Don’t believe uncles and aunties when they say that nobody celebrates Valentines Day in India. Not only is romance a bloomin’, but it has some help from unlikely quarters.
First, Shiv Sena is (again) offering to come to the assistance of lurv: 
… hardline Hindu groups have threatened to marry off young couples meeting in public places like parks and restaurants Feb 14. [Link]They will not manhandle or threaten the Valentines, or vandalise the greeting card shops tomorrow. “The lovers have mistaken Shiv Sainiks to be the heart-breakers. We permanently unite the hearts….” says Shiv Sena District President Gulshan Kumar.
If there is any opposition for the marriage of lovers from their family, Shiv Sainiks stand by them. But the couples should belong to Hindu religion. [Link]
The loophole in this plan is obvious though, leave your ID at home and voila! An entire town of Mary Joshuas and Jacob Abrahams out on dates! [Yes, I know the threatening to forcibly marry couples isn’t new – they did it last year as well]
This being India, mobilization is met with an apposite counter:
… two women’s groups, belonging to the Sawarna Samaj Party (SSP) and the Rashtriya Secular Manch (RSM), have decided to take on those threatening to oppose Valentine’s Day … the RSM has decided to form baton-wielding groups of women to dissuade Bajrang Dal activists from disturbing lovers Wednesday on the Valentine’s Day. These women’s wings have declared to provide the necessary security to citizens if the state government fails to do so. [Link]
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I’m sure they will get a lot of calls for their service too — “Quickly! Send 4 or 5 women to the park by the IIT men’s hostel! There are couples being oppressed by the RSS Shiv Sena!” Who knew that crying wolf was a great way to meet women?
It’s not just politicos though, even commerce is getting into the act. I had thought that Bangalore was a cold hearted city, named after boiled beans, with only 0s and 1s running through its veins, but I was wrong:
Indian firms have exported a record 100 million stems of roses this year … Bangalore’s unique climate — cool Decembers with mild sunshine — earned for it a reputation in red roses that South of France has for fine wine.. [Link]
And Indian firms are even trying to get into the US market, via Africa:
However, the big market — US — was beyond grasp. Great distance, high freight cost, and mean taxes kept it out of India’s range. The heights of Ecuador and Columbia had the run of the American market.Several firms, including Karuturi Networks, have been acquiring and growing in Ethiopia and Kenya, countries which have a good floriculture legacy, in addition to enjoying tax holidays for exports to Europe and US. In the next few weeks, likely acquisitions in Kenya and US will make Karuturi, whose flowers are already available in Safeway and Wal-Mart, the world’s largest rose grower. [Link]
With UK cabinet ministers publically encouraging Brits to buy their roses from Kenya, I’m sure more Indians are going to love Valentines Day, or at least the sound of the cash register that accompanies it. I have faith that the forces of commerce will gradually overcome the reactionaries … what’s not to love about the almighty dollar?
Previous posts: Hindus and Muslims find common ground, The state of union
“The lovers have mistaken Shiv Sainiks to be the heart-breakers. We permanently unite the heartsÂ…” Scary how these people speak with forked tongues. The words say ‘we are here to help’ but between the lines the threat is ‘we’ll break your legs’. This is what india has come to …
holy crap – this is great if you really want to get married but are scared of your parents – now you have the government on your side! ha ha.
Well, not the state, but a mob of activists, yes. And if you don’t want to get married, you have women with lathis and the non-Hindu loophole on your side. Either way, it’ll mean more sales of Bangalore roses for sure.
Bangalore has always been famous for flowers. Nothing new, except that perhaps now they export a lot more.
The Shiv Sena’s anti-Valentine’s Day moral police tactics have spread, sadly, not only are they more active in Madhya Pradesh these days but even in good old atheist-Dravidian Tamil Nadu there’s a copycat moral police brigade. Just goes to show it’s not about religious-secular so much as plain old meanspirited bullies.
Whats so Hindu about getting married in a park on Valentines Day?
