NYT:
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.
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…. 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.
I’ll take secular foie gras protesters—and foie gras, please, on toast, with a little blueberry jam—over religious nuts.
Well, they’ve sure figured us out. Every year I celebrate Valentine’s Day by popping open a bottle of champagne and toasting to the dilution of Indian culture.
As usual, you are so absolutely right. Thank you for putting this “controversy” in perspective.
Is it just me, or does foie gras taste like dog food? I hate the shit.
I don’t know, jkm, I’ve never tasted dog food. But if it tastes like paté, I may just have to run out and buy a can.
These religious types who think it’s moral to beat and harass and even murder people who are harming nobody because what they’re doing is “immoral” just baffle me. Apparently the religious freaks are absolved for their vile cruelty because they are the one’s who dictate morality. Religion stinks. What trash.
Foie gras & blueberry jam? Is that like scrambled eggs & maple syrup or Beluga & bubblegum?
5
This is not a story about religion.
It is a story about India.
Extrapolating this story into a condemnation of all religion is bigotry.
per wiki: “The characteristic of comprehensive tolerance to differences in belief and Hinduism’s dogmatic openness makes it difficult to define it as a religion according to the traditional Western conceptions.”
I hear that many religious folks like blueberry jam over their nuts.
I’m thankful for Hindu nutjobs like these – they keep me from developing an unhealthy pride in my religion.
Like a few weeks ago, when ten Hindu men got sentenced for gang-raping a Catholic nun during religious riots. Good job guys, way to show those filthy Christians who has the moral high-ground!
Gotta wonder how those control freaks in India would react to events here in the State of Washington. It looks like not only will same sex unions become even more like marriage, but there will also be a law making public breastfeeding a civil right.
Go Washington!
gee, Heather, what is the conservative Hindu stance on breastfeeding?
I do say, bring back the Raj…back then if women wanted to come to the club and have a drink, we’d put them in leg irons and throw then down the basement steps…Reginald did this once and we had a jolly good time!
well, #12 that is exactly what I was wondering.
Intolerant control freaks weather Hindu, Christian or NARN tend to be birds of a feather when it comes to attempting to outlaw something simply because they personally disapporve of it.
always good for a laugh, Heather
Real men don’t eat paté
real men can’t even spell it
Sri Ram Sena apparently perceives violence as a suitable response to having one’s culture disrespected. Seems to me that beating the shit out of people for behaving in a Western fashion is pretty goddamn disrespectful of Western culture. I say a bunch of us ought to go over there with baseball bats and show some of those Ram Sena fucks that what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Who’s with me?
Religious issue, huh. Couldn’t possibly be a women’s issue first and foremost because then we might have to use the dreaded “f” word.
Secularism has more than its share of people attacking women, thank you very much.
What could be more Indian than dancing? Curry?
@19: Of course it’s a feminist issue; that doesn’t mean it isn’t a religious issue as well. And while secular types may attack women, it’s rare to see them do so _in the name of secularism_.