Progressive Duplicity and moral policing

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http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.p...pid=277&page=19

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->To understand what has happened one has to live, as P Sainath, probably the most knowledgeable journalist of his times did, in rural India to know how the minds of villagers work, what offends them and what enthuses them. The trouble with our media stalwarts is that their minds are urban-centred. Widely travelled, they are knowledgeable about pubs in London, nightclubs in European cities and availability of various and questionable forms of entertainment in Europe and the United States. Mangalore is not Paris. It is one of the most sophisticated towns in India but is surrounded by villages which profess different culture.

<b>Thanks to the setting-up of class universities in the districts of South Kanara and Udupi the urban centres are hosting students from over fifty countries whose presence and demands are becoming cause for concern.</b> There is palpable tension in the surrounding villages. The villagers feel threatened. Incidentally, I am speaking with authority since I live in a place surrounded by villages which I visit regularly to address children in primary classes, students in secondary and higher elementary schools and in high schools. Parents invite me to their homes and they speak freely to me. Most of them have TV sets and a large section among them express their anger at what they have to witness, day in and day out. These are not politically motivated people or people fed with fundamentalist doctrines. One suspects that they have more respect for women then our civil rights and other organisations claim to have. The women especially hate to see urban women smoking because they feel that their own daughters might get affected by this new culture that is thrust on them. They have nothing to do with the Sri Ram Sena. And for long they have been seething with anger because they have no way to protest. Our city-based editors and their dedicated secular flock have no time to live amongst the villagers and understand their concerns. And that maddens them even more. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->