I have witnessed many valentine's day and many many protests for the same. The Shivsena activists breaking shops, destroying greeting cards all in the name of protecting Indian culture.Never have I taken them seriously nor have met peopple who took them seriously.
They were very easily branded as "jobless youths" who were lured in to performing such violent acts because of poverty or some misguided sense of loyalty.
Never have I felt such a personal rage like i do this year though. It is because moral policing has gone up a whole new level in India. What used to be a country with peaceful demonstrations to show their dissent has now become a goonda infiltrated one.
The Mangalore incident needless to say shook me. How can people who claim to be "Guardians of Indian culture" beat up women and molest them? Is that what the culture tells us? Do these people realize that news in one corner of India is accessible to people in North Dakota in United States. This is what people think of our culture. Uneducated, uncouth people from a third world nation. If that does not embarrass I don't know what will.
What is beyond all this is the fact that the man behind all this actually goes on record and says " When we are on a mission, these things happen". I am sorry if I fail to understand this statement. Does it mean when you are on a mission to get people out of a pub, some women will be molested. Interesting point. I guess a couple of people should try to oust a Ram Sena meeting and in the process beat up people and molest some women there and say" Hey don't blame us, this is what happens when we are on a mission".
One of the reasons why i supported the pink chaddi campaign was because its sole purpose or so it seemed to me was to insult the Ram Sena. i do not see what is so blasphemous about it. These people act all sacred and poius when they do despicable acts like beating up women. So sending them panties seemed a good retort. A punch in the face.Thats the only reason I joined it. To end with moral policing. To insult them.
If pink chaddis came up , can pink condoms be far behind. There was this other campaign that came up whose sole purpose was to demean the pink chaddi campaign. Now for the record I want it noted that I have no problems with the pink condom campaign simply because I think its a democratic way of saying " I don't approve of the pink chaddi campaign". In fact I appreciate them for taking a non violent stand.
But what I have a problem with is the whole religionising the issue. When I read the blog of the pink condom, what irked me was how the founders have made the "Pink Chaddi Campaign" a non Hindu one. Are we so religion obsessed that we cannot look beyond it. Does everything have to have a safforn, green color attached to it. Cant we look beyond them? Cant we ever look at white? Just because a person has a Chiristian name in the campaign, does it mean it has to be anti-hindu? It is religion that is keeping us apart, that is letting goons like Ram Sena to perform atrocities in the name of religion.
Does anyone realize the irony in all this! They call themselves Ram Sena!
Hey Ram!
Friday, February 13, 2009
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Fairness Creams and Racism
Today I was reading a news item on The Mint on the Indian advertisment watchdog ASCI - Advertising Standards Council of India pulling up Procter & Gamble for making tall claims in an ad for one of its skin care products. It sent me thinking about all those fairness creams ads that we have been seeing for a long time and the kind of claims that they make. It is not really new for marketing companies to make tall claims about their products. I am quite surprised that the ASCI has suddenly acquired an increased awareness for such advertisments ! Couple this with fairness creams becoming the new obsession with the honourable Health Minister Mr.Anbumani Ramadoss and probably things fall into place
But , the ASCI or Ramadoss is not what prompted to write this piece. It is the very obsession of the general Indian public with "fairness" and this undying quest for a fairer skin. Don't you think the very idea of using a fairness cream is inherently racist. I definitely thinks so and to find out if someone else had already written about this before I blogged the title of our blog on google and found this
http://www.indianeye.org/tag/fairness-creams/
About a year back Arun Nair has actually written about the same thing that I wanted to write about now. I am really surprised that in all this time I have never looked at it from such a perspective. All along , I ve just felt trying to become fair is indeed a "fair aspiration" to have. But when you go a little further and really think about the underpinnings of this aspiration you do find that fairness is now a symbol of beauty , a quality to possess , so much so that if you are dark skinned you are made to feel inadequate and the first thing that you want to do is go to the nearest store and buy one of the fairness creams to tone down the melanine in your skin. Fairness , as a higher attribute , is now firmly entrenched as part of our culture. Could this be because we were ruled for two centuries by white skinned men ? I am not too sure !
Arun Nair's article says everything that I had wanted to say . To avoid the redundancy I would stop the post here.
It pains me to think that we are not proud of the attributes showered on us by nature. Instead we seek to become something we just not are simply because the society associates a higher value to it !
