Something wicked this way comes

THE ATTACKS have not stopped. I have received at least three emails about attacks on women in Bangalore for wearing jeans / drinking / being free individuals.

One victim has blogged about the horrific incident:

And as soon as they turn around in protest, the car doors are flung open, and a stream of 4-5 rabid men run out towards these women, screaming obscenities in Hindi and Kannada against women in general, fists flailing. Some of us who came in running at the sound of the screaming brakes now stand in the middle in defense of our women, and then blows start raining down. One of the goons make a couple of calls over the cellphone, and in seconds a stream of other equally rabid goondas land up. They gun straight for the women, and everyone – a few well-meaning bystanders, acquaintances who know us from the restaurant, basically everyone who tries to help the women – starts getting thoroughly beaten up.

Saturday: Protest in Bangalore

DEFEND THE RIGHT TO LOVE

Date: Saturday, February 14, 2009
Time: 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Location: Mahatma Gandhi Statue on MG Road at 12 o’clock. We will walk through MG road and Brigade road

Nothing Moral About It

By Anuradha Prasad

When I first heard about the Mangalore pub incident, I was not surprised. Ever since the BJP came into power, as glad as I was to see the Gowdas go, I felt some apprehension. ‘Moral policing’ and communal conflicts always seem to ride on BJP power.

However, it was later, when I watched the videos that captured this disgusting act, that I was horrified, angry and sickened. The government’s lack of immediate action, the speeches against ‘pub culture’, the lack of remorse about what they are doing in the name of ‘morals’ left me indignant.

Sunday: Say, I am – a performative walk.

Students of Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, have organized a choreographed demonstration against the mangalore attacks and the statements that made after that. This walk is on Sunday, 8th Feb, 4 pm onwards.

Protest against Mangalore incident in Delhi

Protest against Assault on Women in Mangalore Pub and State Inaction

We condemn the brutal assault by members of the Sri Ram Sene on young women in a pub in Mangalore, Karnataka, on Saturday, 24 January 2009. We are shocked by the response of the State administration, police, and political leadership, some of whom have dismissed this as a ‘minor incident’, while others have blatantly justified the violence. We believe that such threats to the democratic freedom and human rights of citizens, cannot be treated as ‘minor’. This incident, and the unabashed justifications of it are part of a larger trend to curb the freedoms of women in the name of a regressive and distorted notion of Indian culture and tradition.

To strongly condemn the disturbing trend of violence against women and ‘moral policing’ as a means to enforce a particularly regressive interpretation of culture, there will be a protest on Tuesday 3rd February, outside Karnatak Bhavan, Chanakyapuri (near Samrat hotel), Delhi, at 3 pm.

Jagori, Nirantar, Saheli, Sama

An Open Letter to the State Government from the Women of Karnataka

We fear for lives of women in this state… is the Government listening? Is there a Government in this State at all? Or is it only a political party whose highest priority is its own regressive right wing agenda, which violates the responsibility of governance?

In one of its latest acts of bigotry and intolerance, members of the Sri Rama Sene and the Bajrang Dal barged into a lounge bar on Balmatta road in Mangalore and viciously attacked the girls who were present there. Their crime: Firstly they were indecently dressed and second, despite being Hindu, they were daring to socialise with Muslim boys. Prasad Attavar, State Deputy Convener of the Sri Ram Sene said that it was “a spontaneous reaction against women, who flouted traditional Indian norms of decency.”

And what was the spontaneous response from the government to this absolutely uncultured act of violence against young girls in the name of culture? Not surprisingly a studied silence from the powers that be and total inaction and apathy from the subservient police force in South Canara.

Of Need and Exploitation: Domestic Workers in Karnataka

‘I BEGAN WORKING when I was ten. I used to look after a child for which I was paid ten rupees a month. Today I am almost forty and I continue to work as a domestic maid. The difference is that my bones ache and I do not have the same energy. This is what happens to most of us who do domestic work. This job has no PF or ESI or anything like that. We work at others’ houses our entire lives and are left with nothing at the end,’ Maariyamma is angry but she continues to chop the double beans with great ease.

Patriarchy’s Brutal Backlash: Acid Attacks

KEROSENE, POISON and now, acid — the new weapon against women. Haseena, a 19-year-old girl from a middle class family was attacked with acid in 1999 by her boss because she turned down his marriage proposal and refused to continue working in his office. Two litres of pure sulphuric acid were poured on her. In 2000, Noorjahan, a mother of two children who ran a tea cart in front of a factory, was attacked by the factory owner’s son. In 2001, Dr Mahalakshmi, a doctor in Mysore, was attacked with acid by her landlord; later in the same year, Shanthi, a teacher in Mysore, was attacked by her husband. The list goes on.

Remembering Siddamma

IT WAS ONE OF those rainy days at Yarakana Gadde Poodu, a cluster of houses near BR Hills in Chamarajnagar district of Karnataka. One could hope to meet Jalle Siddamma only on such rainy days when she did not go into the forest and nobody came in search of her. I made my way to her house through the slushy paths overgrown with grass and plants. I found her sitting in front of the house feeding her grandson a bowl of rice. This is when I first met Siddamma. It was five years ago and Siddamma was seventy at the time.