It is to laugh . . .
According to a Reuters report, thousands of angry Hindu women in India are about to flood the headquarters of a fundamentalist, male-dominated sect with their underwear!
Thousands of Indians, many fuming over a recent assault on women in a pub, are vowing to fill bars on Valentine's Day and send cartons of pink panties to a radical Hindu group that has branded outgoing females immoral.
A "consortium of pub-going, loose and forward women," founded by four Indian women on social networking website Facebook has, in a matter of days, attracted more than 25,000 members with over 2,000 posts about the self-appointed moral police.
The women said their mission was to go bar-hopping on February 14 and send hundreds of pink knickers to Sri Ram Sena, the militant Hindu group that has said pubs are for men, and that women should stay at home and cook for their husbands.
The same Hindu group was blamed for attacking women in a bar in the southern city of Mangalore in January, an incident that sparked a national debate about women's freedoms in India.
Collection centers have sprung up in several cities, with volunteers calling for bright pink old-fashioned knickers as gifts to the Sri Ram Sena as a mark of defiance.
"Girl power! Go girls, go. Show Ram Sena... who's the boss," reads one post on Facebook from Larkins Dsouza.
There is a separate campaign to "Walk to the nearest pub and buy a drink (and) raise a toast," that has found supporters from Toronto to Bangkok to Sydney, with even teetotalers saying they will get a drink on Saturday to show solidarity.
"Though I don't promote smoking or drinking for both sexes, we definitely don't need hooligans telling us what to do and what not. Best of luck!," reads one post from Iftehar Ahsan.
There are more heated discussion threads as well that range from the limits of independence to religion and politics, reflecting the struggle facing a country that has long battled to balance its deep-rooted traditions with rapid modernization.
Growing numbers of young and independent urban women have become an easy target for religious fundamentalists and aging politicians trying to force traditional mores on an increasingly liberal, Western outlook.
Not to be outdone, the Sri Ram Sena, which has cautioned shops and pubs in southern Karnataka state against marking Valentine's Day, has promised to gift pink saris to women and marry off canoodling couples to make them "respectable."
Sounds like Valentine's Day in India is going to be more interesting than usual!
What I can't figure out is why these male Hindu fundamentalists are so upset. Have you seen the erotic carvings on many historic Hindu temples - for example, Khajuraho? They leave nothing to the imagination, and depict sexual positions that would make an Olympic gymnast cringe! After all, this is the land that gave us Tantric sexuality and the Kama Sutra.
Clearly, times have changed . . . but who knows? Perhaps these ladies will change them back again!
Peter
3 comments:
I especially liked your point about the tantric temples and kama sutra...hold the train o ye of dirty minds, I mean inasmuch as the article called these assertive women "Westernized" and these Rama Sena militants "fundamentalists," whereas you, Peter, astutely note that sexual liberality isn't new to India AT ALL!
It seems that whenever a society swings from one side of the pendulum, such as restrictive and conservative mores, to another side of the pendulum, such as a more open and adaptive outlook, it is framed as a transition from "fundamentalism" to "Westernism."
Frankly, many cultures of the subcontinent were much more liberal than "Western" culture for centuries--the temples are a good example. And furthermore, India's staunch conservatives are the heirs to an adopted Victorian British morality of family and gender roles! Hence this to-do about kissing in public a-la Richard Gere or this hoopla about having a pint.
But really, a re-liberalization of sexuality or egalitarianism is not a new, "Western" thing, it's a return to a pre-British India! Eurocentrism really gets my goat sometimes ;-) India has always had a deeply sensual culture. In fact, this fascinated many British colonials such that they married Indian wives and "went native."
http://ijg.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/8/1/1
Ok, I admit it... I thought you wrote that these women were going to flood the headquarters of that sect IN their underwear, not with their underwear.
Shows you where *my* mind is.
The media loves to show this as a battle between fundamentalist hindus (oh noes!) and the modern liberal india full of emancipated women. In a sense, the media is playing to its own self imposed gallery of being anti-religion (hinduism in indian media circles is seen as non fashionable and outmoded, most indian media folk are marxists and socialists, for what its worth).
But there is a deeper undercurrent here, which is being entirely ignored. On one side, there is a group of Indians who are angry at the manner in which their public space is encroached upon by pubs, drinking establishments and all the trappings of an ostensibly westernised subculture.
Then there is the astute local level politico who seeks to exploit this resentment, and finally there is a huge demographic which is very uncomfortable with what they are seeing of the more "modern", if thats what its called segment of the indian demographic.
The Mangalore incident was a combination of all 3, and more strands combining. There was the issue of communal relations - Mangalore has been on a boil for some time with rumours of muslim men converting hindu women via pubs and what not, there is the issue of the above cultural clash of locals being fed up of the pub culture etc and so on so forth.
All in all, there is a definite disconnect between two sides in this fracas. The new India which has lurched to hedonism without a thought, and the old India, which continues to hold different traditions dear. In between will be the politicians who will seek to play upon the divide and get their own support base via these publicity stunts.
Post a Comment