Some of you may have heard the news a couple weeks ago of women who were attacked at a bar in India.  If not, you can read an article about it here.  What happened was members of a group called Sri Ram Sena attacked several women for drinking at a bar and dancing with men.  The group even brought along its own camera crew and videotaped the whole thing.  Not surprisingly, the attack set off a firestorm of debate about women’s freedoms in India.

Thousands of men and women have mobilized online to voice their disapproval and outrage at the attack.  One of these campaigns is called The Pink Chaddi Campaign, organized by the Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women.  I may be mistaken, but my understanding is that chaddis are panties or knickers.  Anyway, the campaign is two-fold.  The first part is to send as many pink chaddis as possible to Sri Ram Sena, the group that attacked the women.   The second part is to go to a bar or pub on Valentine’s Day (today) and raise a toast to Indian women (it’s not necessary to drink alcohol – the point is to make the toast in a bar).

So far, almost 32,000 people have joined the campaign in little more than a week.  They started as a Facebook group, so you can look them up there, or go to their website.  You can also read articles about the campaign here and here.

Now here’s some food for thought.  Sri Ram Sene is planning to disrupt Valentine’s Day because it believes the holiday goes against Indian culture.  The group’s chief, Pramod Muthalik, said,  “Valentine’s day, Friendship Day… all these are international conspiracies against our culture.  They are exploiting the girls by calling it a lover’s day.  Love cannot be for a single day.”

What do you think about that?  Setting aside, for the moment, the fact that this group actually attacked people…what do you think about the justification for their actions?  I’m really interested to hear your thoughts on this because these ideas have recurred throughout history time and again…fighting foreign influences, using religion to drive power struggles, protecting the virtue of women, etc.  How do you tell when people have crossed the line, even when they justify their actions by what appear to be noble goals?

Thanks to G, who has a profound understanding of how powerful pink chaddis can be.