In the era of Ram Sene,young are bewildered

Women drinking beer in pubs,wearing ‘tight jeans’ as well as public displays of affection are against Indian culture,says the Sene. Its leader Pramod Mutalik wants to put a stop to all Western cultural imports.

All this dissonance is jarring for the thousands of young people in Bangalore whose lives are increasingly tangled with the West. They work for Western companies. Many work in outsourcing firms which execute projects for Western firms. A lot of them talk to Western customers on the phone or on web chats. But westernized behaviour is suddenly taboo.

A week to Valentine’s Day,Bangalore’s young population is scared and edgy. Who wants to go out with a girl and have her slapped and shoved around by thugs,they ask. You have watched them in action on television channels. It is not worth the risk,they say.

If I am out with a guy on any day of the year,why should it be anybody else’s problem,asked a college student. My friends and I wish we could form a ‘Sita Sena’ to return the slaps they delivered to the girls in Mangalore,she said.

The young woman did not want to be quoted on the subject. Nobody wanted their real names in the newspapers.

The Sene,meanwhile,is readying five moral vigilante squads to send out on Valentine’s Day. These will carry video cameras and turmeric stubs and conduct impromptu marriage ceremonies between dating couples. Couples may even be dragged off to the sub-registrar’s offices where the Sene men will formalize the marriage.

While all this is happening,the Karnataka government seems to be tuned out. Young people are disturbed that thugs calling themselves the Sri Ram Sene appear to have the tacit support of the Bharatiya Janata Party which rules the state.

The government has refused to blacklist the Sene after the pub attack. The chief minister has said nothing so far about the Sene’s Valentine’s Day threats. College students and workers in technology firms and call centres are anxious that the government inaction signals complicity.

So far,Bangalore has represented the progressive face of India to the rest of the country and the world. Does progressive mean women wearing revealing clothes and couples openly displaying love in public places? The Sene and conservative Indians would say no. But does allowing India’s young to lead their own lives mean allowing them to “go astray”?

Bangalore’s young people are bewildered. Until now,Valentine’s Day protests were confined to India’s small towns where goons went about attacking stores carrying Valentine’s Day gifts and roughing up couples holding hands in public. Even the pub incident was a good 350 kilometres away in Mangalore.

The thugs have now landed at the city’s doorstep and that is a bit of a shock for Bangalore’s predominantly young citizens.

Western jobs have guaranteed many young people in Bangalore jobs after college,economic independence and freedom of choice on many fronts. What to wear,where and what to drink,and whom to hold hands with. To their dismay,the so-called sentinels of Indian morals are out to snatch away those freedoms.