Thank God! Valentine's Day is finally past. Since the infamous pub incident in Mangalore, India on 24th Jan ‘09, the so called moral police have been threatening to intervene and impede the celebrations on the D Day. Police force (not the moral but the real one) has been alert and common people like me, apprehensive.
Yes, like everybody else in a democracy, I too have opinions, some very strong ones. I intend to put forth them. But first, a little background on the unfortunate Mangalore incident. A snippet from a popular news website says,
“A 40 member team allegedly of the Sri Ram Sena attacked a pub on Balmatta Road in Mangalore and assaulted two girls. The Sri Ram Sena justified the incident by stating that this was a spontaneous reaction against those girls who flouted the traditional Indian norms and levels of decency.” Now, even as this piece is being written; the incident has been highly politicized while the core issue burns somewhere at the bottom of the rubble. Politicians are making accusations left and right, every person aspiring to assume a political office has a scapegoat in the opposition and everybody claims he is innocent.
Picture this. The Sri Ram Sena chief alleges that the media ‘blew the incident out of proportion’. I am totally lost. There have been innumerable MMSes evidencing the act. It is clear that two hapless girls were slapped, kicked and had their hair pulled. Then, how is the usage of the word ‘blowing’ relevant? These videos and MMSes are evidence of a crime committed. Am I missing something here?
The Congress is using this incident to tarnish BJP’s image (if there is one!). The BJP is accusing Congress of feeding unwanted information to the media and sensationalizing the issue. Almost every political party has taken a side particularly in light of the impending elections. WOW! What a mess. Maybe I am being a little too cynical but this can happen only in India. Still, the Indians are proud of their country.
“Mera Bharat mahaan”
(My country is the greatest)Even as the pub incident is still fresh in human memory (at least that is what I would like to believe), warnings have been issued by Sri Ram Sena and Mr. Bal Thackeray (we all knew he would come into picture sooner or later) prohibiting celebrations of all sorts for Valentine’s Day. The common man (more aptly, woman) is urged to remind himself of the great culture India is the mother of. Valentine’s Day has never been part of India’s rich heritage and never will be. Unmarried couples, if spotted together in public places, would either have to embrace siblinghood or marriage. The reason? Elementary, dear Watson. Indian culture does not permit unmarried couples to loiter hand in hand.
There have been some bizarre statements made. Some of them are listed below for reference, in case they have gone unnoticed or forgotten over the time elapsed, since. For, the human memory is short and Indian memory even shorter.
"The women taking part in the Miss World contest were selling their bodies. We protested based on the principle that a woman's body is not available for sale."
"There is a BJP government in Karnataka and the Opposition would do anything to ensure that name of the government is tarnished. I think that this entire case has been framed."
"Girls should be taught better values and their safety should be ensured."
"There is a need to preserve our culture and there is no denying that. In fact, we will continue to fight to preserve our culture."
"The Sri Ram Sena is not a political organization. We are not interested in politics and we are not rowdies. We only preserve the values and culture of Indian society."
"Our team members would have a video camera and also a turmeric stub. If our team member finds anyone dating, we will force them to get married. We will take the couple to the sub-registrar's office and the marriage will be solemnized."
"If girls and guys could date in the open then I see no harm in them being married off."
"Valentine's Day is an example of anti-Indian culture and we urge educational institutions and the police to help discourage this."
"All the members (of Sri Rama Sena) have been directed not to intimidate the students and make them understand about our culture."
"What is this Valentine Day? In what way it is related to Indian culture? It is a rotten imported culture thriving on the neo-rich with easy money to squander."
"The day symbolizes a ‘materialistic and immoral' lifestyle."Phew! This was something. I have neither conjured any of the above statements nor used them out of context. These have been picked from interviews given by the self appointed Indian moral police and published unabashed in the different forms of media.
The Sri Rama Sena and Mr. Thackeray seem to be obsessed with the rich Indian culture of past. But what exactly are the cultural aspects that they are trying to uphold? Am I the only person who is clueless here?
Indian Culture Please do correct me if I am wrong. I am neither an expert nor a historian. What all I am is a voracious reader and an avid researcher.
Indian culture had never preached against affairs. If this is false, and indeed, if Indian culture talked against having affairs (both pre-marital and extra-marital) then how did Kama Sutra come into existence? The entire epic was about having sex with someone other than a wife. Most of the cases, it is a prostitute or a concubine (mistress). Of course, a woman used to be butchered if she dares to think about a man other than her husband. Most of them still are.
