India’s Schizophrenic Muddles, Goons, Conservatism and Progress

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An important debate brewing in the Indian circles these days, especially in the media, is that of the recent “moral policing” attacks by fundamentalist Hindus on Indian youth in Mangalore. The incident is not unlike other atrocious activities aired with scary regularity on Indian television, although the media nexus in the incident was apparent from the start, and therefore, the incident got the fundamentalists in question a lot of attention. While essentially a deplorable attack, it has been hyped and blown out of proportion (as is nearly everything in the under-regulated, unscrupulous Indian TV media these days). I have made a few observations from the reports and the sundry articles that have been flying around and decided I should summarize the set of generalizations, misconceptions and misinformation that the media are propagating and getting away with, while finding odd allies and using  half-truths to their advantage at the same time.

• The assumption that the Sri Ram Sene are a terrorist group. To me, they look like a bunch of oppressed, jobless people who have taken up a cause because of the lopsided economic injustice prevalent in Indian society. Indian society, unlike American society has become economically developed in a non-uniform fashion and the economic upper classes in both India and the USA have adopted lifestyles that are essentially materialistic. In an older India, there was probably an enlightened voice of moderation that was based on a unity born out of the secularism apparent in the freedom struggle. In modern India, as in modern America, the “voice of moderation” ironically comes from those who are well off, and the actual activity of adjusting to this new social order seems to be left to the less economically privileged (who also stand up to fight for what they think is their culture, because of the intellectual and financial poverty they otherwise have to face). And what do the upwardly mobile youth give about their concern? Scorn and blatant disregard for their culture’s well-being, not solutions.
• The assumption that such groups are moral police. Although the Sri Rama Sene claim to be, the educated classes should know better – I am surprised that they were taken for moral police by so many educated people. It is probably true that Indians are among the communities least educated about their own culture and religion and this probably applies more to Hindus than other communities. If Hindus as a whole had a homogenous, apolitical, formal voice in a regulatory authority, such as a religious head, that helped decide right and wrong, such groups would never come to the fore, and such barbarism would be seen as exactly that – barbarism, and not moral policing. The proliferation of fundamentalism in Islamic society is because of the prevalence of mullahs – regional religious heads who wield power. This in turn has encouraged a culture of terrorists and warlords supported by fundamentalists. I hope Hindus never see the day that their religion is hijacked by war profiteers against them and against other communities.
• The absolute and complete lack of a thorough investigation into the actual assault. The media got there before the police and hyped the incident and splattered images of girls being assaulted all over the TV screens. This proves nothing other than that they had a camera and were opportunistic. Pedestrian reporting prevented the actual investigative aspects of the attack to never come through in the media. If stories are all about TRP and if interviews with controversial figures are all that reporting is about, the TV channels have won and the citizen has patently lost.
• The assumption that the women (and men) attacked were completely representative of all urban youth. While there are many Indian youth that have taken to western lifestyles (behaviour and trends to a lesser extent, preferences in terms of food, drink and dress to a greater extent), rarely did the media showcase the ordinary youth who didn’t belong to the economic upper classes (who are synonymous with those drawn to western lifestyles). The media have largely taken a left-liberal “free-for-all” attitude, which is unsuitable and biased towards moderated, enlightened public dialogue.
• Indian culture has always hampered and curtailed the personal freedom of women. The same women who claim this, speak of the fundamentalists’ misinterpretation of Indian culture, as if their own narrow view of “Indian culture” as merely the Kamasutra or Khajuraho sculptures were correct. The reality is that Indian culture was somewhere in between, in the constant dialogue between the liberal and the conservative, not only in the sense that women had the same freedoms as men did, but also that they had unique responsibilities as role-players (just as men were). Indian culture not only has its Vatsyayanas and its Kamasutras, but also its Sitas, Mandodaris, Satis and its Savitris, to borrow cliches. It cannot be said that none of the women represented in our culture or literature were not exploited (people famously make the case of Sita’s exploitation by Rama in later iterations of the Ramayana) but it has to be remembered that our culture also defined patently well the roles of men and women and the fact that there is virtue in moderation. There is dignity in moderation, and overtly drunk, loose women don’t (to me, at least) present a picture of dignity. (so the argument continues…)