But , the ASCI or Ramadoss is not what prompted to write this piece. It is the very obsession of the general Indian public with "fairness" and this undying quest for a fairer skin. Don't you think the very idea of using a fairness cream is inherently racist. I definitely thinks so and to find out if someone else had already written about this before I blogged the title of our blog on google and found this
http://www.indianeye.org/tag/fairness-creams/
About a year back Arun Nair has actually written about the same thing that I wanted to write about now. I am really surprised that in all this time I have never looked at it from such a perspective. All along , I ve just felt trying to become fair is indeed a "fair aspiration" to have. But when you go a little further and really think about the underpinnings of this aspiration you do find that fairness is now a symbol of beauty , a quality to possess , so much so that if you are dark skinned you are made to feel inadequate and the first thing that you want to do is go to the nearest store and buy one of the fairness creams to tone down the melanine in your skin. Fairness , as a higher attribute , is now firmly entrenched as part of our culture. Could this be because we were ruled for two centuries by white skinned men ? I am not too sure !
Arun Nair's article says everything that I had wanted to say . To avoid the redundancy I would stop the post here.
It pains me to think that we are not proud of the attributes showered on us by nature. Instead we seek to become something we just not are simply because the society associates a higher value to it !
Monday, February 2, 2009
Shame on the blogger community !
Shame on us bloggers !
When Mumbai's Leopold Cafe faces Terror attacks we hold candle light vigils . When Barkha Dutt sues a fellow Blogger , we are angry and all over the place. But where were we when those innocent children lost the opportunity to see the world simply because they were born in a Government Hospital in Punjab that displayed indifference to safety precautions ? I just searched for the number of blogger entries on this incident and couldnt find many. But search for Barkha Dutt and look at the number of entries ! Its staggering !
This is not the first time things like this are happening in Government Hospitals in India. Numerous incidents have occured . Ministers have resigned. Enquiries Ordered . FIRs filed . Cases investigated and then closed. So what was the outcome ? Nothing ! The conditions are just the same as they have been eons ago.
Did you know that India spends 5% of its GDP on health care ? Did you also know that only 0.5% of this 5% is actually spent by the Government on health care ? The remaining 4.5% comes from private spending ? Did you know that health spending is the largest cause of rural indebtedness !
Alas ! Why would we strive to know ? We aren't bothered ! If the same incident had occured at probably Apollo Hospitals , I am sure the reaction would have been very different . You know why ? Cause that hits us right at our heads . It is our symbol of health care . Not that of the aam Aadmi of India.
Shekhar Gupta , the senior editor of the Indian Express was so right after all ! When he wrote that the Mumbai public reacted the way in which they reacted only because the terrorists chose the very symbols of luxury , of the upper class , of Mumbai ! He was heavily criticized for his comments in the editorial of the Indian Express. But , I think what he says is true. We are so selfish we are not bothered until we feel the pinch of the problem !
And you talk about Freedom of Press ?? Where is the Right to Life , my friends ??
When Mumbai's Leopold Cafe faces Terror attacks we hold candle light vigils . When Barkha Dutt sues a fellow Blogger , we are angry and all over the place. But where were we when those innocent children lost the opportunity to see the world simply because they were born in a Government Hospital in Punjab that displayed indifference to safety precautions ? I just searched for the number of blogger entries on this incident and couldnt find many. But search for Barkha Dutt and look at the number of entries ! Its staggering !
This is not the first time things like this are happening in Government Hospitals in India. Numerous incidents have occured . Ministers have resigned. Enquiries Ordered . FIRs filed . Cases investigated and then closed. So what was the outcome ? Nothing ! The conditions are just the same as they have been eons ago.
Did you know that India spends 5% of its GDP on health care ? Did you also know that only 0.5% of this 5% is actually spent by the Government on health care ? The remaining 4.5% comes from private spending ? Did you know that health spending is the largest cause of rural indebtedness !
Alas ! Why would we strive to know ? We aren't bothered ! If the same incident had occured at probably Apollo Hospitals , I am sure the reaction would have been very different . You know why ? Cause that hits us right at our heads . It is our symbol of health care . Not that of the aam Aadmi of India.
Shekhar Gupta , the senior editor of the Indian Express was so right after all ! When he wrote that the Mumbai public reacted the way in which they reacted only because the terrorists chose the very symbols of luxury , of the upper class , of Mumbai ! He was heavily criticized for his comments in the editorial of the Indian Express. But , I think what he says is true. We are so selfish we are not bothered until we feel the pinch of the problem !
And you talk about Freedom of Press ?? Where is the Right to Life , my friends ??
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