Also, polygamy was in such a common abundance that it was never deemed to be wrong, for a man. Every man of a reasonable high social standing and affordability had multiple wives. In addition to this, he also had a list of mistresses. Of course, a woman was supposed to have only one husband. A woman could not marry again even if her husband had passed away. Worst of all, she was expected to cease living along with him. This practice is called Sati; the wife was burnt along with the corpse of her husband, alive.
Now, coming back to our day, as per the protests raised by Sri Ram Sena, pubs are not discouraged, per se. Men are not being pressurized not to go to pubs, dance and get drunk. Men are not being beaten by the Sri Ram Sena volunteers in the name of upholding Indian tradition. Women, on the other hand, are being punished. Beaten for going to a pub. Assaulted for having a boyfriend / lover. Is it a naïve attempt to drag back the country to the Stone Age, when the so called rich Indian culture was rampant?
Valentine’s Day is not applicable to IndiaThis is one of the most preposterous statements I have ever heard in recent times. For argument’s sake, let me accept this. Then, what about Independence Day, Gandhi Jayanti, Children’s Day, Martyr’s Day, Republic Day, Christmas and so on? This list can go on and on. If India is celebrating Valentine’s Day due to the heavy and unwanted influence of the West –
a) Celebrating Independence Day on 15th August is inspired from the Independence Day of the US, 4th July.
b) Celebrating Gandhi Jayanti on 2nd October is inspired from Washington’s Birthday celebrated in US on the third Monday of February.
c) The Martyr’s Day celebrated on 30th January is inspired from the Veteran’s Day of the US.
d) Christmas and New Year’s Day are also inspired from the West. Why are we not proud of our ancient lunar calendars and celebrate New Year’s Day based on them? Why do we need to follow Gregorian calendar for celebrating the first day of a year? If we are celebrating Christmas just because India is a secular state, how about Moharram, Bakrid, Mahavir Jayanti, Id and so on?
Furthermore, Father’s Day and Mother’s Day are also inspired from the West. India never had these in place before it started to ‘learn’ from West. Why are these days not being opposed?
So, basically, it is ok to learn from the West. What is not ok is learning the ‘bad things’. If this is the argument, then who will decide for the country as a whole on what is good and should be learnt and what should not be? Tomorrow, if I along with a group of fanatical friends decide that every house should feed at least two destitute and homeless everyday and we go about forcing and assaulting people who do not obey this, am I committing a crime or not? How and where do we draw the line what a common man can do and what he cannot do? Can a common man decide what the country as a whole should do and what it should not?
Mass Marriages on Valentine’s DayThis is so ridiculously amusing that the people who said this need to be institutionalized for a shock therapy. What have these people got to do against love? Are all these men broken at heart once upon a time in their life?
Married couples can display affection for one another in public. No problems with that. However, unmarried couples cannot, as the Indian culture and tradition do not allow this. Where and why? What is the reason and rationality behind it? Is it saying that a couple cannot be in love before marriage? As I have already said earlier, this is outrageously insane.
And, if this self appointed moral police force spots an unmarried couple, they will be ‘forced’ to embrace either siblinghood or marriage. There are at least four different and very specific incidents on 14th Feb ’09 which are hard to ignore.
a) A man was forced to ‘mock’ wed a donkey amid cheers and boos in Rourkela.
b) In Belgaum, a girl was forced to tie a rakhi on her partner’s wrist to prove their siblinghood.
c) Both the faces of a couple were blackened with soot as they were, no doubt, failing to live upto India’s rich culture.
d) A 16 year old boy and 15 year old girl were forced to marry in Patna, India.
Is there any sense and rationality in these actions? Well, I fail to find any, if there is. In the name of democracy, we are killing it.
Solution, then? Ok. I will attempt to give my version of a solution. As always, there will be people will refuse to agree with it, but then, this is a democracy where everybody is entitled to an opinion and a voice.
Round up the people responsible for this stupidity and lock them up in prison before their powerful political sugar daddies even get a hint. Stop taking their interviews and publishing their views (which are insane and dangerous). This will help not turn them into overnight heroes. Let us be patriotic of our motherland and proud of being citizens of this great country but let us refrain ourselves from being chauvinistic. Every culture and tradition has pitfalls and over a period of a time, people learn imbibing from other cultures and incorporating in their culture. I guess, Charles Darwin called this as ‘Evolution’. In management parlance, this is called ‘Change’. As all know –
“Change is always constant”Let us learn, albeit little, from countries like China and Japan. The way in which they retained most of their traditions and culture in spite of such a rapid pace of advancement, industrialization and westernization are commendable, to say the least.
