THE OTHER HALF
Speaking out
KALPANA SHARMA
|
Education and economic independence are enabling a generation of young women to lay claim to the public space in ways that were impossible even 10 years back.
|
Once you cede space to those who want to impose their own standards on everyone, you relinquish your rights as a citizen of a free country.
Photo: K. R. Deepak
Generational change: New-found freedom.
Two days before February 14, in Rajnandgaon in Chhatisgarh, a group of young girls and boys met for a dinner at a local restaurant, one of only two in this non-descript small town. The restaurant served the ubiquitous selection of “Punjabi/Chin
ese”. On the lawn behind the restaurant, a party was in full swing with loud Bollywood music blaring out.
Ten years ago, would we have seen boys and girls meeting like this in a town with just over one lakh people? Unlikely. Some of the girls wore western clothes, one wore a salwar kamiz. I asked my host whether this gang of boys and girls were from outside Rajnandgaon, a place with several educational institutions in and around it. He said it was a possibility but they could also be local girls and boys. The presence of the lively group went virtually unnoticed by others in the restaurant. It seemed as if such meetings were commonplace.
Winds of change
In many ways, that group of young people represents the changes taking place in several parts of India, where education and economic mobility are allowing young women to lay claim to the public space as they never could before. They can be seen riding bicycles to high school and scooters to college and work and meeting in mixed groups without fear of being attacked or rebuked. Their mothers would never have dared do this, even if they had wanted to. Perhaps these girls will go on to earn degrees and then get married to the men their parents choose for them. Perhaps some of them will decide to move out of the small town and seek work elsewhere. Perhaps a handful will even be bold enough to decide whom they want to marry. None of this is beyond the realm of possibility.
This is a generational change that the loony fringe who train their guns on hapless couples on Valentine’s Day fail to understand or do not even wish to think about. It has nothing to do with the imposition of another culture. It has to do with education, opportunity and urbanisation.
This year, February 14 came and went with the predictable reports of some shops being attacked, random couples being humiliated and demonstrations about “decency” and “culture”. The awful case of the brother and sister being beaten up in Ujjain because the Bajrang Dal gang thought they were a romantic couple was a particularly distressing incident as also several other cases where couples had their faces blackened and one in which the boy was “married” to a donkey. Yet, compared to previous years, this time some State governments did act and the preventive arrests of likely trouble-makers managed to dampen the enthusiasm of the “morality brigade”.
Calling the bluff
But this year was different for another reason. In the bigger cities, for the first time, people decided to fight back. As one television channel dubbed them, the “Love Sena” also came out with assertions of why they had a right to express themselves as they wished in a free country. For instance, students of Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Indian Institute of Mass Communication and the Jawaharlal Nehru University took out a march in the Delhi University campus and then went on to perform street plays in Kamla Nagar market, an area where the Sangh Parivar’s activists had attacked shops selling Valentine’s Day cards in previous years. “Love is not a crime. So why fear the Sanghi terrorists?” they shouted.
Others chose more novel and humorous ways of dealing with the different Senas by campaigns like the “Pink Chaddi campaign”, launched by a group that calls itself the Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women. Hundreds of pink women’s underwear were delivered to those wanting to impose their idea of morality on the country. It was an inventive campaign even if it appealed to a select section of people. The significance of such a campaign was not its precise nature but the attitude of its creators who clearly believed that the humourless moral brigade should be treated with the scorn they deserve.
This has been an important shift. It represents a confidence and a willingness to speak out and be heard that was not evident in earlier years. It suggests that at least some people have understood that the best way to deal with petty bullies is to call their bluff.
Spheres of control
Unfortunately, this type of even limited mobilisation against the “morality senas” is limited to the bigger towns and cities. As was evident from the incident in Ujjain, individuals in such places have to bear the brunt of the saffron bullies. It was fortuitous that a television crew saw what was happening and was able to record it. As a result the story was told. However, even such exposure by the media is a double-edged sword. As members of the Sri Ram Sene in Mangalore openly boasted, the television footage actually helped their cause. It publicised their existence. And it injected fear in the minds of those who had rightly believed that as long as they were not underage, they were not committing a crime if they went to a pub or hung out with men friends in a restaurant. On the other hand, the free publicity given by television also enraged one section of the public that decided to protest.
The singular lesson February 14 holds out is the importance of speaking out even on issues that might appear fairly minor. Once you cede space to those who want to impose their own standards on everyone, you relinquish your rights as a citizen of a free country.
Email the writer: sharma.kalpana@yahoo.com
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Magazine
