Making India Awesome by Chetan Bhagat

Author:Chetan Bhagat [Bhagat, Chetan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2015-08-18T18:30:00+00:00

The Real Dirty Picture

By shunning pleasure we are simply turning ourselves into a society of liars and hypocrites.

Few things bring out Indian hypocrisy more than any reference to sex. We blush, pretend it doesn’t exist, look the other way, change the topic, hate the person who brought it up and do whatever we can to avoid confronting a healthy, balanced discussion on it.

In fact, many say sex is against Indian culture, a bizarre notion for a country that reproduces faster than most others. Perhaps what the culture-protectors are saying is that sex for pleasure is bad. And since Indian culture does nothing bad, sex is against Indian culture. Hence, politicians maintain a public stance about women covering up and pre-marital sex being immoral, and censor anything remotely sexy.

And yet, I can bet a number of politicians and babus watch porn. Remember the incident in Karnataka in 2012, when some ministers were caught watching porn in the state legislative assembly? In fact, most people who have access to porn watch porn. While only a few have the daredevil spirit and stupidity to watch it in a legislature, they all consume this product that is super deadly to Indian culture. In fact, a significant number of women watch porn too, though they may not get as excited about it as say, a 50 per cent sale on their favourite handbag.

So why are we like this? Why are we so two-faced about something so natural? It is a difficult question to answer, but we weren’t always this way. Our ancient texts, such as the Upanishads, discuss sex in an explicit manner. The Mahabharata refers to Draupadi’s polyandry. The temples in Khajuraho leave little to the imagination.

Perhaps our attitudes changed during centuries of Mughal and Victorian rule, both not exactly known for their liberal attitudes. Add a bit of Brahminical puritanism to it and somewhere down the line, Indians began to frown upon all pleasures, particularly sex.

Hence, we have heavy taxes on alcohol. And of course, states like Gujarat have banned alcohol. Movie tickets carry an entertainment tax, quite unjustified as people buy them with their already taxed income anyway. I am quite sure that if the government could, it would tax sex.

However, none of these prohibitions and taxes works. People drink anyway, even if they have to consume cheaper-quality, more harmful stuff. Alcohol is easy to source in Gujarat, and has led to a massive illegal bootlegging industry. People who cannot afford movie tickets watch pirated movies, thus hurting the film industry.

The simple fact that governments and culture-keepers don’t realize is this—you cannot stop people from doing what they enjoy. In a country like India where enforcement of law is weak, this is even more applicable. By shunning pleasure, we are not preventing people from experiencing it. We are simply turning ourselves into a society of liars and hypocrites.

And that is the important question. What is worse? Watching porn or being dishonest?

Our pornography laws (enacted in 1969, surely no pun intended) are archaic.

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