Indian Village Council Issues 'Diktat' For Women: No Cell Phones, Love Marriages, Or Uncovered Heads

No one, to my knowledge, has polled the inhabitants of the village of Asara, in the Uttar Pradesh state of the world's largest democracy, for their thoughts on marriage equality. If their feelings on women's rights are a hint, it's a way off. 

Raw Story reported yesterday that the "predominantly Muslim" village's "panchayat" -- a kind of coucil of elders -- has decreed that women under 40 may no longer use cell phones, lest they use them to pursue unwholesome relationships with young men. Nor may women enter into "love marriages" -- that is, marriages not arranged by their parents. And they must cover their heads in public. 

Asara's panchayat has no actual legal authority, but that doesn't mean it's toothless. From Raw Story:

Although their rulings carry no legal weight, they can be highly influential and have been blamed for numerous abuses, such as sanctioning “honour killings” of women whose actions are deemed to have brought shame on their family.

Asara's inhabitants are apparently largely pleased with the panchayat "diktats" on women's behavior ... 

... saying they would help prevent young women being misled and forming unsuitable relationships.

“Mobile phones are a curse, especially for girls. I would have been more happy if the panchayat had completely banned girls from using mobile phones,” villager Tarun Chaudhary told the Mail Today.

Police in Uttar Pradesh are already investigating the new panchayat diktats, and hope to make arrests should anyone try to enforce them. But even now, without a single arrest warrant signed, law enforcement's in trouble. From DNAIndia:

Police yesterday questioned Mokim and Mujahid, residents of Asara village, in connection with the diktat.

"Protesting the police action, a mob gathered in front of the Asara sugar mill demanding the duo's release. They beat up two policemen, who had gone there to clear the traffic jam, and torched their motorcycle," IG (law and order) BP Singh said here today.

Indian Govt. Pays $1.28 Million For Gandhi And Alleged Gay Lover's Letters

A biography of Mahatma Gandhi published last year described German-Jewish bodybuilder and architect Hermann Kallenbach the "love of his life," a detail that fueled speculation the iconic activist was into men.

The Indian government did not like this narrative at all and some regions even banned the book.

Well, the Indian government is going to even greater lengths to keep Gandhi and Kallenbach's relationship under lock and key. The Wall Street Journal reports that the government paid a bargain-priced $1.28 million to keep men's personal letters from going to auction. Obtaining the letters was deemed "a matter of highest priority."

India’s Ministry of Culture said this decision was made after experts who reviewed the archival material, mostly letters between the two men, recommended it should be acquired “as a matter of highest priority.”

The archive includes over 1,000 letters, documents and telegrams exchanged by the two men between 1905 and 1945, as well as several gifts Gandhi gave to Kallenbach over the years.

If the Indian government thinks this will erase those gay rumors, they've got another thing coming. Their urgency actually only raises eyebrows further, and without specific details from the letters themselves, the public's imagination is free to run wild. So, reader, let it run...

Now Playing: 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel'

BY NATHANIEL ROGERS

YOUR FEATURE PRESENTATION

Though some media pundits scoffed last weekend when THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL opened for business the same weekend as The Avengers (previously reviewed) it turned out to be a savvy move. Where else were the spandex averse or Downton Abbey addicts to go? (Rather perversely, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel denies Abbey addicts additional showdowns between Lady Crawley and the Dowager Countess; Penelope Wilton and Maggie Smith's stories don't intertwine much) In fact, this British retirees in India dramedy should have opened even wider since they had the nation's second best per screen average and could have cracked the top ten with far fewer theaters than the other movies.

But enough about money. Hotel manager Sonny  (Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel) is a dreamer, not a businessman. His family is losing patience with his dream and time is running out for the hotel. It's running out for the guests, too, as they near the end of their lives. The name of Sonny's establishment is actually “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for Elderly and Beautiful People”. The movie's title lops off those last five words which only proves Sonny's business model's point: he believes that countries don't care about their elderly so he'll outsource old age. Come to India and live out your autumn years!

Would you rent a room from Dev Patel? MORE AFTER THE JUMP...

Extraordinary Story Of Lost Boy; Found His Way Home Via Google Earth

On Friday, the BBC publshed an extraordinary human interest story about a young Indian man named Saroo, who was once a little boy who became very, very lost.

