Boycotting Valentine’s Day

India has always been a land of lovers where epic poems of Gods and Goddesses involved in the affairs of man, where young men are madly in love with fair maidens and the civilization that wrote the earliest guide of sex and all known, and even impossible, sexual positions. Indian writers have written countless literary works such as Shakuntala and Dushyant or of Roopmati and Baz Bahadur on love and traditional Indian-Hindu architecture is marked by scores of naked statues Gods, Goddesses and holy people – often adoring the Hindu temples. So how can one explain the recent culture shock in India against Valentine’s Day?

Hardcore fundamentalists and religious hindu zealots such as Pramod Muthalik have begun an organized and often compulsive drive to oppose Valentine’s Day. The reason is that Valentine’s Day is a bad western influence on the moral standing of the Indian society and thus must be banned. So Pramod Muthalik and his group called Sri Ram Sena (Army of Lord Ram – a Hindu God) has come to the forefront of spearheading the public repulsion of Western culture.

On the other side, the new young generation of India has begun to break every social codes, castes, religious and sexual barriers. The pro-western activists, mostly headed up the Facebook group “Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women” has been outraged over the activities of Sri Ram Sena. After a woman in India was attacked for going to a bar, the Facebook group has decided to send pink underwear to the fundamentalist group Sri ram Sena on Valentine’s Day on Saturday. Mr. Pramod Muthalik said he and his group will protest that day and women should not be allowed to enter bars. The Facebook group “Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women” has called on women to defy Sri Ram Sena and go to the nearest bar and order drinks on Saturday for Valentine’s Day.

The activities of Mr. Pramod Muthalik and his group Sri Ram Sena was described by the Indian Women’s Minister Renuka Chaudhury as an “attempt to impose Taleban-style values” in India. The nation was shocked when around 30 people in Mr. Muthalik’s group was filmed chasing women and beating them up and even stepping on the women that fell on the street in Mangalore. Shortly thereafter, 30 members of Sri Ram Sena and Mr. Muthalik were arrested for the violence by Police but Mr. Muthalik has promised to carry out his plans for Valentine’s Day.

India has been gripped by strong Anti-terrorist, Anti-Islamic, Anti-Western and even more recently, an Anti-Christian epidemic. Most of the fundamentalist groups are a branch of Hinduism or the BJP party. However, a large party of India is strongly pro-western and pro-American and Christianity has been growing at the 2nd fastest rate in India for the past decade. Despite hardliner efforts, India will move to establish closer Western ties, Pro-Israeli agenda, Anti-Islamic terrorism and a growing Christian population. The fight for Valentine’s Day is an indicator for the direction India is to head in the years to come.