In Jharkand, saffronists have hit upon a new way of ‘encouraging’ marriage: shotgun (or, in this case, lathi stick) weddings. But raksha bandhan is months away:
Hindu right-wing activists in Jharkhand claimed to have married off five romancing couples on Valentine’s Day Tuesday, saying they were celebrating the day even though it was against Indian culture… At the rock garden, three couples were spotted. Two of them were made to move around a banyan tree and take an oath of marriage – in a symbolic wedding…Activists of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) even forced a couple to tie the symbolic brother-sister thread of rakhi when they refused to get married. [Link]
<
p style=”margin-right: 0px”>Some students were flippant about it:
The move is now being welcomed by courting couples, who are thanking the moral police for adding velocity to Cupid’s arrows. “It is indeed good news. We must thank them for being concerned about our marriages,” said Ruchika, a student of a management institute in this Jharkhand capital. “My parents will finally come to know about my love.”
Priya, an engineering student, echoed similar sentiments, saying: “I hope they stick to their word and ensure my marriage with my boyfriend…” [Link]
<
p style=”margin-right: 0px”>But the saffronists couldn’t even stay consistent:
… even Saamna, the [Shiv] Sena’s mouthpiece, could not resist cashing in on the spirit of love by publishing an article on possible gifts to buy your beloved today. [Link]
<
p>In Delhi and Srinagar, more political theater, yawn. Funny how the saffronists are a mirror image of Muslim fundamentalists:
About 50 Hindu activists wearing holy saffron-coloured scarves held a noisy protest in a popular market near the Delhi University campus… They burnt greeting cards which they were carrying and shouted “Down with Valentine’s Day”. [Link]About two dozen women separatists, veiled in black from head to toe, rummaged shops and burnt Valentine’s Day cards in Srinagar, Kashmir’s summer capital… “Valentine’s Day spreads immorality among the youth,” Asiya Andrabi of the Dukhtaran-e-Milat (Daughters of the Muslim Faith), a group of women separatists, said in a statement. [Link]
<
p>In Palika Bazaar, Jai Arjun Singh wonders what it would be like to prowl for porn. It’s for his ‘phrend’ only:
The owner is unsuitably avuncular, he wears thick glasses, has a warm, open smile and this starts to feel awkward, like buying condoms from the friendly neighborhood chemist you’ve known since you were a child. But then he opens his mouth to speak. “You want combination, single, Asian, schoolgirl, kitty aunties, frontside, backside, oral, multiple? All varieties available. Full one-and-a-half hour. Rs 150 only.” [Link via Escaping Flatland]
In large Indian cities, Barista serves up more than just coffee:
While growing up in India, it was difficult for a couple to get together (even in Mumbai – friends have been harassed in Bandra Beach and Chowpatty) in a place one’s parents did not know of. In Delhi, Archie’s and Nirula’s filled this gap for the middle class. In recent times, Barista and Café Coffee Day serve this purpose. For those from the lower middle class, who can’t afford Rs 50 cups of coffee, a public park is a more convenient spot. [Link]
<
p>In the U.S., Tushar Singh makes confession:
Yes, uncles and aunties… those “good kids” like yours who swear to Vishnu they don’t have sex, they are dry-humping, which is… the same thing with carpet burn. [Link]
thankeeeee! ;)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
After all the trouble I went through to clean the post-Nina mess with the juice, Ennis had to make me splutter my lunch too. :-p
After all the trouble I went through to clean the post-Nina mess with the juice, Ennis had to make me splutter my lunch too. :-p
can’t keep anything down, can ya? 😉
and a couple you wont read about in bolly-mags
Do Thackeray’s thugs realise that their dear leader bears an Anglicised family name and not the original Thakre?
“Thackeray’s thugs” as you call them, are mostly hardcore son-of the soil type maharashtrians, who rarely use English for anything. I bet they have not seen his name written in any other way than in Devanagari script. The ones who are proficient in english , could care less about how his name is spelled.
dhaavak, neat link. love comes to all.
Tell the “saffronists”, whoever they are, that the founders of the RSS were VERY OPENLY GAY. See how they react. I bet that the ones who do not react aren’t the ones involved in such idiocies.
