Ah, I see chacha has discovered chud Indian twitter. This particular instance is about Love Jihad - the concept that Muslim men marry Hindu girls so they are forced to convert to Islam, thereby reducing the Hindu population. It, of course, ties in with the completely repressive sexual mindset of Indian society, which forbids any contact between boys and girls that aren’t related.
There are gangs of men with hockey sticks roaming around on bikes on Valentine’s Day, looking for couples so they can beat the guy up and throw him in jail, while calling the girl’s parents to get her punished at home. If the parents themselves aren’t reactionary, then they too are accused of disrespecting Indian values (i.e. sanskar) and get a similar treatment.
Despite what it might seem as you delve deeper into this, these people are not the majority. But they are very politically powerful, because they are cultivated and protected by the corrupt politicians, police etc. Add in the worsening economic situation of especially younger Indians, joining of these organized Hindu fascist groups gives them a chance to get paid, get food etc.
The basis for this is economic and it manifests as racism, xenophobia, sexism etc. Improving economic security (paired with a crackdown on Hindu fascism and more education on cultural sensitivity issues) would massively improve the situation. But any attempt at social progress without economic progress only gives more power to these organizations, because it strengthens the notion that going back to “traditional Hindu values” is the only way to a secure livelihood.
forbids any contact between boys and girls that aren’t related
TIL Alabama is Hindu
China is not socially progressive, like at all. It’s better than places like India I assume, but that’s a really low bar.
In terms of LGBTQ rights, “Western” countries are honestly as good as it gets, as sad as that is.
I’ve always been curious to ask an Indian left-winger: do you personally think that the subcontinent’s communal situation would be better today if the partition had never happened? I’ve seen an argument that, while it would seemingly be better for stability if two groups who didn’t get along were separated into different states, that in reality the effect was just to equip each side of the feud with rocket artillery and nuclear weapons. If there had never been wars with Pakistan and Hindus had a smaller majority, would the situation for Indian Muslims be better now?
I’ve thought about this a lot. A lot of India’s policies and social life is centered around countering Pakistan. Our extravagant military budget, for one. Pakistan is used for nationalism too. If anyone is critical of India or the government, the common retort is “go to Pakistan”. When India performs poorly on global metrics of poverty, education etc., the fall back is to compare to Pakistan (which usually does worse). When people talk about lack of freedom (of speech, of press etc), again Pakistan. I haven’t even talked about how people view Indian Muslims as secret agents of Pakistan, or working on Pakistan’s behalf. It feeds into the racism, xenophobia etc. And Bangladesh is used to denounce “illegal immigration”.
The Partition was a terrible thing to happen to South Asia. Millions died, tens of millions became refugees overnight, losing their houses, their belongings, their jobs, having to move hundreds of kilometers on foot just so they could live. Most people, whether leaders of various groups, or the population at large, didn’t want the partition at all. There were very legitimate concerns about the fate of Muslims in an Independent India, which was given as a reason for the Partition, but that just made things worse. Muslims would have been a third of the population, and the Hindu fascists could do nothing about that. At that time, in the 40s, 50s, 60s, Hindu fascists were nowhere close to power. And they would never have dared to destroy the Babri Masjid, or commit the various atrocities in Kashmir, or anything of that sort.
Anyways, sorry I rambled on. Yeah, the Partition was bad, for India, for Pakistan, for everyone. The only people who’ve benefited from it are Hindu fascists, the military, and the West.
There are gangs of men with hockey sticks
I don’t know why but the fact they are carrying hockey sticks in particular just seems kinda funny to me.
Hockey sticks, cricket bats, whatever “weapon” is easy to get your hands on.
cricket bats
OK this is even funnier.
Why can’t they at least carry crowbars or hammers or whatever, if someone came at me with a cricket bat or a hockey stick I’d die laughing before they could kill me. What’s next, tennis rackets? Bowling pins?
Maybe it’s just because I find these games kinda funny. Seriously though, this sounds extremely scary.
Hockey sticks in particular catches me, is hockey somehow popular in India? If so, I assume they just play an iceless version? Or do they just shell out for the ice stadium things in that heat?
