The tale of two Indias

There are two Indias that exist in tandem.

One: the conservative, orthodox and rule abiding nation that has a homogenous population of people who are not just governed by the rule of law but also by the laws of society, religion and culture.

These people have unquestionable faith in multiple Gods, a rulebook for clothing, behaviour and eating habits and a definitive guide on morals which when violated, lead to extreme circumstances.

Two: the modern, unorthodox and law questioning nation that has a heterogeneous population of citizens who question the validity of the rule of law and live by the laws of pragmatism, sensibilities and culture.

These people raise questions on religion when it turns to blind faith, wear clothes according to their comfort, and follow a guide on morals which are not governed by religion but rather logic.

Modern India was born in 1947, when it gained independence from its long-time colonial ruler, Great Britain.

With a population of 1.2 billion, India in 2014 is the world’s second-largest country, after China, and the world’s largest democracy that majorly resides in suburban India.  

It goes without saying that the smaller towns and villages in the heart of India have still not opened up to the so-called MTV culture.

Smaller cities still hesitate to open up discotheques. The trends that are growing in cities like Mumbai and Delhi seem shocking for a country whose most popular films still hesitate to show two people doing anything more than kissing, if even that. A wet sari scene here and there and maybe an innocent kiss is expected as the climax of sexual display in films with major hit stars.

The questions posted under sexual content remind me more of teeny bopper magazine questions that would be directed to “Dear Sally.” A couple of people asked daring questions about relationships and the few responses given are rather immature with hardly any real advice. While India’s media may have restrictions, satellite television allows all kinds of things to be seen by kids there.

But then there is a conservative India where a mass-kissing campaign against moral policing in a city in Kerala swept the country, was advertised via Facebook, as urban youngsters challenged a deeply conservative society.

Dozens of ‘Kiss of Love’ activists stole kisses and blocked traffic near a metro station in New Delhi at a weekend, outnumbering a handful of right-wing protesters who see such public displays as a threat to Indian culture.

“It’s not about just kissing,” said 26-year-old research scholar Pankhuri Zaheer, one of the organisers. “It’s about inter-caste marriages, inter-religious marriages, live-in relationships.”

Pew’s Religious Restrictions Report finds that India scores “high” on government restrictions and “very high” on social hostilities indexes. In addition, a Pew survey of nations with significant Muslim populations excluded India, as local survey houses feared that questions on religious identity and belief could put interviewers’ safety at risk from local authorities or residents.

Every generation in India shares a pet peeve that theirs is in some way superior to the subsequent ones. Secretly or otherwise, one, for instance, feels that the urban middle-class youth of the 1970s was far more questioning of established convention and much less driven by materialism and a sense of entitlement. Many of the 1980s generation think today’s youth not the toughened adventurers that they themselves were. But that’s the way it is: every generation thinks the ones that come after it are lesser in many ways. It’s a sociological thing and there’s nothing more to it.

Modern India currently hangs on a balance between conservative and modern India where a modern conservative thinkers and students of science agree to debate and hope to live in peace.

But, religious zealotry cannot be discounted in a nation like India. Where religion and morals tweaked for the benefit of a few become the law of the land, there can only exist fear, not a safe society.