A couple of years back, few of us Indians chanced to visit a place called Beira in Mozambique. Like most African countries, Mozambique is poor. But with a stranger’s excitement of being in a far off new place, we went around starry eyed gazing with wonder at all the mundane things we saw around us. Come evening we went to an ordinary open air, sea side joint with a live band playing. To our surprise, we were welcomed with the current Bollywood hit sung in flawless Hindi the moment we entered — a good start that was going to get better.
All around there were tables occupied with families, groups of friends, couples — all enjoying an evening out on the weekend — a very normal joint with a very normal crowd. One table had a group of five teenagers — three girls and two guys — guzzling down their share of Heineken for the evening. As the evening progressed, the chatter got livelier and at one point, the singer on stage started speaking in the local Bantu tongue — some kind of invite for people in the audience. One of the girls in this teenage group raised her hand and was promptly invited on stage. She was visibly drunk and when she took the mic, she probably said something silly or funny coz the audience laughed. Same time the band started again and she started an impromptu jig on stage. The music came fast and she responded faster, pretty much in a trance by now. And a few moments later, to everyone’s surprise, she disposed of everything she was wearing waist up and thus topless, she gyrated in rapture.
There were a few good natured hoots, cheers and whistles all of which the girl was totally oblivious to even as she danced away to glory. After a few minutes of this inebriated but inspired performance, she was helped back to her table by one of her friends and with her top back on again, she proceeded to enjoy a dinner with her friends and left peacefully without any untoward incident. And this was no ‘bar girl’ or ‘business girl’ so to speak — just a regular teenager gone overboard with the zest of life and a good dose of Tequila.
All of this happened not in Australia or Scandinavia where women’s liberation is well established and at a very mature stage. This was a poor African country measuring very low on most human development indices. So a display of sexual liberalism of this kind likely had more to do with the cultural outlook of the society than any economic emancipation.
Now change the setting of this whole scene to a bar or a restaurant in India — a country where people on an average are not much better off than in Mozambique on various development parameters. The culture is however vastly different.
What would the consequences be for a girl — if an impromptu and tipsy performance like that is repeated here ?! Well, if she manages to leave the place intact, she would in all probability be chased by bike gangs once she left, harassed, molested or worse. And the next day, high ranking sanctimonious Police officials and Politicians of different hues would squarely blame the girl for violating Indian ‘culture’ and therefore deserving the atrocity committed on her and, as an icing on the cake, book her for indecent exposure. Sadly, a good majority of Indians would be nodding their heads in agreement sitting in front of their television screens mouthing — she asked for it. The molesters and rapists on the other hand, would boldly go scouting for the next victim who dares to bare, gives any indication that her body belongs to her or, defy the patriarchy in any other way. Our Parliamentarians meanwhile, would innocently pontificate why the incidents of rapes have actually shot up ten times after introducing the draconian Nirbhaya act. In all their glorious wisdom, they would come up with suggestions like the famous ‘eating Chow mien drives men to commit rape’ and, would then go into a huddle and come out with a law that bans Chow mien in India. The khaki enforcers would then eagerly go around extorting money from all the Chow mien vendors. Your Chow mien will be a little more expensive not to mention illegal thereon, all because a girl decided to forget the rules for once.
This is not a hypothetical or a satirical scenario but a fairly accurate description of the intellect, acumen and maturity of leaders in charge of our country. The only provision of Nirbhaya act that was enthusiastically enforced by the government machinery was to happily remove any films from the car windows and to have the right to shamelessly peek into the privacy of citizens. But I have digressed a little from the theme.
Where did Indians go so wrong in their attitudes and beliefs that we stand where we stand today. What is the fatal flaw in our Culture that makes the Indian State so dead set against Happiness in any form ?! The Government through its various instruments — legal and extra-legal — License raj, Inspector raj, Khap panchayats…clamps down on every human potential that Indians have. What is it in our culture that goes against the very grain of Joy, Prosperity, Self-realization, Love, Sex … all the things that fulfill human beings and without which we are but animals surviving at a low level subsistence.
When one half of the population spends its time holding the other half captive, you have a society which is obsessed with control. How can Men ever be free in a society where Women are prisoners ? Coz if the fair sex is to be kept imprisoned, guess who it falls on to stand guard. To their displeasure, Indian men are discovering that spending life as a sentry is no fun.
07.12.13