Check this out – as usual, our Sainik bhais have more in common with Saudi fundies than anything else – the mutawwa’ are going to be out in force to stop celebration of this dissolute Western custom (and yes, sales of red roses are through the roof).
For being such a senti and damn romantic-head-in-the-clouds movie nation (this includes Bollywood, Tamil, Telegu, etc, etc), I find it somewhat ironic that Valentine’s isnt celebrated with just a little more gusto in India. Then again I find the holiday somewhat sickening here in the States too…but India is following suit with having the day dominated under the green thumb of florists.
If itÂ’s one completely unnecessary festival Indians have to import, why canÂ’t it be Halloween? Dark night, dogs howling in distance, eeveel costumes. Oh the romance. Better selection of candy too.
Right wing communal extremism at its sophisticated best. Wonder if they would host me a dinner after getting me remarried in case I went with someone who was my wife…
Oh man, this is rich. Cheers to the aunties with lathis. Fight the good fight. A momentary loss of testosterone, but it’s all really cute. Okay, testosterone back. Now to go rip out some chest hair…
Would have loved the sight of some baton-wielding ladies having a go at those Shiv Sainiks. I honestly would never dare touch any of them (pussy me), but they are secure in their womanhood.
Funny, the things we have to leave to the ladies now.
This is a pretty awesome example of female empowerment though. An excellent blow for the Millenium Development Goals!
Actually, this is pretty funny. Aunties with lathis fending off Shiv Sena monkeys. I am tempted to go back to Bombay next year and sit in a park with my wife, so I can watch some of the fun. I wonder if the Aunties will drive away the hijras while they are in guard.
IÂ’d like to cheer these people for taking on the saffron clowns, but the cynic in me smells realpolitik. NSUI and NCP are Kangressi people. DonÂ’t know about RSM. And Sawarna Samaj Party? If IÂ’m not mistaken, Sawarna means upper caste.
This just proves Shiv Sena knows jack sh!t about Indian culture. Everybody know you do not mess withaunties with lahtis!
Surprise!
Another post by Ennis in which he unfairly rags on defenders of Hinduvta.
Sawarna means upper caste.
No.
Sawarna = Improvement.
Shiv Sena has to keep themselves viable. Right now, they have huge crisis since party top brass is split, even the party.
For the sad angle to this record business, check this out. It’s ironical that the title of this SM post fits the rediff article too. 🙁
They should use the Sena as a plot device to “wrap up” failing crappy romantic comedy series. If you need to resolve some on again/off again nonsense that the TV viewing public has lost interest in, just send the unwitting couple to be to Mumbai on some work related pretext. Some felonious looking sainik with handlebar moustache jumps out from an alley, shouts “No luv marriage for you !” and knocks their heads together. True love blooms as they start over again, previous wrongs forgotten in a haze of concussive amnesia. Deus ex machina….
Maybe this is OT, but I’m curious Al Mujahid: how do you define hindutva? I mean for yourself, not literally 🙂
Savarna does mean upper caste, more specifically it refers to the twice-born castes. I suppose this group formed in oppostion to the Bahujan Samaj & other similar parties.
NCP is a breakaway from the Congress and has basically tried to outdo the Sena in cultural/moral policing in Bombay (many former Sena leaders joined it). NSUI is the Congress-affiliated student group. Shame on them for adopting Bajrang Dal tactics.
Louiecypher – LOL!
Wait, actually that’s not right – Savarna = caste hindus, as opposed to those outside the caste system, i.e. untouchable. I think it’s generally used in the same sense as upper caste though.
nah – i dont think the party is facing any crisis. if by the split you are referring to the navnirman sena, then it has had little affect on the sena. and also considering ss just swept the polls along with BJP…
the ss has some extreme views – such as their stance on valentine’s day (pretty silly really)… but in the mean time the party couple with middle-ground hindutva activists (such as most of BJP) can do wonders for india.
although i am not a mumbaikar, i know enough to be certain that mumbai would not be the same if it not for the sena – their presence is a necessary one for mumbai
AMD, I apologize if I’m missing some sarcasm here, but… seriously?
