Here's why this cartoonist received rape, death threats from angry followers of Asaram Bapu

No country for women. Nothing describes the current state of affairs, and the general mindset that ails the average Indian. No, this doesn't come from a place of hate, just anger at how little we outrage over things that truly matter.

Rape, harassment, threats, acid attacks have prime importance on newspaper headlines, none in real life. When that man next to you casually gropes at someone, do you do something about it? When that lady next door slut shames random strangers, do you shut her down? When you watch someone you know, or a stranger, being publically humiliated - online or in person - for her opinion, her clothes, her life choices, her existence, do you outrage? Do your raise your voice? Probably not.

This is the story of a lady, and a cartoonist who spoke her mind, who outraged and in turn received death and rape threats. Because for the average Indian heterosexual male the response to a woman speaking her mind, is generally to get her to shut up. Her story, shared on the popular Facebook page, Humans of Bombay, speaks volumes about the society we live in. Karnika spoke to HoB about why she draws more about the issues women face and the incident that triggered it:

"...I was furious with Asaram Bapu was when he commented on the Nirbhaya case saying, 'she should have call them brothers and said a Guru Mantra.' Then when the news of him apparently raping young girls came out, I decided to voice my anger. At that point he was missing so I posted a cartoon of his followers asking them to go look for him on the moon and posted it on my personal Facebook account. Before I knew it, a TV news channel had picked it up and this cartoon was everywhere. I followed them up with many cartoons of him being arrested and humiliated. I thought, if he could make such comments about Nirbhaya and get away, surely no one would have a problem with me. I was wrong.

I began to get death threats to the point where my phone never stopped ringing. So many men have called me and said, 'you defended Nirbhaya and insulted Bapu, now we will rape you like we raped Nirbhaya.' They hacked all my accounts on Facebook, twitter and even my email, to stop me from drawing. For 5 months I was scared to step out of my house because I feared that someone would throw acid at me, given that his followers had even reached my doorstep."

Acid attack, rape threats, death threats. For cartoons expressing her own, personal views. Wow. #SlowClap

When she tried to register a police complaint, she was told to stop drawing cartoons for a bit so as to not 'provoke' Bapu's followers further. But she didn't. Despite the threats, she continued doing what she loved best, receiving an award for Courage in Cartooning from Cartoonists Rights Network International in 2015.

Though internationally recognised, and a TedEx speaker now, Karnika's struggles to understand the politics behind patriarchy. "Why is it so easy to threaten women in this country? Why don't we have any freedom of speech? Why do political idols and personalities feel like they have the power to control everything? Today I've stood up for my honest work, but at what cost? Tomorrow anyone else could be a Nirbhaya, the national will mourn for a few days and then it'll pass...but when will this madness stop?," she asks.

A question that'll probably forever remain unanswered.