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Now they come after Valentine's Day

On Valentine's day, when lovers celebrate with their spouses/partners/(boy or girl) friends/etc/etc, a bunch of hoodlums in Kanpur attacked a gathering of couples and disrupted the party. They claimed they were protecting Indian (Hindu?) culture from the all pervasive globalisation (Westernisation) of culture. Backing them in faraway Mumbai (aka Bombay) Bal Thackeray, the ageing tiger with no claws, roared that since the West does not celebrate the romance of Laila-Majnu, why should Indians celebrate Valentine's Day?

This attack on a bunch of party hoppers is more complicated than it really appears. At some level, all of us have felt uneasy with the crass commercialisation marketed in the name of love. In fact, one company, Archies, which started by producing staid greeting cards way back in the mid-80s is today a large and prosperous company. And it made its fortune selling 'Days' such as Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, all of which today's middle aged people only read about in the comic books!

But Archies and a host of other companies now also sell birthday greetings, and greetings for Holi, Diwali, Id, and even the smaller fests have now got greetings. In all the years that my family celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi and Makar Sankranti, we never sent or received a greeting card, but now they are freely available. Whether this is good or bad really depends on your age. Youngsters would welcome it, oldies would blanch!

It is a sociological fact that when change overwhelms us, we seek refuge in traditions. This is a universal law, applicable to Indians as much as to people in other parts of the world. In this reaction, people invoke traditions rooted in religion and history. Thus, some people break up a Valentine's Day party and say it is a Western custom that has no roots in India. In one sense they are right, but then many of our present habits and customs, at least of the urban people, have their roots in Western influences.

For instance, virtually all those who read this article would have celebrated their birthdays as children by cutting a cake. This is a Western tradition, yet today it is a ritual in most Indian middle-class homes, along with the other religious rites carried out on birthdays. At Indian weddings, grooms wearing a suit is common, at least during the reception. Are we going to suddenly stop cutting cakes or wearing suits now?

With the influence of the mass media, Indians will become more and more aware of other habits, lifestyles, and incorporate those into Indian lifestyles. It is inevitable. Thus, Bal Thackeray is roaring up the wrong tree. Valentine's Day has been celebrated in Bombay's colleges since the 1980s. It is a harmless, fun day for the students, and frankly, it is not going to stop now. Thackeray's threats may only make the celebrations muted, but the clock cannot be turned back. In fact, as television and the Internet spread into India, such celebrations will only grow.

One more reason for such festivities's growing popularity is their non-religious roots. Most Indian festivals are rooted in religion. Peruse the calendars and most of the holidays are for some religious function or the other. And the non-religious holidays of Republic Day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti are seen more as chores than joyous days, at least by the youngsters.

Thus, there is no real harm in celebrating functions such as Valentine's Day (if Thackeray so desires, why does he not designate a Laila-Majnu Day?), or Mother's Day or Father's Day. To state that "everyday is Mother's Day" is to miss the point. We don't buy gifts for others every day but on specialoccasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, and perhaps a Mother's Day can be added to that list.

But in all this, there is one important point that must not be overlooked. Those people who objected to the party's are also objecting to the class divide that permeates Indian society. The truth is that celebrations such as Valentine's Day, etc are indulged in by the better off classes, youngsters who think nothing about blowing up Rs 5,000 in a single day. That is what more than what some earn in the entire month.

These poor people can hardly afford to celebrate functions day in and day out. Many of them are desperately saving up for their children's future education or marriage. Many of these youngsters struggle to find decent-paying jobs, add qualifications that can help them acquire such jobs, all because they were born in the poorer families.

And it is their resentment at being excluded from the India that is racing into the 21st century, leaving behind huge segments of society still struggling to overcome their poverty-stricken present, that breeds such conflicts. It is the resentment of the smaller towns that see the distance with the bigger metros as increasing rather than decreasing. No wonder the violence occurred in Kanpur and not in Bombay or Delhi where the Valentine's Day celebrations were much bigger, and hence more difficult to disrupt, whereas in Kanpur the celebrations were much more limited.

Violence cannot be justified, but it must be understood to prevent it. The spate of violence that rock our urban cities and rural areas are the manifestation of growing anger of the denied classes. Today, the lower-middle classes have television, they can see and read about the envious lifestyles of others, and their envy turns to resentment and anger. This in turn manifests itself into violence, often in the name of protecting tradition. Their attitude is very simple: "If we can't have fun, why should you?"

Unless we in India work to bridge this yawning gap, Indian society will always remain vulnerable to the anger of the poor. And neither the rich nor the poor can live happily after in such a situation.

Amberish K Diwanji