[Assam] (no subject)

[Chan Mahanta]

This from NY Times this morning:

Re: [Assam] Moral Guardian/ NYT Report Attack on Women at an Indian 
Bar Intensifies a Clash of Cultures


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/world/asia/09india.html

By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: February 8, 2009
NEW DELHI - A mob attack on women drinking in a college-town bar has 
set off the latest battle in the great Indian culture wars, uncorking 
a national debate over moral policing and its political 
repercussions, and laying bare the limits of freedom for young Indian 
women.

Members of the group Sri Ram Sena attacked customers at a bar in 
Mangalore, India, on Jan. 24.
The latest Old versus New India hubbub began one Saturday last month 
when an obscure Hindu organization, which calls itself Sri Ram Sena, 
or the Army of Ram, a Hindu god, attacked several women at a bar in 
the southern Indian college town of Mangalore and accused them of 
being un-Indian for being out drinking and dancing with men.
The Sena had television news crews in tow, so its attack on the women 
at the bar, called Amnesia - the Lounge, was swiftly broadcast 
nationwide.
The video, broadcast repeatedly since then, showed some women being 
pushed to the ground and others cowering and shielding their faces. 
It was unclear whether they were trying to protect themselves from 
their assailants' fists or the television cameras or both. None of 
them have come out publicly since then, and it is unclear whether 
anyone was seriously hurt.
Eventually, more than 10 members of the Sena were arrested, only to 
be released on bail in a week. Since then, they have promised to 
campaign against Valentine's Day, which they criticized as a foreign 
conspiracy to dilute Indian culture, and they said they did not 
disapprove of men drinking at bars.
The conflict surrounding so-called pub culture in India set off 
nearly two weeks of shouting matches on television talk shows and 
editorial pages. Politicians have also jumped into the fray.
At first, some lawmakers with the governing Congress Party seized on 
the Mangalore attack to denounce their political rival, the Bharatiya 
Janata Party, or B.J.P., for its loose affiliations with a variety of 
Hindu radical groups. But the B.J.P., which governs the state of 
Karnataka, where Mangalore is located, instantly condemned the 
violence. And soon enough, others allied with the governing 
coalition, while condemning violence, joined the finger-wagging.
One official denounced shopping malls, too, calling them havens of 
hand-holding. The health minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, promised a 
national alcohol law to curb drinking, without which, he told 
reporters, "India will not progress."
B. P. Singhal, a former member of Parliament who was with the B.J.P. 
and who has been making the rounds of television talk shows, rued 
that men acted irresponsibly in the company of women at bars. A Sena 
leader appeared on television to say his group was stepping in to 
enforce morality because the government had failed.
The women and child development minister, Renuka Chowdhury, has been 
one of the few politicians to openly criticize the Sena, calling its 
methods "Talibanization."
The debate comes as a new generation of Indian women steps out of the 
home for work or play in a rapidly expanding economy and finds itself 
having to negotiate old social boundaries, harassment and, sometimes, 
outright violence. New Delhi is among the most notorious for this; 
among big cities in India, it has logged the highest number of 
reported cases of rape and molestation for the last decade.
On a recent night at Cafe Morrison, a deafening rock 'n' roll bar, 
the national stir over pub culture inspired irritation, dismay and 
soul-searching.
"It's pathetic," said Kirat Rawel, 23, a college student who was 
spending the evening at the bar here in the capital with her younger 
sister, Nimrit, 21. "It is basically for the vote bank. It has 
nothing to do with culture."
The sisters said their parents, who live in a small town more than 
five hours from here by car, had no problem with their going to a bar 
and having a drink.
The sisters also know that even in New Delhi, one of India's most 
seemingly modern cities, they are not immune to attacks like the one 
in Mangalore and that they are surrounded by other Indians who, in 
their hearts, do not approve of young women who go out at night and 
drink in the company of strangers. They suspected that there was 
quiet approval among many Indians of the Sena mob that assaulted the 
women in Mangalore.
"Urban India may criticize it," Kirat Rawel said, "but there is a 
certain section of India that believes in it."
By 10 p.m., most of the women, who were a minority at Cafe Morrison 
anyway, had begun to clear out. The Rawel sisters, like many single 
women in this city, said they worried most about how to get home 
safely.
Sanah Galgotia, 21, nursed a beer and recalled this story: She had 
been walking home around midafternoon recently when a car full of men 
slowly followed behind. Furious, she turned around, shouted and 
banged on the car window, only to have the driver try to run her 
over. She escaped and ran home. When she got there and recounted her 
ordeal, her mother asked why she had pursued the aggressors.
To Ms. Galgotia, the episode demonstrated the "schizophrenic" 
attitude of Indian women - alternating between being assertive and 
subservient and then judging others for tilting one way or the other. 
She is guilty of it, too, she said. When she sees a woman who smokes 
in public, she sizes her up instantly.
"In India, no matter how modern you are, you're still in this 
schizophrenic nonmodern thing," she said, straining to be heard as 
the D.J. blasted Pearl Jam.
She looked around and wondered aloud whether she and her friends were 
simply "trying to ape the West." That set off an argument.
Her friend Murphy John, 21, shook his head. "I'm wearing a jacket, 
not a dhoti-kurta," he said, referring to the traditional Indian 
draped pantaloon and tunic, "because I like wearing a jacket. It's 
globalization."
"We are globalized in our lifestyle," Ms. Galgotia responded, "but 
very Indian at heart. I know I am."
Another friend at the table, Sandesh Moses, 22, said he thought the 
Sena had probably accomplished its goal.
"They don't want women to go out," he said. "I can guarantee a lot of 
people will be supporting them."















At 7:29 PM -0600 2/8/09, kamal deka wrote:
>The choir boys of an organization called Shri Ram Sena recently stormed a
>pub in Mangalore and roughed up a group of women for polluting Indian
>culture.By all accounts,it is a despicable act of violence.
>It raises a few disturbing questions.
>Does an organization like Shri Ram Sene ( any organization for that matter )
>have any right to act as moral guardian to decide as to how the public in
>general should behave in a society?
>Do they have any right to take the law in their own hands to force their
>unilateral choice upon others through acts deliberate violence ?
>Shouldn't we all recoil at the thought of defending those who run around
>setting ablaze Valentine's Day cards,halting beauty pageants,banning
>Christian New Year Day celebrations,imposing dress-codes for school girls
>and threatening clubs and discos for poisoning our culture ?
>Don't these folks and their likes wreck havoc in the country comfortable in
>the belief that alert citizens have no option but to support them ?
>This must stop.The support must end.
>What's your take ?
>KJD
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