The Monster with Many Heads

21st February, '09

The ‘Shri Ram Sena’, they call themselves. They believe they are preserving the core of Indian culture and values, which according to them are chiefly Hindu. They want to achieve this by physically assaulting anybody who tries to venture into the vast arena of any other culture. This could include one’s clothing, behaviour, choice of friends, choice of hang-outs, or even one’s participation in an occasion like Valentine’s Day. Their target has mostly been women so far. And these remain the facts of the matter.

This makes me think about a few things.

Firstly, the matter of culture. Often people refer to it as something stagnant sitting in the corner of the room that one can decide to grab and instil into one’s lifestyle any time they choose. Can culture be as forced as that? My grandmother often told me stories about our mythology, our festivals and our traditions. She sang me songs and cooked me food that had come down to her through generations before her. She shook her head when she saw me in a pair of pants. She hated it when I would cut my hair. Yet at the end of the day, she let change into her house, albeit through the back door. And all of that today is my culture- the stories, the songs, the recipes, the traditions, but also the jeans and the short hair. That’s what culture seems like to me- something that’s an accumulation, a transformation, an amalgamation; something that just lets life run its course.

So, what’s all this uproar about Western culture invading Indian culture, I ask? Every Indian today is mixed-up, desperately trying to strike a balance between what is essentially Indian and what is Western; the former being what was passed down to him as culture, and the latter, what he sees around him as culture. We want globalisation, but we also want tradition. We want technology but we also want the old ways. It is a constant war, of choices, of ideals, of outlooks and as a result, of lifestyles. All one can do is to be Indian in one instant and transform into a non-Indian in the next. It’s an impossible choice to make. The only way is to just be.

Secondly, the matter of Indian culture being essentially Hindu. India has long been the country of diverse faiths and religious ideals. You have all heard the rest of the argument, about equality, about secularity, about democracy- big words thrown around to give weight to a discussion. But these words actually form the core of each of our lifestyles. For example, Hyderabad would not be Hyderabad without its Biryani and its Charminar, the Shalwar Kameez is an integral part of Indian clothing and English is as important an Indian language today, as any other. Indian food, Indian clothing, Indian architecture, Indian languages, Indian traditions, these are all a concoction of all the different religions of India. Culture is very often an offshoot of religious beliefs and so Indian culture belongs to all the religions which have resided in India. It is organisations like Shri Ram Sena which try and divide us Indians in the name of religion to feed their vested interests. They use religion and the name of God to push themselves ahead politically. Their methods are devoid of any principles or values. All that dwells there is a hunger for power.

Finally, the issue of the female gender always having to carry the gargantuan weight of terms like culture, heritage, tradition (I am not even going to begin with terms like chastity and purity); another issue that has been beaten to the ground by feminists before, but I must have my say. It has always been very convenient for men to throw this load upon our shoulders and carry on with their lives as they please. They wear, speak and eat change as suits their convenience but cannot tolerate it when change invades our female lives. Very often it is a matter of convenience, but it could also be a matter of choice and of one’s identity. I feel like wearing a bindi and flowers in my hair, but only once in a while, when I’m in a mood for it; just like he chooses to wear his Kurta-pujama on occasion. And these are just the trivial choices, I'm talking about. So, why should my choices and moods be restricted more under the name of culture? Many Indian men today understand and respect this choice, but there are still a few who under the pretext of being the saviours of Indian culture (like the ones belonging to Shri Ram Sena who went around brutally beating up girls standing near or sitting inside pubs)try to dictate women's lives.

Shri Ram Sena, what are they trying to do? Make time go backwards, reverse 'change' as a phenomenon, restrict individuals' choices, feed religious hatred into our minds; I don’t see anything positive in what they are trying to do. They are walking the exact same path as the 'Taliban'. There is an irony in that comparison; two severely religious groups, fighting against each other, but their tenets and the resultant actions are the same; two religious groups unleashing intolerance and control over their people in the name of religion. Like I said earlier, all it is, is a fight for power and nothing else. Hinduism seems to have finally made its way under the label of 'fundamentalism' thanks to cults like the Shri Ram Sena. It hounds us all, this monster with many heads.