A rchive Date
[ 15-02-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ India ]
|
[http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSTopNews/india_feb14-ap.html
Indian Hindu nationalists protest Valentine's Day
Thursday February 14, 2002
NEW DELHI (AP) - Gangs of Hindu nationalists accosted couples holding hands, burned Valentine's Day cards and blocked access to gift shops and restaurants Thursday, trying to keep people in India from celebrating what they called an invasive western tradition.
In one case, dozens of members of the Shiv Sena party, a nationalist group that opposes the West's influence in India, surrounded an American woman and European man holding hands as they strolled in the capital of New Delhi.
As more than 40 police officers stood by watching, the nationalists, wearing scarves and headbands in the sacred Hindu colour of saffron, blocked the tourists from moving on and shoved anti-Valentine's Day handbills written in Hindi at them.
Traditional Indian society does not approve of public displays of affection between the sexes, including hand-holding. Many couples cuddle or sit together in parks, however, and Indian movies show couples embracing and dancing seductively.
Nearly three dozen right-wing Shiv Sena volunteers attacked a shop and burned Valentine's Day cards in Rajkot, a city in western Gujarat state, police said.
The protesters later stoned the shop and smashed its glass front. Two young girls shopping for the cards suffered minor injuries, police said. Rajkot is about 175 kilometres west of Bombay, police said.
The Shiv Sena party, a part of the coalition government of Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has repeatedly called for a ban on Valentine's Day celebrations.
Members of several groups that want to change India from a secular to a Hindu-governed country have in past years trashed restaurants and card shops on Valentine's Day.
On Thursday, Shiv Sena activists stood outside card shops in Bombay, India's largest city, warning customers not to buy Valentine's Day greetings and threatening owners not to stock such wares. Other groups held bonfires of Valentine cards.
Police arrested 16 students when they tried to hold a protest demonstration at a local college. Six hundred were arrested in Bombay the previous night to prevent a repeat of last year's vandalism, police said.
"People are free to follow observances that are personal and peaceful," Bombay Police Commissioner M.N. Singh said.
Hindu nationalists forced the closure of shops selling Valentine's Day cards in a shopping area in Lucknow, the capital of northern Uttar Pradesh state, police said. They harassed some young couples buying gifts from these shops, police said.
Valentine's Day has become more popular each year, with newspapers printing personal messages, interviews with movie stars on their thoughts about love, lists of the latest gifts and the history of the holiday.
In western Gujarat state, university students held parties, with heart-shaped balloons as decoration. In the northeastern state of Tripura, couples sat together on lawns or benches in parks to mark the day.
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
Cross-Indexed:
|
|