A word about Valentine’s Day in India – Bihar is quite civilized when compared to Delhi, ATLEAST on this one day. In Delhi, NO woman below, say, 40 years of age is safe on the streets on Feb. 14 – men wait to feel them up all over the streets, and even assault them as and when they get the chance. I have been trying to get NGOs to notice this, but NO ONE – NO ONE tries to do anything against it – not the “saffronists”, and not the “liberals”.
Once again: BUH??
Really, I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a citation when one reads a statement like that…
If the RSS-types really were gay then it would certainly explain a lot. Although the current behaviour may also be more to do with “control” — power over Indian “culture”, power over the younger generation, (especially) power over women, and so on.
Also, unless there are specific verses, tenets or injunctions within Hindu scriptures which denounce “love marriages” and indeed the concept of pre-marital romance in general, then I fail to see how the saffronists can claim any religious justification for their actions.
Of course, they can possibly say that this is a nationalistic “cultural” issue rather than a religious one, but — bearing in mind the apparently more liberal attitude to romantic matters in pre-Islamic India, as detailed on another thread — the excessive conservatism in these issues is due to the influx of external cultural and religious influences over the past 1000 years. The saffronists should consider that their mindset is actually more in line with some interpretations of orthodox Islam, as indicated by the support for their actions amongst some Indian Islamic groups and the fact that, as far as I know, the only other locations in the world where Valentine’s Day etc is rigorously stamped on are countries like Saudi Arabia and other conservative Islamic nations.
Apart from some obvious neuroses in sexual/romantic matters, I’m sensing a little religious confusion here too.
As usual, there is lot of fuckin non-contextual blather on this blog. More than half the posts are not even relevant. Opposition to V-Day comes in many diff. flavors – not just the fundie variety – even though they shout the loudest. V-Day in India has become an excuse for men to play loose with women (sort of like on indian festival holi). Nobody even who was this St. Valentine or even have any context of why this hallmark holiday is celebrated in the first place. For college kids its just a day where they can “maaro or chance” (in abcd lingo = if they can score).
They are “rational” people who silently loathe this holiday for the bland aping of western culture. Some progressives in India also don’t particularly care for it because assaults on women in cities like Delhi go up on this day. They also hate the fact that it is used by businesses to promote western style consumerism (just like beauty pagents do in most third world). Its like many people in India don’t like the fact that now you are supposed to celebrate Christmas – which for most people in India means the same as V-Day – get drunk and see if you can “maaro a chance.” So 2nd-gen american friends, please read before you write. The analysis by folks on this site is way…..sophomoric!!
Some light on related subject mentioned above:
Vajpayee and Advani are not from ABVP. BJP itself came into being around 1980 (although most of its followers were part of Jan Sangh – its earlier avatar). ABVP was created shortly after BJP as its students wings. And although there are many hindu fundamentalists in the party – that is not its only component. They have been getting around 25% to 30% vote nationally, that would mean millions of people voting for them are either themselves fundamentalists or they are opently supporting a 100% fundamentalist outfit – which is obviously hogwash. Its like saying that the Republican party in the US is Christian fundamentalist because many practicing Christians vote for them or the fact that Christian Coalition is a major campaign supporter. BJP is just a right wing party which gets lot of support from Hindu right just as Congress and Communist parties get their support from Muslims. Its called politics my friends.
Been reading this blog off and on for the past so many months and wanted to post alot of thoughts regarding women, sex, sexual harrassment, sexual repression, etc, when those topics popped up here, which they did quite often, but never got around to it. I guess now is as good a time as any. My own experience in India reflects, more or less, the attitude expressed in this write-up on the topic of SEX over at Banglapedia here http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/S_0225.htm
Although Bangladesh is not India, it used to be, and I found the same attitudes prevelant not only in the Indian state of West Bengal, but also across India. I’m not saying that everyone carries these attitudes, or even the majority. I would have no way of verifying that. All I can say with confidence is that I came across such attitudes everywhere, from east to west and north to south, in India.
My personal perspective is that such type of attitudes are the root cause of Valentines Day protests, couples getting harrassed by cops in parks (as blogged about earier on SM), the sexual harrassement of Indian women and female tourists to the country and a whole slew of other unsavory events.
What can be done?
Are there any solutions?