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ShareIf Pramod Muthalik of the Sri Ram Sene is the choice of the conservative rightwing to save women from themselves, they may have been better served if they looked a little further.
Because watching that man spewing forth his anger on television, the first instinct of any woman is to run as fast as possible in the opposite direction. Sounds facetious? Try to think about it from a woman's point of view.
If I wanted protection, to save myself, my culture, or whatever else needed to be saved, what sort of a guardian would I choose? Someone who terrifies me or someone who terrifies the evils of the outside world? Sorry, but Muthalik makes the hound dogs from hell (something he thinks you might well find in any neighbourhood pub) seem preferable. Guaranteed to make you hit the bottle. Sorry, facetious again.
Whenever this whole idea of "saving culture" comes up, the first target is women. Anthropologists, psychiatrists and psychologists as well as other experts have studied this in great detail and come up with many reasons. But the sum comes to this: someone has to be responsible for bearing the burden of various cultural constructs and the women were picked.
In fact, this is a convenient shift of responsibility with no complementary shift of power. Women cannot decide for themselves what this culture is and why it should be upheld. It is enough that they are the flag bearers. Feminists suspect it is because women are child-carriers and that is a burden that has long terrorised men. Women are our mothers and mothers of our children. That ought to be enough for them.
The first threat -- real or perceived--and the woman excuse is trotted out. How can our mothers -- and mothers of our children -- eat, drink, dance, go out, work, be seen by others, sing, walk freely? They must be protected from temptation and from themselves. The chastity belt may have been an ingenious invention but it was also amazing testimony to male insecurity--whose child will that turn out to be? How can I guarantee that it is mine?
So Muthalik and the goons of the Sri Ram Sene must have felt the threat very strongly. "This will hurt me more than it hurts you," says the parent or the schoolteacher as he or she raises the cane to thwack the erring child. Both the child and the adult know that to be a lie. The attempt is not only to hurt the child but, if done in public, also to send a message to others: disobey the rules and this is what will happen.
Women who visit pubs in Mangalore and anywhere else, have been given a fair warning. This is the treatment they will get if they dare to break out of the cultural barriers imposed on them.
Luckily, in today's world, there is a greater understanding that women do not bear a greater burden when it comes to culture nor do men bear a greater burden in running the world. If we live in the world, it is ours to live in. It is a shared responsibility. Yes, there are men and women who get terrified by this.
They seek the "shelter" of cultural shibboleths to save them from the changes going on around them. It is no stretch of imagination for anyone to wonder why the idea of young men and women drinking and dancing together will shock certain sections of society. It takes them very far out of their comfort zone.
But, the time for such self-appointed protectors of women is gone. The Sri Ram Sene represents a desperate attempt to impose once again the strangulating effects of "culture" as a weapon. The issue for all of us -- as stakeholders in society -- is to understand freedom, to have the further freedom to interpret it for ourselves and to ensure that the laws of the land are followed. The Sri Ram Sene broke those laws.
There can be no doubts or questions about that. And what about Muthalik? With all respect, we've had enough of him. Or he might drive more women to drink.
