VALENTINE’S DAY across India was marked by unrest unleashed by Hindu extremists who attacked young couples and humiliated them publicly as they deemed the festival western and decadent.
A brother and sister mistaken for a dating couple were beaten up by a mob in central Madhya Pradesh state. And six people were arrested in the northern city of Agra, home to the Taj Mahal – the monument to love built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan in memory of his beloved wife – for shaving the heads of overtly romantic youngsters in a nearby park.
But the most shocking incident took place in the small town of Jind in Haryana state, some 200km north of New Delhi, in which two junior police officers were suspended for dragging a young unmarried couple out of a house and thrashing them in the middle of a busy street in full view of passersby.
The state government has ordered an inquiry into the incident which appalled most people.
Haryana is a highly conservative state where women traditionally have few rights and where female infanticide is rampant. The suspended policemen, who were no doubt encouraged by Hindu hardliners from parties like the extremist Shiv Sena, embarked on a moral re-armament drive by blackening the faces of couples caught dating publicly.
Similar hardline activists, who claim exchanging endearing gifts and kisses on Valentine’s Day is a western practice that corrupted traditional Indian values, forced one couple to exchange vows in the southern city of Hyderabad in a mock wedding ceremony simply because they were dating.
In another equally sordid episode, a young man was married off to a donkey simply because he was with his girlfriend.
“Our culture is the greatest and we can’t allow youngsters to ape the West and indulge in indecent acts like dating,” said Satish Mann, a member of the Bajrang Dal, one of the major Hindu groups behind the threats and protests.
Extra police patrolled shopping malls, restaurants and cinemas across major Indian cities on Saturday to protect couples from such Hindu extremists who had threatened to forcibly marry young people found together.
Hundreds of potential troublemakers were also taken into preventive custody to prevent trouble, but some fringe groups managed to unleash their fury on hapless lovers.
They also vandalised shops selling Valentine cards and flowers, forcing many to shut down.
The trouble surrounding Valentine’s Day erupted last month after Hindu vigilantes calling themselves Sri Ram Sena, or Lord Rama’s Army, dragged young women out of a trendy bar in the southern city of Mangalore and beat them up.
This provoked a major public debate on values in India’s rapidly changing society and major economic power that invites overseas investment.
But a group calling themselves the “Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women” responded robustly to the extremists’ campaign by sending them boxes containing pink knickers as a Valentine’s Day gift.