Youth brigade cocks a snook with chaddis, kisses

BENGALURU : From the Pink Chaddi campaign in Karnataka to the Kiss of Love protest in Kerala, the challenge to right wing, pro-Hindutva proponents has always been cheeky, in your face, funny and effective. A vigorous campaign on social media pumps up and sustains the protests. The city’s youth have always been innovative, employing new modes of protest to challenge conservative notions of culture.It all started with the attack on girls in a Mangaluru pub by Pramod Muthalik’s Sri Ram Sene in 2009.
The backlash was spontaneous. Novel online campaigns were announced, from Pub Bharo (fill the pubs) to Hug Karo (give a hug) to sending pink panties to Muthalik. Chaddis and kisses as a protest are presumed to not only cause embarrassment but also draw attention to the fact that it isn’t acceptable to intrude into someone's privacy, citing moral reasons. Says Prof Muzaffar Assadi, a political scientist, “The Pink Chaddi or Kiss of Love campaigns are not just symbolic protests but a reflection of the resentment among youth against moral or cultural policing. There is newness in this new campaign too, since the young are mobilizing support from social media and later taking to the streets to fight for cultural space and celebrate cosmopolitanism in the era of globalization. Such protests are here to stay,’’
P Vasanth Desai, political thinker and activist, added: “New-age protests, with help from social media, have generated a sense of cohesion among the youth, and made them a collective force to mobilize against moral policing. The new form of protest also reveals a gap between youths and the political system, and solicits new approaches to established concepts of democracy.” Prof R Indira, a sociologist from Mysore, however, strongly begged to differ. “Though I am a professor with liberal views, I honestly don’t think such a new form of protest will hold much water in the long run, and be an effective tool to check moral policing.
Protests like Kiss of Love often embarrass the public and are bound to create sympathy for moral policemen. This is true, considering the majority of our society is conservative,’’ she said. Defending the newer form of protest, Subhashini S, one of the forces behind the proposed Kiss of love protest in Bengaluru said: “The idea behind our protest is basically to make it irreverent and poke fun at right-wing organizations that hold extreme ideas about how things should be. It actually worked in our favour since Muthalik has been sulking since our campaign in 2009. We want to send the same message to moral police in Kerala now.”