Saturday, January 31, 2009

The Epicenter

We live in a region of Epicenters. Pakistan has now officially become the epicenter of terrorism. Afghanistan has firmly established itself as the epicenter of Tyranny and oppression. And while China and Japan are well on their way to becoming the epicenter of trade and technological innovation respectively, India is earning the dubious distinction of becoming the epicenter of Hypocrisy.

A few days back some ‘custodians of Indian culture’ were struck by a sudden fit of moral responsibility and members of an outfit called ‘Sri Ram Sene’ raided a pub in Mangalore attacking and assaulting its guests for apparently violating and desecrating the sanctity of ‘traditional Indian values’. The guests, especially women, were publicly humiliated, manhandled and allegedly molested and all this was caught on camera. As always, numerous political parties issued statements condemning the incident but unusually, there were more than a handful of big shots from the corridors of Power who in a sense condoned this atrocious act by placing the blame squarely on the ‘pub culture’, holding it responsible for ruining our society. It is extremely disconcerting to see people in positions of power endorse such senseless views and make such irresponsible statements, for such statements not only create social unrest but also act as impediments to development and modernization. Now before you jump on to the bandwagon of “the pub culture is not a measure of a country’s modernization”, please allow me to explain. Neither wireless internet nor Tequila nor trance is a measure of a society’s sophistication. The most accurate measure of a society’s development and modern outlook is the level of education prevalent in it. And the ultimate objective of education, as Lincoln once said is not, knowledge or wisdom, but tolerance. And, anyone who is incapable of being tolerant to ideas and ideologies that are alien or even unacceptable to him, incapable of acknowledging, accepting and appreciating another man’s point of view is uneducated irrespective of whether he is literate or not.

But the point in question here is why do I call India the epicenter of Hypocrisy? As I understand it, the prime concern of the extremists in our country is that the ‘pub culture’ is fostering promiscuity. That being the case, if these ‘embodiments of purity’ have such a problem with dance and discotheques how is it that they seem to have no problem whatsoever with sex and sleaze in bollywood. Surely, it must have some role to play!!! Afterall, more often than not, it is bollywood numbers that these people are dancing to. Well, the answer to that question is fairly simple. You can barge into any pub drag any random person out and do as you please under the pretext of morality and walk away scot-free after ofcourse some ‘rigorous investigation’. You, cant however, do the same to a Katrina Kaif or a Mallika Sherawat or anyone who belongs to the film fraternity simply because these people are not only wealthy, but are also well connected and if you tried the same with them, you might not get to see the light of the next day!! So, it is not so much an issue of morality as it is an issue of politics. And what adds fuel to the fire is the fact that all this is done either in the name of culture or religion or both since more often than not the two are intertwined. If there is anything that our culture teaches us, it is to be peaceful, tolerant and to live and let live. Apparently, our moral custodians have conveniently become oblivious to that. Ideally, the ones culpable for this outrageous act must be incarcerated and taught a lesson but it will come as no surprise to me if they are let off easily and come back again to strike another pub somewhere else in the country.

4 comments:

  1. remember elections are around the corner and like all politcal wars and battles women are the victims, the horrible side effect of conflict, during any war women are raped, nowadays before every election women are assaulted. its a tricky issue, no one has the rights to define what is moral or amoral but tahts what happens in chauvanistic cultures

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  2. I think the society as such is laced with hypocrisy, and as for the political class, they aren't as hypocritical as they are opportunistic. The Mangalore episode, as Ramya pointed out, was done with the upcoming elections in mind. Its not that the moral brigade tolerates creative liberty, its just that they create a ruckus, only when it helps them politically. For example, you don't stand to gain politically, if you make a big deal of skimpy clothes on screen. Reason being, this has been going on in Bollywood for quite some time (Helen, Dimple and many others) and people don't have a problem with it. The characterization of today's heroines mirrors that of yesteryear's courtesans, whose erotic sculptures we see in a lot of ancient palaces, and even some temples. This is the hypocrisy of the Indian society, and this is nothing new to us. We like our courtesans and heroines to look and dance in a way that turns us on, but the common woman isn't (wasn't) given the freedom to dress as she likes(d). So, thats the reason why our moral brigade doesn't waste its energy fighting 'normal' films with 'normal' characterization of women. However, Deepa Mehta's Water, another film Girlfriend and even Dostana were treated to the usual protests, slogan chanting & effigie-burning rituals, and this was done in the pretext of protecting our culture from homosexuality and other such "bad western influences" - something which possibly helps you score with the masses.

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  3. A group of friends and I were discussing the various Senas and their impact on "modern day India". I was saying that I have decided to stay indoors this Valentine's Day given the havoc certain Senas are known to create in Mumbai every Feb 14th. A friend of mine who works for a popular mobile services company said that they had decided not to go ahead with a special promotional package for Valentine's Day in Mumbai alone as they fear that "activists" would force them to bring down their shutters on seeing their various "Couple's special" offers. Only after hearing this did I realise that "Sanskar redemption activities" do have a not-so-small impact on businesses unrelated to pubs as well

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  4. indian culture is to pull women out in public and harass them and use violence... din u kno?

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