What’s the ACLU’s position on forced marriage?
I think he was referring to this.
The Shiv Sena’s anti-Valentine’s Day moral police tactics have spread, sadly, not only are they more active in Madhya Pradesh these days but even in good old atheist-Dravidian Tamil Nadu there’s a copycat moral police brigade. Just goes to show it’s not about religious-secular so much as plain old meanspirited bullies.
DMK atheism is political posturing. In practice, many leaders are fervently Hindu, e.g. Karunanidhi, who just felicitated Sai Baba, though they preference non-Brahamana sants and sadhus.
The PMK is a Vaniyar caste party. Ramadoss, its leader, once agitated for a Vaniyar state a few years ago. They also agitated against Khushboo, a Tamil actress, who said pre-marital sex was OK. They viewed it as an assault on “Tamil culture.”
In truth, none of these outfits has made a dent in Valentine’s Day celebrations, which is even spreading to the hinterland.
Shiv Sena has to keep themselves viable. Right now, they have huge crisis since party top brass is split, even the party.
No. The Shiv Sena just won the Mumbai municpal elections in a landslide over Kangress et. al. I wonder why this little “show of stregnth” ? Silly…
d’oh 🙁
Kush, Sawarna is a user friendly term for upper caste in Maharashtra. Varna = skin tone / caste Varnabhed = casteism
MP was under Maratha rule long time ago so it’s always possible that their use of Sawarna is not all that innocent.
Of Valentine’s Day and child labour
The above is a link to a story in rediff about how childlabor is used to produce the flowers for valentine’s day in bangalore-tamil nadu border – a new platform for sainik anti-valentine advocacy perhaps..
Shodan,
Thanks.
I did not knew the Maharasthra context for Swarana. I googled and your are right, they cater to higher caste vote bank.
Maybe this is OT, but I’m curious Al Mujahid: how do you define hindutva? I mean for yourself, not literally 🙂
Hinduvta = Propagation of an extremist variety of Hindu nationalism.
AM, that’s what I thought. I was trying to figure out if you were being sarcastic.
Sena X, as a Maharashtrian Mumbaikar, I am intrigued. Could you eleborate?
Ennis paji, What is it? Did some Hindu lass or lad break your dil? Why the hatred, my brother?
What an asshole.
youareafineonetotalk,
people only come here to watch these clowns talk sex. no need to take these fools too seriously.
But still he comes here and soils himself over it. What a pair of assholes.
Boss, somethings being done by the Shiv Sena, why drag in the RSS ?
Outrage Final score: Wonkery 224/ Seks 74
lol…this is so true – a lot of people equate the two together when in fact the sena is a much more radical organization than rss even remotely is
simply put – they very well counter the other radical groups present in mumbai…
Guilty as charged. It must have been Freudian on my part … I’ve fixed it now.
Ah! the joys of civil war.
Re: Shiv Sena
In late 60’s labour unions were very strong in Mumbai. Congress created Sena to nullify unions. Of course the Frankenstein eventually bit its creator in the ass. They started as sons of soil movement and exploited the Maharashtrian insecurities about pardesis very well. Their vada pav initiatives didn’t do jack for poor Maharashtrians.
In 70’s Thakeray supported Indira Gandhi’s emergency. Probably the blackest period in post-independence Indian history.
For a long time, Indian left has given a free pass to Sena’s Muslim dopplegangers. Sena talks a good game for people disgusted by this, and nothing more. Hindutva reaped rich dividends for Sena, so now they’re playing that game.
In 90s Thakeray’s son used to own a dance bar called Drum Beat. Naach, gaana, sharab etc. I know of a few Thakeryaylings who study at Bombay Scottish School. So much for defending Hindu / Indian culture.
BTW, I haven’t miss-spelled the Tigger’s name. He fashioned his name after William Makepeace Thackeray.
