The Shiv Sena and like-minded groups, such as the ABVP and the VHP, have given a new meaning altogether to the expression ‘silly season.’ They have declared their intention to thwart any attempt by couples to celebrate Valentine’s Day. While Sena chief Bal Thackeray delivered his customary rant about Valentine’s Day being a corrupting western influence on Indian youth, some of the state units of ABVP want to dispatch moral police squads to apprehend courting couples and force them to marry, though its national executive denies having sanctioned this.
Unfortunately for these cultural commissars, their attempts to stifle celebrations of love have only served to popularise a festival once associated with an obscure medieval saint. Outlets selling cards, gifts and other souvenirs are doing booming business and the airwaves are jammed with love messages. What the Sena and its ilk miss is that Valentine’s Day in India has nothing to do with western culture; it has a lot to do with savvy marketing. It is celebrated with the same enthusiasm as Christmas Day, Mother’s Day and Friendship Day. And why not? Surely, it is not the erudite Bal Thackeray’s contention that Indian culture is so fragile as to be threatened by couples exchanging expressions of affection.
Much like Hindi films, festivals in India have become therapeutic. Diwali, Dusshera and Easter are less associated with religion and more as occasions of happy indulgence. Birthdays and wedding anniversaries, which it may be noted, were traditionally never celebrated in India, have become joyous social occasions. If creeping consumerism, that bane of India’s leftists and cultural nationalists alike, serves to secularise festivals, well, more power to marketing gurus.
Long ago when occasions like Valentine’s Day came to the notice of the Sena and ABVP, people may have taken their threats seriously. But today such days are observed with gusto in smaller metros as they are in the big. Why, even Saamna, the Sena’s mouthpiece, could not resist cashing in on the spirit of love by publishing an article on possible gifts to buy your beloved today. Of course, an embarrassed Saamna editor tried to reason that this was a ploy to lead Sainiks to shops selling gifts for lovers. So, let our cultural crusaders stop taking things to heart when it comes to matters of the heart. With spring in the air, give us a break.
