Pink Chaddis in the Wind

(Another corporate whorehouse newsletter article)

I’m guessing enough and more has been said about Mangalore’s infamous pub incident. I’m guessing that Pramod Muthalik’s name is by now synonymous with the oppression of modern trends and that the Ram Sene is famous for moral policing.

I’m also guessing that, as with many other cases of human rights violations in India, nothing’s going to be done about him or his merry men.

As I was launching on a discourse about the ‘pink chaddi campaign’, a friend of mine pointed out that such a campaign was never launched against the attackers of that poor nun at Kandhamal. And I had to admit, he did have a point. If I recall rightly though, a couple of candles were lit on the occasion.

You see, Indian history is awash with perpetrators of hate crimes being allowed to run amok, more so if they have political clout, as in the case of the Ram Sene. So don’t be surprised to hear of the numbers of women in Karnataka being attacked steadily rising.

It isn’t that young college-going girls should be encouraged to consume alcohol. Why encourage the Vijay Mallyas of the world, then, who aim to cater to the needs of the young? It wasn’t as though the girls in question were indulging in any unlawful activity; unless talking to a male counterpart counts. Hang on, in our country, I guess it does.

In any case, the girls we’re talking about here come from middle or upper class families and many of them also have parents in politics, as was the case with the Kerala MLA’s daughter, who was also assaulted in Mangalore for having spoken to a Muslim boy. They have protection enough back home if not the required support.

What then of the endless ordeals of the poorer woman?

She has to cater to every whim and fancy of her husband, is not allowed to have a will or mind of her own and is only allowed to seek employment when forced to by her good-for-nothing mate. Her daughters will either be murdered at birth or be forced into a life of slavery with education out of the question, unless she is lucky enough to be rescued by an NGO.

The sad part is that certain members of so-called women’s rights groups, too, seem to be all for moral policing. Culture, apparently, is to propagate the longstanding traditions of every Indian family to force the woman to bend to the will of her lord and master.

I used to look around at the considerable number of women employed and educated in these days and times and I used to think that finally progress had come to our country. After the incidents of the past year, however, I wonder when, if ever, things will ever change.