The "Traditional" Shiv Ram Sena Theory

Imagine a group of people pushing you and thrashing you; it's the worst experience you can survive. The psychic trauma associated with you can last a very disturbingly long time. Some goons did just the thing. A bunch of around 40 self-styled stumblebums entered a pub and lounge bar named Amnesia (Read: not a temple) and thrashed the young crowd there. Mangalore and the rest of India got a shock on the eve of India's 60th Republic day and my friends in America "WTF'ed" when I told them about it. The supposedly founder of this dejected Bajarang Dal organization, the Ram Sena founder, P Muthalik very innocently remarked when questioned about this atrocity, "This incident is just a small thing, its not abnormal. Even if our sisters had done this, we would have acted like this only," The media channel somehow appeared before the goons landed up in the pub and very dedicatedly shot the whole episode without informing the police. I wonder if the cameraman would have done the same if his Sister was very roughly pushed around in front of him. I also wonder if the goons had called up home and checked if their Mothers and Sisters were home and not enjoying a quiet Saturday afternoon in the coolness of the pub with their friends, relatives or colleagues.

I dare these "Talibans," traditionalists, culture-protectors to go to Mumbai and take the ride to Kamathipura where under the pretense of friends, hotel room bookies, and gentlemen, expert navigators will guide you, around the clock to a world of flesh trade where many of their Sisters dreams have been shattered and kismet plays mayhem with many a females life everyday.

The Shiv Ram Sena claimed that these women were against tradition and that these were Hindu girls and that it was not right for them. Now what is right according to "our" tradition? What did they not like in the pub which was not traditional, their modern dresses? Or the lazy Saturday drink?

What does the "traditional" Ram Sena prefer, the traditional Sari, the single six yards piece of cloth, which trust me, most girls are wary of wearing the first time because it shows almost all parts of the upper body which they have never revealed? Or the Choli with a tightly fitted blouse that ends just below the bust which when first introduced was only a front covering with the back bare? Or the churidar which is tight fitting at the hips, thighs and ankles and needs no imagination of the torso or the Lehanga, the skirt tied around the waist and thus leaving the back and midriff bare with only a flimsy "dupatta" to cover the assets?

Are they not aware that custom of abstinence (from alcohol) is a relatively recent culture? The extensive diverse fermentation and distillation of alcoholic beverages produced from fruits, grains and flowers were from time memorial part and parcel of the Indian culture and were a routine in every house hold. Have they not read the lyrical descriptions of ritual fiesta drinking by both sexes in secular literature? Haven't they heard that the abkari (excise) policies of the British colonial government, barring manufacture of alcoholic beverages at homes and transferring authority to colonial licensed distilleries, led to the revolutionary replacement of traditional alcoholic drink in households by factory made beverages? Have they not heard that the nationalist movement against the British rule resulted into mass movements against alcohol toasting as a symbol of colonial oppression?

Shame on you! I label you a terrorist who I define as someone who does not want to live and let live. Shame on you!