This debate on cheerleaders

In view of cheerleaders at cricket matches having become our latest burning political issue, may I suggest that the Kama Sutra...

In view of cheerleaders at cricket matches having become our latest burning political issue, may I suggest that the Kama Sutra be made compulsory reading for Indian politicians? This should be followed by a field trip to the erotic temples of Khajuraho. Then, perhaps, the self-appointed guardians of Indian civilisation will realise that cheerleaders are baby stuff compared to the oldest most explicit text on love-making known to mankind and temples so sexy, they make Mumbai’s banned bar dancers look like nuns. Then our moralising politicians should be sent to watch the latest offering from Bollywood, so they can see that cheerleaders look fully clothed when compared with what Indian actresses wear these days. This is without mentioning that the average, conservative Indian woman bears her midriff automatically if she wears a sari.

What I found sick-making was that on the day that Maharashtra’s politicians debated whether cheerleaders should be banned for ‘obscenity’, a 12-year-old child was raped by a traffic policeman in Delhi. The little girl was waiting at a bus stop last week when she was dragged into a car and raped. This is not the first time this has happened in our capital city. And in the brothels of Mumbai, girls as young as ten are forced into prostitution because ‘conservative’ Indian men have not been taught that pedophilia is a sickness. Why do we never hear a debate about these things in our legislatures? Why do things like rape and child prostitution never become a political issue? Could it be because our politicians see these things as an integral part of Indian civilisation?

Speaking of which, it is worth remembering that those who seek to protect Bharatiya sanskriti from the effects of cheerleaders were the same ones who burned the Bhandarkar Institute in Pune a few years ago because of some imagined insult to what they consider sanskriti. Priceless manuscripts in this institute were destroyed by semi-literate goons led by a Maharashtrian political party.

As someone who believes that preserving Indian civilisation is very, very important, I pay close attention to what our politicians do by way of its preservation. I look out for signs that our political class has understood the importance of protecting our ancient monuments from falling into terminal decay. And I look out for signs that our education ministers have recognised the importance of promoting Indian studies in our universities and promoting literature in Indian languages in our schools. I see no sign anywhere in India that this has begun to happen. While sitting in on an English lesson in a Kannada medium school in Mumbai recently, I flicked through the pages of a book the teacher was using to teach English and found it filled with pictures of little white children in London and New York doing things that would be a complete mystery to an Indian child. The only Indian touch to the lesson was this pledge, written in chalk on the blackboard. ‘India is my country. All Indians are my brothers and sisters. I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage. I shall strive to be worthy of it’.

Tokenism. Typical of our socialist days, when this sort of lip service to India covered up for an education system that has remained unchanged since the days of the British Raj. If we had bothered to change it, the fancy new bookshops that open in our cities daily would be selling books in Indian languages. The only books they sell are foreign ones and in the Indian section you will find the mostly mediocre works of Indians writing in English. Some of the best poetry I have read in any language has been written by Urdu poets and some of the best literature I have read is by Indians writing in Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi, but to find these books in Delhi I have to trawl the little, rundown bookshops in obscure back alleys. The same is true of Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and of smaller towns that grow bigger and more literate by the day.

You cannot talk about preserving a civilisation if you do not respect its books. You cannot preserve sanskriti if you do not understand what that immense word brings in its fold. Sadly it has to be said that the Indians who understand Indian civilisation the least are our politicians. This is why some of the most beautiful monuments in the world have been allowed to fall to pieces, this is why ancient texts are treated with criminal disdain, this is why Indian children continue to learn about Indian literature, music and culture as if it were a sideshow, an optional subject. And this is why cheerleaders become the subject of our current pathetic political debate.