Perhaps the values Chouhan mentions can be found here. Specifically, perhaps it is our typically Indian set of values that allows each one of us to talk the talk and walk right past houses like this everyday on our way to glitzy malls or highrise offices or the airport - so that we can get out, get out, GET OUT. After all, in a country where people living in the heart of even wealthy areas live hunter-gatherer lifestyles, perhaps it is only moral for us to look away. Shame on them, grovelling in the dirt. (Photo source)___________________________________________________________________
Perhaps Indian morality is to be sidestepped when it comes to the media. I don't see anyone successfully shutting down Cosmopolitan. Even though, hell, whether I was having casual sex in Pune or not, I could most certainly learn how to 'do it well', once a month. I could also watch saas-bahu soap-operas on TV where X is the illegitimate son of Y who is sleeping with Z who is actually his older sister. These soaps have won lots of praise for being wholesome family entertainment that depicts 'Indian Values'. Much appreciative clucking goes on when some particularly virtuous virgin shuns the attention of some ruffian lothario because such rendezvous are 'Not in (her) culture.' Of course not. But hold on, what does our virtuous virgin watch for entertainment? Bollywood dramas where hips thrust from east to west and women are jolted up and down to the pelvic thrusts of romeos driven mad with lust for their jawani. Please. Where are Indian values in Indian cinema?! (Photo source)____________________________________________________________________
Oh dear oh dear. What can I say. If I took a little girl here would I tell her to look away? Or would I tell her that ancient India had a stunning appreciation of the power, beauty and poetry of the human body, used it to great symbolic effect and didn't shy away, in it's art, from depicting sex as - well - great! As fun! As sacred! (And since when have those two things not mixed?!) Would I tell this girl (lets imagine she's curious - all the little girls I know, are) about the sexual rites of Tantra, about the graphically detailed Kama Sutra, about the legendary sexual exploits of Krishna or Shiva? Would I tell her about the poetry of Mirabai, some of whose pieces drip lust and passion from every line? (Photo source) (Also see here for a fabulous article that deals, in part, with the blatant sexuality of Chola art.)Perhaps Chouhan should consider this before implying that 'morality' is in any way connected to the bland, lifeless, literalistic interpretations of 'virtue' so often imposed on 'Indian culture'. What such interpretations often lack is an appreciation of the role of intent. Surely the intent (or lack thereof) involved in our blind eye towards the poverty that surrounds us implies much worse malevolence than the sex education programme? Perhaps the hypocrisy of a government that applauds India's' 'free media' but then rants from the rooftops about 'dirty sex scenes' represents far worse ignorance? The intent behind the sex education programme is to save lives through education. From this perspective, how can a balanced, open discussion of sex and sexual health pollute intent?! The very 'worst' (I use that word to pander to Chouhan's perspective, not my own) it can do is encourage the entirely healthy curiosity about an aspect of life that is naturally awakening at adolescence. And wouldn't teenagers who seek to indulge their curiosity be physically and psychologically safer if they had had some sex education?
2 comments:
Why should there even be an Indian morality? Surely, Indians are no more than simple human beings like the rest of us. Therefore, there is no need to attach national identity to morality. Morality is a feature of humanity, not of states. You can't be taught it, and states who try to teach it will find out in the form of rebellions that it is not possible. It is possible to guide, perhaps, but not to teach.
And what is immoral about sex? Without it, there would be no Indians at all. And if people are not educated in safe sexual practices, then will we see the wonderful benefits of yoga and Indian culture on an AIDS carrier? Running away from the most basic of human instincts smacks to me of stupidity, not morality. Or perhaps I am wrong - I patiently await the birth of the first child conceived by Yogic copulation...
In regards to the text surrounding the Hindu temple reliefs at what I assume is Jagadamba: I'm willing to bet that the average American would shield the eyes of a child from the relief in pure ignorance and naivety. Conservative america is SO uptight about sex. To the point of banning movies that are sexual but not those that have excessive violence (http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/zackandmiri_blog.html). Uneducated folks see the temples facade as explicit and risque. This is the same type that can't appreciate the beauty in the man hours taken to create such a numerous amount of sculptures and how it pays homage to the magnificence of the human body and how we reproduce. It's no ones fault. They just see it a different way than we do.
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