Valentine’s Day has come and gone. Muthalik was kept in preventive custody. Pink chaddis went out to the Shri Ram Sene office, as duly observed by the news channels. The pubs were bharo-ed. The Bajrang Dal and other chauvinistic outfits which would have otherwise threatened bodily harm to people found “celebrating” Valentine’s Day turned non-violent, and attempted to dis-associate themselves from the Ram Sene tactics.
I say Yeah ! They might be pink and they might be chaddis, but the pink chaddis did it !
I have keenly been following news of the Pink Chaddi campaign, because it seems such a charming one. Yes, I know – pink underwear. And yes, I know charming. You heard right. Pink underwear – what a fitting way to say IN YOUR FACE. And that, in India, where women are better veiled and “decent” , if not barefoot and pregnant. Nice. Very nice !
And so, I ws rather surprised, after reading many supportive articles and posts on the Net, to read Sagarika Ghose’s column chiding it as “undignified”, and exhorting the youth to follow Nehruvian ideals. I am not sure I understand her idea of “undignified”, for what exactly is dignified ? Some roadside romeo, traipsing his way on the footpath, in a crowd pinching my bottom ? Or me turning to him in a rage and lecturing him on Nehruvian ideals ?
It boggles the mind really – this idea of being dignified. Protest, they say, protest women, but in a dignified way. Protest the daily assault on your private street space, protest your rights being taken away in the name of morality – BUT do not fling underwear, and do not call yourself loose or “forward”, or any other thing that night make respectable Auntijis and Unclejis cringe.
Why are these exhortations of dignity not to be applied to the goons of the Shri Ram Sene ? I am appalled that such a few number of the country’s leaders have spoken up and against the brutal assault on the Mangalore women. Yes, they were women , and they were in a bar, drinking. And the last time I checked India was a free country, a democracy with a long culture (in theory) of respecting it’s women.
Ms. Ghose talks of not forgetting our culture , of romancing and drinking but doing it discreetly. Be “immoral” but do it classily, eh ? Double standards, anyone ? It’s more of the same. Down, down woman, be discreet, be womanly. A group of “culturally” sound men might surround you, and energized by their righteousness, they might physically hurt you and slap you and fling you on the floor and kick you when you’re down. But O woman, be dignified !
Yes, and let us clarify this while we’re at it. These goons, attacking women in a public place were not really protesting “western” influences, they were protesting against women practicing those same “immoral” practices that men can freely practice in many places – from an ordinary small-town toddy shop to an expensive 5-star bar. Men do it, it’s OK and doesn’t outrage their morality. Women do it, and they need to be shown their place.
Much has been made of the “pub” culture. Pubs get the seal of disapproval from Indian Ministers, and such like, but it’s not the pubs that are the problem – it’s the people. Take the pubs away, take the bar girls away, stop young people from romancing in public places, stop them drinking and dancing – will all the vices end, you think ?
And, really in this land of “high” culture, of those who are SO morally sound, what culture is it when a group of men can beat up a few women ? And other men can watch without intervening ? High rating on the culture scale, what ?
But the question here is really not of the “pub” culture, and any other culture that has supposedly swept in from the “immoral” west (we don’t need the west for immorality – we have lot’s of our own) . It is a question of rights and freedom – my right to walk down a street, walk into a bar, and drink or eat to my heart’s content. It is a question of my right to go into a shop and buy cards celebrating love. It is a question of my walking in a public garden, or the beach alone, or with a person/persons of my choice, without getting threatened with mental or bodily harm. More importantly it is my right to do as I please, as long as I do not infringe other’s rights, without worrying about facing the repercussions of offending someone else’s sense of morality or propriety.
There are many who would argue with me about the place of women in a bar. Yes, you may not like it, but if you don’t like it, you don’t go. You do not stop others from going just because you think it is wrong. And here is the real danger – today it is a bar, tomorrow it could be a school, and the day after it could be my place of work. An year from now, they might want me in purdah, because according to them it might be immoral for a woman to expose her face or her eyes or her arms to the sun.
