Column

Whenever I hear the word culture I want to reach for my gun, is the quote often attributed to the Nazi politician and military leader Hermann Goering, though its origins are somewhat older. Yet, he is the man most connected to the saying, which is somewhat ironic considering that the entire Nazism edifice was constructed on the basis of Germanic culture. The regime had a full-fledged ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda led by Goebbels whose task was to “synchronise” culture with Nazi objectives — films, music, art and literature all had to subscribe to and promote Nazi ideals.Creative people were suborned to serve the interests of the Reich; those who refused had to flee.

It is not only the Nazis who understood the importance of culture as a powerful political tool — they were just more thorough about it. In our own country, political parties have had their own notions about what culture is — the Nehruvian project was to manage and impose high culture on the masses while the Communists involved creative fellow travellers who then aligned themselves suitably. The BJP constantly holds forth about Bharatiya Sanskriti.

Indian culture is a talismanevery party likes to deploy some time or the other. Curiously, many of them have more or less a similar idea about what constitutes Indian culture, give or take a few degrees. To put it in a nutshell, it is the exact opposite of ‘Western culture”, which is seen as libertarian and too ‘free’. Women drinking, and that too in public, is one such example of alien behaviour.

The attack on a pub in Mangalore is a convergence of all those notions. The pub is the perfect symbol — of licentiousness, of loose morals and generally of un-Indian behaviour. Here girls get down to not only drinking and smoking but even holding hands and god alone knows what else; all of this while wearing the skimpiest clothes possible. This is what happens when you let girls get too much freedom, the attackers seem to say.

The visuals of girls being brutally kicked and dragged by their hair may have shocked everyone, but the argument has found an echo among politicians everywhere. In Rajasthan, chief minister Ashok Gehlot has come out against pubs and ‘hand-holding’ by girls and boys. Health minister Anbumani Ramadoss has seen political possibilities of continuing his crusade against drinking — the justification is not on medical grounds but because it is against Indian culture. Karnataka’s chief minister is of course totally confused — should he defend the female-bashers or condemn the violence? But this he knows — pubs are against Indian culture and will not be allowed in his state.

Liquor and its easy availability is a touchy question in the Indian context. Mahatma Gandhi’s faddishness about liquor meant that official India has always had to do a balancing act — prohibition, dry days, permits. To this day, no liquor is served in an official function where a minister is present; once he leaves the booze comes out. Governments (and Yeddyurappa ought to know) cannot do without the revenue that liquor sales bring in, but they have to continue with this hypocrisy.

Politicians know that any support of liquor per se will be suicidal especially in rural areas. But they don’t target the liquor joints in villages or in slum areas — their wrath is aimed at the pubs in the cities and the neo-prosperous towns. Alcoholism is not the issue — culture is.

Many theories have been advanced to explain the pub attack in Mangalore — the clash of two Indias, conservative versus modern forces, rural versus urban. These don’t tell the whole story; the Ram Sene goons were locals and not from the villages or from the slums. Theyattacked a pub where their friends may have probably gone to; so what makes themdifferent from the others?

The truth is, they are not different. They probably come from the same socio-economic background as those inside the pubs. Which is what angers them more. The five star hotels, where the upper middle class and the rich congregate are beyond their reach, physically and socially.But they recognise the girls in the Mangalore pub — they are from the same milieu as the attackers. The pub-goers have broken away by the dint of more education and have got well-paying, trendy call-centre jobs which open up a new world full of glamorous choices. That freedom is what irks the lower-middle class lumpen which is what constitues group like the Sene.

But by supporting the cause, today’s politicians may be getting it wrong. It is no longer easy to dismiss the urban young who will resent any curb on their newfound freedoms. These youngsters are articulate and want to move ahead; they understand what an attack on a watering hole implies — it is a cultural war. The old-fashioned politician, still appealing to his rural or lumpen constituency, is in danger of becoming out of touch. Indian culture is a currency that will soon lose its value.