http://www.breakingnewsonline.net/2009/01/shri-ram-sena-activists-assault-5-girls.html
This is just the most violent episode in the whole ‘party culture’ that is blossoming in India at the moment. With the rise of the middle class and their children, pub culture has boomed in India, especially in the Big cities like Bombay. However, this new culture is seen by many as yet another corruption from the West, and as many traditionalists and politicians are against this new fad. This goes as far as strict closing hour times (1.30 in most places at the most) and in some parts of India there are extreme cases like in Bangalore, where dancing is banned! It sounds like a bad joke but it’s true, originally the ban was to curb the rise of dance-bars. Dance bars are a very interesting aspect of Indian culure, a microcosm of the strange conservative sexuality that is popular here. Basically a dance bar is a bar where women dance around for men, like a lapdance club. However, and this is where the two establishments veer away drastically in theme because in dance bars, the women are fully dressed. They wear beautiful Saris and all they do is dance to popular Bollywood songs. This is hugely popular here and men go crazy for it supposedly, a better account of them is in the book Maximum City, can’t remember the author’s name but he does a very good job at describing Bombay.
Anyway, the law (remember the ban I was talking about) was trying to curb on this but a mixture of over-zealous cops and conservative pressure meant that any dancing became an offence. After the attacks I talked about earlier many politicians distanced themselves away from the group involved, however what was most frustrating was that they were then quoted as saying that while the attacks were not good it was important that they have raised the issue of ‘drink culture’ in India. They call it un-Indian to party in pubs and though the attackers have been arrested they will more than likely get off without too-serious charges. I think it’s a sad state of affairs when people can’t go out and part without being attacked. I mean in Ireland our drink culture can often be a sorry affair, it is at least accepted as something that people enjoy doing. However, it is different in India, the people who party are a minority to those that don’t and many feel it just another force threatening India’s society. Does it? Are you less Indian if you party, or are you becoming ‘westernised’ when you have a drink in a pub. For me India is in no danger of becoming ‘westernised’ ( a term I dislike anyway) as it, to me, has it’s own vision of modernity, much more so than Ireland, whose culture I do feel is being eroded by a lack of interest in out own background and customs. I think Ireland has a lot to learn from India, especially in regard to preserving it’s identity in a world becoming more homogenised every day. Take traditional music in Ireland for example, it has a foundation and structure, but very little in the way of a modern feel. We learn old songs and use old themes in our music, in India music is becoming modern while staying true to it’s form and styles. Take Punjabi hiphop for example, a genre that has melded two quite different genres historically into a new and vibrant style that is huge in India, even the world (we all know Panjabi MC, no?).
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