Moral compass: A year in which much comfort died

It was a cold and grey start to a new year. On January 1, 2013, the country's collective conscience was seared by the images of Nirbhaya's parents immersing her ashes in the Ganga. The girl who was adopted as their daughter by all of India after being gang-raped and thrown out of a bus became the symbol of a leaderless urban protest mobilisation, of a kind which was possibly seen only during the Independence movement and after the Emergency of 1975-77.

A year is only a speck in the history of nations. And, yet, 2013 will be remembered as the year India reset its moral compass. The undisputed catalyst was 24x7 news television. It insinuated itself into urban drawing rooms and dinner tables, asking insistently on which side you, the viewer, stood. Young people answered the question by first massing outside Rashtrapati Bhavan, perceived by them as the centre of leadership and political power. And, then voting with both hands for the Aam Aadmi Party, in total rejection of those currently occupying this real estate.

Another layer was added to the new Indian consciousness as the year wore on and more shibboleths collapsed. Hindu India was left fumbling for explanations as the police, finding itself under the public scanner on issues related to women and their bodies, actually took serious note of reports that preacher Asaram Bapu had exploited several young women. He was jailed, much to the discomfiture of Hindu organisations that initially mounted a half-hearted defence but quickly distanced themselves from him as sordid details of his predatory attacks on young and trusting women came out. An empire worth hundreds of crores came crashing down.

At the other end of the spectrum, Tarun Tejpal, for many in the alternative mindspace an important sounding board, was found out. In jail on the charge of molesting a young colleague, whom he told in a telling text message that she should keep quiet about the encounter because it was the only way she would keep her job, Tejpal is awaiting trial. His magazine, Tehelka, known for its elegant writing and ruthless exposes of the powerful, was dubbed by one disgusted former admirer as a "bxxxxxxt" factory.

More dreams died in 2013. Can any parent ever cut the throat of their only child and then dress up the crime scene to suggest someone else did it? The Supreme Court decided Rajesh and Nupur Talwar were guilty of not only murdering 13-year old Aarushi, their daughter, and their domestic help, Hemraj, but also destroying evidence to make it look as if someone else had done it.

That the judiciary was not immune to twisted morality was clear from the A K Ganguly case. After an intern made shocking charges of sexual harassment against the retired Supreme Court judge, and a committee of his former colleagues said they would not interfere in judging his conduct, Ganguly decided he would not step down from the West Bengal Human Rights Commission because he felt he had done nothing wrong. The matter was still being debated at the time of going to print.

2013 was not just about criminality, truth and justice. It will always be the year India saw a glimmer of something new - just a tantalising glimpse, the dim promise of a new deal for the New Woman as Indians began coming to terms with sexuality. The khaps, female infanticide, dowry death and marital rape are still out there. But there's also something new in the air, that smells fresh, even if you can't identify it or don't understand it.