Whilst watching a Hollywood rom-com with a couple of contemporaries of mine, the thought to pen this article came to me. The film as usual had lots of young fellows, getting together for prurient parties. This twain who my consorts were, asked me a casually as to when will Indian society become so ‘happening’. By ‘happening’, what they meant was, when would we have so many women socialising so freely, in such ambience and such negligible dressing? I couldn’t help but laugh wryly, for these very guys would ogle gleefully at a passing woman till she became conscious, and then discuss as to how inappropriately she were dressed.
Supply and demand is the basis of every transaction in the world of business. Be it the global crude oil prices or the vagaries of vegetables on the corner shop. The season, and therefore the availability of a particular food item decide what price one has to pay for it. I’ll take this concept further later.
There is a quaint nondescript town along the Black Sea in Russia. Apparently, a Russian Tsar set up this city about hundred years back. When he wanted to move lot of people to the maritime area of Black Sea, an unpopular destination those days, he ordered that a large bunch of pretty women from big cities of Russia be packed off to this new settlement. He knew that the men would follow in droves and soon he’d have a thriving and balanced community. While men did follow, not as many did as the Tsar had imagined it to be. Anecdotal evidence of present day is that men command a huge price in this land of eves. They easily marry pretty girls, and when the girl isn’t pretty anymore, switch on to a younger model. The men themselves are lazy and complacent, and prefer to lounge around while the women forage for them. Clearly, the tsar’s dream of a balanced community didn’t fructify.
Brasil, with its Latin culture has been a country with relaxed mores and a characteristic easy going attitude. Samba and the Brazilian carnival with gyrating women in kitschy outfits is what come to mind. The fact that the carnival is held on the streets and not in a shady lounge is an essential element of the event. The key point being made is that, this carnival is a true representation of the Brazilian culture with its pageantry and gay abandon. Brazil has always had a skewed sex ratio in favour of women. The result is that, women aren’t reduced to precious commodities which have to be shrouded in secrecy and covered in burqas. In fact, it’s precisely the other way round. The women play an essential part in productive end of the society and often go all the way to Europe and rest of the world to make a living.
Among the Asian countries which have worked very well towards emancipation of women, Vietnam and China figure on the top of the list. Arranged marriages were banned by Mao Tse Tung when the CPC formed the Govt in 1945. He believed that equality can only be provided to women if the very basic element of the society, the family is targeted with egalitarianism. Women in Vietnam played a huge role in keeping the country up and running when the men were burrowing their way along the undulating landscape of North Vietnam. Not only the households, but also all the businesses were run by them. Today, Vietnam boasts of a society where women contribute equally in not more than the men. They participate not only in bringing up the young ones, but run shops, businesses and are part of the burgeoning manufacturing industry. Pretty fashionable young women in high heels sweeping the roads- it’s not a scene from a fantasy but a reality in Vietnam. From being in economic pits in 1975, the country has made rapid progress and rates higher than India in UN HDI today. In my stay of 4 days in Vietnam, I spotted only 3 beggars.
A hundred loud debates, a thousand interviews later, the problems that the patriarchy system in families of this nation has engendered are well known by now and I need not elaborate any further. I’ll only say that what we see on the streets are only symptoms of a disease that’s festering behind the high walls of joint family compound.
The home, which was to be a place for inculcating moral values, civic sense and tents of propriety, are turning into factories churning out desperate souls who mask their evil side well inside the four walls only to unleash it on the world outside. The Home is a subset of a ‘society’. What goes on in the house has to remain in the house for washing dirty linen is public has helped no one. Besides, what will people say? The definition of ‘society’ for most of us extends up to a mohalla , a housing colony or a village.
Becoming a social pariah plays on everyone’s mind and often results in the person conforming to the societal rules and so not affect the peace and tranquil of the quaint village, in which 70% of India lived. But Indian villages today aren’t as quaint as they used to be, and surely 70% do not live in them anymore. Urbanisation has reached the doorsteps of most villages and often basic facilities expected in a village house include a Refrigerator- TV is universal.
The term coined for this movement towards modernisation is Rurbanisation- where rural areas are increasingly becoming as well endowed with facilities as urban. While a massive amount of Rurbanisation goes on, people with average education are being subjected to incessant amount of television- Shows that are often based in A1 cities, with the protagonists aping western morals. The inherent conflicts of this input are quite apparent. Faux representation of urban society to semi-educated youth, who aspire to reach these cities for a life out of stifling rural mores, becomes a cherished dream for him. The village youth themselves have been brought up on a diet of mail superiority. Watching the slick programs set in a fantasy land, spewed on television, creates a unique mix of confusion and angst in him- The angst that will one day affect the very city that he aspired to live in.
There are very few of us who haven’t been to a village at some point in time. This time often was the formative years of our life and the impression of the formative years sometimes last a lifetime.
Bringing equality to the masses is no easy task. It took a revolution in China and a war in Vietnam to bring that. The west evolved along these cherished principles over a period of more than a century. But we can’t afford to wait a century for the evolution for the period of opportunity is now. India will be past the demographic dividend from the year 2050 ie. The working population will begin to decline and the retired people increase. The fruits of globalisation which are flowing thick and fast to neighbouring China are only trickling to us thanks to the lack of planning at every level.
In egalitarianism, we’ll have added huge numbers to the working hands, grabbed fruits of globalisation with both hands, and most of all become a balanced and well rounded society, as the tsar dreamed for the Russian town. The nation will have become more than just a market for flimsy consumables.
The answer I gave to the question in the beginning was, It’s simply demand and supply, we have more men on the streets than women so your ‘happening India will happen “the day you allow your sisters and daughters to dress up like that and let them be”.
