about the invisibility of women in the larger historical and political framework of Partition, emphasizing how their suffering was often sidelined in favour of male-centric narratives, presenting an assortment of women amid the devastation and brutality, each of whom serves as a tribute to the feminine spirit's tenacity and fragility in the face of extreme adversity.

“Toba Tek Singh” portrays numerous instances of women as being quiet victims of their circumstances. They are caught in the centre of a conflict where they did not have a part to play in, their grief is expressed through their behaviours and emotions, and their stories are frequently hinted at rather than spoken explicitly. Women who are compelled to leave their homes, leaving behind their possessions and loved ones, depicted as symbols of loss and displacement. Their silence is a potent testimony to the trauma they have experienced.

Most of the story's female characters strike out as resilient despite the immense hardships. They are the ones that adjust to the hard realities of their new existence by seeking strength in their weakness. The woman who attends to the mentally unwell patients in the middle of the asylum's pandemonium is a perfect illustration. The affection, passion, and determination with which she takes care of the patients in the hospital is reflective of how a woman, despite all odds, showcases her perseverance in the face of adversity.

More often than not Manto’s extensive accounts of partition tend to shade the female characters, who are characterised as mentally unwell, sex workers, orphans and subsequently vanishing into the thin air. Manto emphasises the suffering of people who often get overlooked and brushed aside by concentrating on these characters. Living on the periphery of society, these women experience twice as much marginalisation because of their social position and gender.

The exclusion of women from the asylum also represents a larger disregard for their psychological and emotional suffering during Partition. Despite being terrible and ridiculous, the male detainees' absurdity is at least recognised and given room in the story. In contrast, women were frequently forced to endure their suffering in silence since, in the male-dominated language of the era, their suffering was seen as less important. Intentional or not, this erasure emphasises the necessity of questioning how history is chronicled and whose narratives are considered important enough to be preserved.

Toba Tek Singh is a microcosm of society, mirroring the more general problems of marginalisation, violence, and displacement. Because they are both stigmatised for their gender and mental illness, the women who are housed there are especially at risk. They frequently experience exploitation, abuse, and neglect, underscoring the intersectionality of oppression.

Although, Saadat Hassan Manto in, “Toba Tek Singh” does not explicitly criticise patriarchy, his ideas on gender are revealed within his larger body of work. Particularly during Partition, he was a harsh opponent of the patriarchal systems that dehumanised women. Women are frequently represented in his stories as the most defenceless victims of abuse, yet they are also shown to be resilient and capable of taking action. 

The absence of women may reflect Manto’s acknowledgment of their erasure from historical narratives. By focusing on the madness of men, he indirectly critiques the patriarchal systems that failed to protect women and instead reduced them to symbols of honour or revenge. The mere absence of the mention of the agonies of women during the course of partition in the literary accounts of that time implies the need of addressing the issue and providing a platform, where the miseries of women get voiced out, given the fact that the patients in the asylum are by enlarge men and hence the very issues of identity and displacement, are just those of men, and women hence get no inclusion in the same, therefore, reflecting the wider exclusion of women's voices in historical and literary accounts, is a testament to it being a conscious decision rather than an inherent flaw.

To sum it up, Toba Tek Singh compels people to think about the secret tales of women who suffered during the atrocities of Partition by depicting lunacy and sorrow. Manto encourages us to address the gaps in our knowledge of history and to look for the voices that have been silenced by drawing attention to their absence. By doing this, he guarantees that the narrative of Partition will not be complete until we recognise and respect the experiences of everyone involved, particularly the women who bore the brunt of it.

Articles by Hurmat Farooq

The Aarushi Talwar Murder Case: A Case Study of Prejudice and Class Bias in Indian Society

Women at the backdrop of “Toba Tek Singh”

The Aarushi Talwar Murder Case: A Case Study of Prejudice and Class Bias in Indian Society

Women at the backdrop of “Toba Tek Singh”