Jain man, no trollery. Stay on topic, please.
Shiv Sena has done a lot of good and a lot of bad for mumbai, no different than any other Political/Religious/Media organization. They should focus on exporting the ‘raksha-bandhan’ day rather than banning valentines day, IMHO.
Unlike MP, in Bombay the Shiv Sena has promised to behave this year. Because they won, and election are synonymous with destroying others’ property.
Yes, but those who cannot tolerate the intrusion of the market tend to be reactive. They need to be proactive. A reactive response is often labeled as ‘regional chauvinism’. The challenge is to return smiles with even broader smiles.
Btw, Jessica Hagy has nice description of Valentine’s Day. He he he.
It is difficult to compete with the market. Look in your own family. Wearing a sari or a kurta needs ‘justification’ – isn’t it? The ‘norm’ seeps in gradually, when you are not looking. 🙂 But such alertness can only suffocate.
Tagore had an answer: ‘Whatever we understand and enjoy in human products instantly becomes ours, wherever they might have their origin.’
Our aesthetic and sense of beauty is hard to destroy. We recognize it instantly, and make it our own. And if you keep looking, there’s a lot of beauty in what we learn from our elders. Cultivate your eyes and ears; train you senses to catch the aesthetic.
Perhaps the answer is in entrepreneurship. In todayÂ’s world, it is not enough to hold your own with a cool demeanor. The entrepreneurial zeal of the market will not let you rest, and zeal has to be dealt with zeal. If you refuse to join in the bandwagon, the entrepreneur has to be locally responsive.
There’s a need to set up private local language schools all over Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Assam … A need to set up Yoga schools all over India. Let the consumer decide whether they want to do suryanamaskar or not. If the market wants, it’s all fine then. Because the market is ‘naturalÂ’.
Perhaps the answer is in entrepreneurship. In todayÂ’s world, it is not enough to hold your own with a cool demeanor. The entrepreneurial zeal of the market will not let you rest, and zeal has to be dealt with zeal.
I think zeal can be dealt with zeal only if there is a level playing field. The marketing machinery of large companies will bulldoze any local voice in any country. When a voice cannot compete faily in an unfair World they have to resort to other tactics (Doha talks come to mind).
Haha, this is whole things is a bit hilarious.. but let me get serious for a moment:
The Shiv Sena nutjobs have been good for Bombay?! Ok, let’s run through a bit of history shall we? In the 50s and 60s, inspired by Bal Thackeray, it was attacks against South Indian migrants and restaurants in areas like Matunga and Sion. Let’s ignore the fact that Bombay (not Mumbai!) has never been a Marathi city, but a cosmopolitan one. It’s raison d’etre is British/Portuguese and commercial in nature, and with Parsis, Jews, South Indians, Gujaratis and people from all over the subcontinent it’s success (such as it was..) has been one of ingenuity and entreprenurial bon vivance over communalism. So, now we’re in the 70s and 80s.. what to do.. I’ve got it, let’s attack the Muslims! They’re even more different than the South Indians and they’re the cause of all your problems, young Maharashtrian man who has just migrated to the city!
Ignoring their involvement with the mob, the sex trade and everything in between, this latest anti-modernism/anti-Western spin is simply a continuation of the idiocy of Shiv Sena, that also manifested itself in the renaming of Bombay to Mumbai. As a South Indian born in Bombay nothing gets me ticked off more than these idiots. I suggest the media and the public do what was done to the KKK in the 1940s: http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/07.02.98/comics-9826.html — Mock them! The Congress and other parties may be corrupt and may pander and scapegoat occassionally, but nothing like the vicious virulence of the Shiv Sena. I hope those women beat up the Sainiks 🙂
While amchi mumbai was a silly movement, you must have never been stuck in traffic on Mohammed Ali road when the roads are blocked during prayers. Maybe you were never woken by loudspeakers early in the morning.
While Congress appeased their vote-bank, Shiv Sena addressed the issue. Now let’s get back to the topic.