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Lesbian film fires up Hindu hardliners
By Sudha Ramachandran

BANGALORE - The controversial new Bollywood film Girlfriend, with its depiction of a steamy lesbian relationship, is drawing fire from Hindu right-wing organizations in India. Activists belonging to Sangh Parivar, Shiv Sena and its students' wing, Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Sena, have been staging violent protests in various Indian cities, demanding that the movie be banned.

Girlfriend is about two women in a relationship; one of who becomes interested in a man, the other who gets possessive over her partner and turns psychopathic.

Girlfriend is a c-grade movie. Film critics have trashed the movie. Women's groups have described the movie as "highly regressive" and "pornographic", aimed at drawing audiences through its titillating scenes. Lesbians have criticized the movie as homophobic for its very negative portrayal of same sex relationships. Indeed, Girlfriend portrays lesbians as psychopathic, sexually abused, man-hating murderers.

But the Hindu right wing's quarrel with the movie is quite different. The crux of their argument is that homosexuality is "immoral" and not a part of Indian culture. Lesbian acts are unacceptable to them as it is subversive of the patriarchal order and institutions like marriage, which they defend in the name of tradition. They believe that the movie is an affront to Hindu values.

Shiv Sena has criticized the movie claiming that it goes "against the grain of Indian culture by portraying scenes of lovemaking between two women". A member of its women's wing told Asia Times Online that films like Girlfriend are "a bad influence" and a "blot on Indian culture". "When most Indian women do not know about things like lesbianism, why expose them to it?" she asked.

"Women seeking satisfaction from other women is alien to our culture," says a member of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP). "We will not allow films like Girlfriend to poison our women by making them curious about immoral things."

Meanwhile K S Sudarshan, chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has railed against the film for trying to corrupt Indian society. "The movie seeks to introduce such ideas [of homosexuality] in our society," he said, adding that these "are the practices that have cost society dear and are responsible for new diseases like AIDS". Meanwhile, the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has called for a review of the movie by the censor board. "The film does not mirror the realities of the Indian society," a BJP spokesperson said. The party has demanded that "shots which are objectionable" be removed."

The right wing's violent campaign against Girlfriend is a replay of a similar drama it enacted in 1998, when the Shiv Sena and other organizations unleashed violence across the country to halt the screening of Fire, a movie which explored a lesbian relationship between two sisters-in-law. At that time, the Mahila Aghadi, the Shiv Sena's women's wing, had petitioned the government against Fire. The petition stated that "if women's physical needs get fulfilled through lesbian acts, the institution of marriage will collapse" and "reproduction of human beings will stop".

Unlike the raunchy Girlfriend, Fire, directed by Deepa Mehta, dealt with the relationship between the two women with some sensitivity, although it too reinforced prejudices by representing homosexuality as an option forced by conjugal neglect. Violent protests by Shiv Sena and others halted the shooting of another Mehta movie, Water, which focused on the plight of widows in the Hindu temple town of Varanasi.

For the Hindu right-wing parties, Girlfriend could not have been released at a better time. The BJP and Shiv Sena have still to recover from their defeat in the recent elections. Sangh Parivar and its friends in Shiv Sena are looking for issues to draw the attention of their traditional supporters among the conservative Hindu, urban middle-class.

Shiv Sena and Sangh Parivar see themselves as guardians of Hindu culture and tradition and claim to be resisting "immoral, Western influences" by opposing the screening of movies like Girlfriend. In recent years, the Hindu Jagran Manch, Shiv Sena and Sangh Parivar activists have sought to disrupt the celebration of Valentine's Day. Shiv Sena leader Bal Thackeray describes Valentine's Day as a "shameless festival" that is "totally contrary to Indian culture". Every year, Shiv Sainiks go on a rampage on Valentine's Day, throwing stones at glass windows and burning down shops selling cards and other Valentine's Day merchandise. They have started disrupting celebrations on Christmas and New Year's as well. In some parts of India, these organizations have imposed a dress code on women. In Kanpur, a city in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Sangh Parivar prohibited women from wearing jeans to colleges and imposed the wearing of salwar-kameez with a dupatta (traditional Indian attire).

Sangh Parivar and Shiv Sena espouse a Hindutva (a Hindu supremacist) ideology. In their scheme of things, India is a Hindu country. All other religions, Islam and Christianity in particular, are foreign and therefore not Indian. A Western style of dressing or the celebration of Christian festivals by Hindus is unacceptable to them. Their narrow interpretation of Indianness and their misinterpretation of the essence of Hinduism irks many Indians, including Hindus, who do not want Sangh Parivar, self-appointed custodians of Hinduism, to tell them how to be good Hindus. Besides, they see Shiv Sena's opposition to "crude, western culture" as rather self-serving and hypocritical. In 2000, Shiv Sena rolled out the red carpet to Michael Jackson in Mumbai and raised no objections to his style of dancing.

That Shiv Sena and Sangh Parivar's claim that lesbian acts are "foreign" to Hindu culture and therefore regarded as "dirty" is seriously flawed. Sculptures in Hindu temples such as the one in Khajuraho are erotic and include lesbian representations. A perusal of ancient Hindu texts would indicate that Hinduism allows women considerable sexual and cultural choices and rights.

In December 2002, VHP leader Vishnu Hari Dalmia said that young girls "should not allure men by wearing jeans" as this was not "Indian culture". But not dressing up is just as inauspicious according to Hindu tradition. A Hindu woman is supposed to look alluring; it is her sacred duty to do so. "The culture cops in the Sangh Parivar might want to think twice before they order women to live according to Hindu tradition," points out a female professor in Mumbai. "If a Hindu woman really began to exercise her cultural and sexual rights as per ancient Hindu texts, the Sangh Parivar would find itself protesting every day."

It is not only the Hindu right that is out to police people's morals in India. The Muslim clergy too is guilty of this. Islamic militants in Jammu and Kashmir, for instance, impose the burqa (a full veil) on women. Wearing jeans is also forbidden.

Catholics too are not lagging behind in getting women to dress according to Indian culture. In Bangalore, several colleges have imposed a dress code on their female students. And it is the Catholic institutions that have spearheaded the move to get girl students to "dress according to Indian culture". Girls are expected to wear the salwar-kameez and wearing jeans or sleeveless dresses to college is strictly forbidden.

The Hindu right's agitation for a ban on Girlfriend is spreading across the country and has gathered momentum over the past week. Meanwhile, the curiosity generated by the controversy has prompted thousands to go see the movie. In the process, a movie that would have failed at the box office is on its way to becoming a hit.

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Jun 19, 2004

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