• The pub-goers have done absolutely no wrong. Pending investigation, it cannot be said that the pub-goers who were attacked by the Sri Ram Sene were within the limits of civil behaviour. It cannot be claimed that the pub in question was free of illicit activity. The media has certainly hesitated to call a spade a spade. I smell a rat when I realize that the media’s complicity in obtaining the story, elevated a bunch of small time rogues to the protectors of Hindu society. I get even more distressed and concerned that pubs in some cases have become drug and porn hubs, that they lure minors and adolescents into the web of sexual and drug abuse. That the pub-goers would possibly not have indulged in any wrongdoing is like defending a strumpet’s right to not be sexually abused – which is extremely difficult in practice and sometimes self-defeating, if not impossible, because of the realities of that profession.
• Pubs are healthy for society and for our culture. It is well known that pubs and other places that serve liquor are breeding grounds of crime and encourage addiction and excessive fetishes and excessive materialism and sometimes violence. That said, not all pub-goers are criminals. While many prevalent cultures and religions don’t permit excessive indulgence in intoxication, sex and violence, these are boundaries that have been crossed regularly and often to detriment. In the same vein, the myriad arrack shops that have provided a detrimental addiction to so many rural folk should also be similarly dealt with. The media has disproportionately interviewed newfangled pub-goers who seem at ease with pub culture as if to indicate that all youth feel the same way, and this is of course, patently untrue.
• Pink Panties will make the Sri Ram Sene quake in their… erm… boots. A foregone conclusion I made is that this flower-power-ish pink panther panty move, is really going to make no difference to the agenda of the Sri Ram Sene. One can’t solve the problem of adopted, hypersensitive prudishness  (unfortunately supported by a million other conservatives) as is the case of the Sri Ram Sene, by openly proclaiming looseness, sexual promiscuity and intoxication. No dignified young person will really want to uphold loose, promiscuous “socially forward” women (or men) as his own and only in the most vile and materialistic of cultures is this really permissible. By adopting such a viewpoint, that all pub goers are loose and promiscuous, they only serve to defeat their stand that pub-goers are a healthy, affliction-free lot. Looseness and excessive sexual promiscuity were only cool in the 1960s in the United States. Other countries seem to have found more intelligent ways of self-assertion, but since we seem intent on jumping on Uncle Sam’s bandwagon for everything including expressing love, this seems to be the youth movement that’s making the news. The hypocrisy of our (loose, socially-forward)  youth startles one because they use the Kamasutra as defence against moral policing, but have to take to St. Valentine to express their love for their significant other(s)! No other day and no other style is suitable to our astute aficionados of Western culture. Is this not akin being ill-informed about one’s own culture? In what way can this be deemed progressive?
• Socially forward people are horny and loose. Socially forward people are smart, intelligent, amicable people that need not be horny or loose. It is perfectly possible that someone horny and loose is socially forward, but is certainly more possible that the reverse is not true.
• The Sri Ram Sene can do the sort of things they did because the BJP is in power. It is perfectly possible that a toothless and inept government with lax internal security (like Yeddiyurapa’s) can be manifested by the Congress. What does one say about the Maharashtra Navnirman Sabha and their atrocities in the Congress-run Maharashtra government? The bottom line is that entities like the Sri Ram Sene are fringe elements goaded on by any inequity and conservatism left in the Hindus. When your life is under attack from Islamic extremists and your institutions and culture are under attack from people who want to convert you to another religion or impose their commercial will on you, the sections of the oppressed Hindus directly affected by these conflicts will stand up for themselves with what they think is right. Especially in the face of corrupt politicians and inept police, they will continue to be effective and scare the living daylights out of the liberals, the moderates, the pseudosecularists and pretty much everyone else but the hardliners. The Sri Ram Sene is an unfortunate symptom of the fact that Indian culture is fragmented and needs redefinition and homogenization by the removing of social evils like caste and class inequality to find solidarity from within. While our political, religious and cultural leaders sleep in their pseudosecular chambers while the corrupt police collect their daily bribes, the hardliners will naturally prosper and gain public footing. There’s no reason other than frustration with pseudosecular politicians that the public have, for actually supporting a bunch of thugs.
• The Sri Rama Sene should not be banned. Pramod Muthalik is arrested and goes scot free in a few days, and the Sri Rama Sene is back in action. Justice never seems to get its run. Why not ban a bunch of goons while we still can?

In conclusion, the viewpoint I seem to have come to, is that moderation with a measure of dignity to our culture, while exhibiting a healthy rational outlook, while not blindly aping the west, seems to be the solution to most youngsters. The governments in India culpable on many counts, primarily on the law-and-order front, and should also work to reduce economic and cultural inequality between different groups. The Sri Rama Sene, to me, is the symptom of a multitude of problems and not the very problem itself. Unless these problems are resolved quickly, I see no end to the schizophrenic clash between progress, false modernity, social evils, fundamentalism moderation and conservatism.

Update (11th Feb ‘09): Son of Bosey put up a hilarious post on the aforementioned goon.

Update (13th Feb ‘09): Pink Chaddis, Self Defence and Political Correctness.

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Tags: Culture, Fundamentalism, Hinduism, india, Law, Morality, Muthalik, Religion, Saffronization, Society