In 1986, Saroo was five years old, working as a "sweeper" on commuter trains with his older brother. After a day of toil, he nodded off on a train station bench, expecting his brother to wake him when it was time to catch a train home. When he awoke, he saw no sign of his brother. But a train sat at the platform, and Saroo assumed his brother was aboard. Saroo boarded and promptly dozed off again. When he awoke it was 14 hours later, and he was in desperately poor Calcutta. He was five, and didn't know the name of his own small hometown. He could tell no one where he was from.

From the Beeb:

"I was absolutely scared. I didn't know where I was. I just started to look for people and ask them questions."

Soon he was sleeping rough. "It was a very scary place to be. I don't think any mother or father would like to have their five year old wandering alone in the slums and trains stations of Calcutta."

The little boy learned to fend for himself. He became a beggar, one of the many children begging on the streets of the city. "I had to be quite careful. You could not trust anyone." Once he was approached by a man who promised him food and shelter and a way back home. But Saroo was suspicious. "Ultimately I think he was going to do something not nice to me, so I ran away."

Saroo eventually found his way into an orphanage, and was adopted by a couple in Tasmania. He settled into a new life, but was understandably intrigued by the mystery of his past. And that past would likely have stayed mysterious were it not for the advent of Google Earth. Saroo still didn't know the name of his hometown, but he remembered its landmarks well enough. From the Beeb:

"[Google Earth] was just like being Superman. You are able to go over and take a photo mentally and ask, 'Does this match?' And when you say, 'No', you keep on going and going and going."

Eventually Saroo hit on a more effective strategy. "I multiplied the time I was on the train, about 14 hours, with the speed of Indian trains and I came up with a rough distance, about 1,200km."

He drew a circle on a map with its centre in Calcutta, with its radius about the distance he thought he had travelled. Incredibly, he soon discovered what he was looking for: Khandwa. "When I found it, I zoomed down and bang, it just came up. I navigated it all the way from the waterfall where I used to play."

Saroo eventually visited Khandwa, where he found both heartbreak and something like closure. Read the Beeb for details. Meanwhile, movie producers and publishers have apparently taken an interest in Saroo's story -- as it seems likely will Google, whose Google Earth always seemed semi-miraculous anyway, though never so much as now.

 

Indian Government Clarifies it Accepts Gay Sex is Legal

India's Supreme Court has been hearing arguments in a challenge by anti-gay activists to the landmark 2009 high court verdict decriminalizing homosexuality. This week, the government embarrassed itself by contradicting its position on the issue. Today, they clarified. They are for decriminalization:

As the proceedings began in the controversial case, additional solicitor general Mohan Jain told the bench that as per the government decision there is no legal error in the Delhi high court verdict which had decriminalised gay sex in 2009.

The stand taken by Jain, who appeared for the Union health ministry, was contrary to the argument by additional solicitor general P P Malhotra, who had appeared for the ministry of home affairs and had opposed decriminalisation of gay sex.

Taking a strong exception to the change in government's stand, the bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya pulled up the Centre and asked it not to make a mockery of the system.

The AP adds: "Tuesday's statement came days after another government lawyer told the court gay sex was "highly immoral" and should be banned. The government quickly denied that lawyer's statement, prompting confusion about its stance on the law. The old law made gay sex punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Prosecutions were rare, but the law was used frequently to harass people."

Gay Artist Attacked in New Delhi at Exhibition of His Work: VIDEO

A gay artist has been attacked in New Delhi at an exhibition of his work, the Times of India reports:

The artist, Balbir Krishan, said the attacker entered the solo exhibition space at Lalit Kala Akademi with his face covered by a handkerchief. He pushed and kicked Krishan, a double amputee who has lost both his legs, while hurling insults all the while.

Krishan, 38, from a village called Bijrol in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, had received several threats over phone on Wednesday. The calls -- made from phone booths - accused the artist, himself homosexual, of "spreading" homosexuality in the country. According to Krishan, the caller said, "Tuney Hindu dharam ko bigarne ka theka laga rakha hai (You are determined to ruin Hinduism)." Before that, posters advertising his exhibition at Garhi studios and near Jamia Milia Islamia, were ripped and burnt.

The disturbing attack on Krishan and his work was captured on video.

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...