Kiss in the time of Moral policing

        I have seen public stand as mute spectators when people fight or quarrel (as if they thoroughly enjoy the act), but when two people kiss or show any kind of affection, we cannot stand it. I never could understand this cynical attitude of Indian society. I feel it is not merely intolerance towards any display of affection in public, this is just a pathetic and insensitive attitude of our society.Are we a society which,  despise love? Or are we a jealous society that cannot stand others happiness? There is no dearth for hate campaigns like haux ‘love jihad’(for inter-religious marriages/love affairs) by right wing groups to discourage a relation between Hindu girls and Muslim boys.

       I am concerned about the moral policing, certain people with the backing of religious fanatics think that they are the self appointed guardians of ‘Indian culture and morality’. I do not have any idea what those ‘jeans-clad’ youth did mean by Indian culture? Our culture is not only Vedas and Upanishads,but  also oppression of women and lower caste people, practice of untouchability etc.We had a culture where women are forced to jump into the pyre of men, lower caste people were treated as insects, women  had to fight for the right to even cover their breast around 150 years. All this has changed, and change is part of any society or culture. 

       Again those ‘guardians’ of Indian culture, do not have any shame to threaten the girls who participate in the ‘Kiss of Love’ campaign with rape and other obscene activities. Is that also part of Indian culture? I wonder. What is saddening is that our whole system is  sort of conditioned to believe that love or kiss is ‘immoral’, even the Universities that are supposed to enlighten the students act like a bunch cowards.What kind of generation these institutions produce?

        There is a clear gender discrimination in moral policing as well. Indians tend to believe that morality is only for women.  Unfortunately moral policing could be an act of jealous men  who couldn’t find a friend from opposite sex, or it could be an outward expression of their sexual  frustration, whatever it is , it reflects the hypocrisy of a society where rape and all forms of exploitation of women is rampant.

  I have experienced enough, the jealousy of men  in India and Kerala(where the kiss of love campaign had begun after Hindu rights group vandalized a café) despite her high education and human development index is perhaps one of the most regressive societies in India. Perhaps an ideal place to begin a campaign like ‘kiss of love.’