Cultural Police

The world women's day was just another day for many Indian women. For a handful of them, it is a day to send wish-mails to their friends. For an even lesser number of women it is a day to step into the streets and claim that its ok for them to choose and wear clothes of their choices. And for the retail giants, it is a day to show how much the care for women - they have announced a slew of discounts on articles such as household items, clothes, fancy stuff, etc; obviously things that would let women be in control of their own lives in the male-dominated society! However, for quite a lot of women it is just another day for slogging.

During a long drive to Vellore recently, my brother and I got into talking about what happened in Bangalore and Mangalore recently. The thugs that call themselves 'the cultural police' went on a rampage at a restaurant, beating up girls. In many north Indian cities, Valentine days have become annual fanfare for raiding greeting card shops and terrorizing couples on the streets.

My take on these anti-social elements was simple. These are a bunch of dumb asses that are being taken advantage of and being misled for someone's political aspirations.

Not just that. My brother believes it goes way beyond just that. Any society that has wealth unevenly distributed amongst its members is bound to have disturbances, really disturbing ones. Ours is a society that has on the one-hand a man contending to be the world's richest
and on the other-hand hundreds commit suicide trying to escape defaulted agricultural mortgage, while thousands go to bed hungry and without a roof over their heads.

It is not just cultural policing. It is the manifestation of the quaral between the haves and the have-nots. The crooks are out there to cashin on this.