The Self-Appointed Guardians
Where personal liberty ends and vigilantism begins
A violent mob of more than 30 armed assailants attack an entrepreneur and his female companion in Doddaballapura, Karnataka.
A youth is assaulted in Bengaluru by local goons for accompanying a woman from their community.
Two teenagers are attacked and the girl molested and filmed in Jamui Bihar while the duo was returning from their coaching classes.
A group of armed men threaten women social media influencers, rough up couples as well as women for their clothes in Ludhiana.
A woman and her male friend are allegedly assaulted by a group of locals in Kochi when the man comes to drop her after work late at night.
All five cases are very recent examples of a…. what should we call it, a tendency, a belief system, a mindset? No, these are extremely mild definitions. I think, the word to describe the situation is, “evil”. An evil called moral policing. Our languages, customs, traditions might be different and diverse but from Ludhiana to Kochi, if there’s one thing that firmly unites every part of our country, it is moral policing. As is evident from the news above.
Moral policing is an evil which is endemic to our country, strangely despite the tolerant laws that govern us. Ironic, isn’t it? A country which has largely fair and tolerant laws (our lawmakers seem to have done things right), is still largely regulated by the most regressive and intolerant social norms and fallacies.
Now before you begin to think this is a problem exclusive to rural India, do review the news archives as far as urban crime is concerned. Moral policing, women’s safety, gender crimes, easily top the list. What makes this even more peculiar and hard to understand is that India is supposed to be a secular, democratic republic which has a constitution that has granted equal rights to men and women. Why then does enforcement of these fair and equal laws face so much backlog and lack of implementation?
Upon much deliberation, I realized that the answer to this question lies in a scene from a Bollywood movie. A senior police officer is seen cautioning a young female corporate executive about the dangers of challenging the local norms that govern the villages bordering our cities. He specifically mentioned that the constitution is rendered ineffective exactly where the last mall of the city is located. Add to that the intermingling of these two worlds and you have a confusingly dangerous situation. Can you then even begin to imagine the duplicity that governs our lives? On the one hand we believe we have certain rights as citizens of a civilized country and on the other, are the barbaric patriarchal regressive moral rules that decades of development haven’t been able to yet shake off! This is even more concerning when it relates to gender specific issues.
Indians are traveling everywhere (more than ever before), for education, tourism and work opportunities. Obviously, they are privy to the progressive social legislation, gender equality, high institutional trust and civil liberties prevalent in several other countries. They see women wearing clothes of their choice, drinking alcohol, going out at night (without being harassed), couples kissing in public, male employees reporting to their female boss, and so on. Why then does the same thing irk them in their own country, so much so, that it becomes their prerogative to turn themselves into the moral police? Is this the same rogue gene that ensures they behave with proper civic etiquette in a foreign country but turn into freewheeling spitters and pissers when back on their own soil? As a noted Indian politician and author once said…India is a country where it is perfectly acceptable to piss in public but not kiss in public. This really might even have been rhythmically hilarious; had it not been as distressing in its repercussions as it is!
So next time one of us feels the need to berate a couple’s right to express affection in a park or cinema hall, or question a woman’s prerogative to wear a short dress or be accompanied by a male friend or colleague, let us ask ourselves. Are there not bigger, much more important issues that need urgent action in our country if we are to truly call ourselves a nation that can proudly hold its own on a world map in the digital 21st century?