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[FONT="]Condom condemned….. in theland of Kamasutra and Khajuraho…..!!![/FONT][/h][h=1]
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[FONT="]Hindu Dystopia CelebratesCondom Ad Ban. What’s Changed?
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[COLOR=rgba(54, 54, 52, 0.6)][FONT="]People gather to observe the International Condom Day at an event organised by Aids Healthcare Foundation (AHF) in New Delhi. (Burhaan Kinu/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
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[h=5]Snapshot[/h][h=1]·
The condom ad ban – ostensibly done to keep our homes decent and nice. But what’s behind this new wave of purism that didn’t find place in the Hindu way of life before?
Front curls tossed in disorder
Earrings scattered
Beads of sweat smearing the sandal paste on her brow --
Now her eyes droop as astride her companion she finishes.
May the face of this lady protect you
Vishnu, Shiva, Brahma,
The gods mean nothing...
Agastya, the protagonist in Upamanyu Chatterjee’s hugely acclaimed first novel,
English, August, is slyly, surreptitiously asked the same question by his oily-haired office staff and the fashionably plump collector’s wife: “Are you married?”
In the small upcountry town where he is shipped out as a rookie Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, curiosity about him is as understandable as the hushed tone in which he is asked, “Are you married?” In the answer to that question lies locked the mystery as to whether Agastya beds a woman, legitimately, and is not unknown to the pleasures of the flesh, legally.
It was also an accurate depiction of how middle-class India views sex. Homosexuality is abhorrent; heterosexual union is passingly acknowledged but stoutly denied public acceptance. Dirty people with filthy minds copulate. A woman who actively seeks sex is the Biblical harlot by the road. A man who does that is a philanderer. Even Ganga can’t wash their mortal sin.
Sanskari men and women fulfil their marital obligation by producing children, including the mandatory son, miraculously, almost magically. Credit for the fruit of the loin goes to god almighty –
ishwar ka den hai (it’s god’s gift). Virginal births are a common phenomenon in hypocrisy-ridden middle India. Neither man nor woman is tainted.
Yet, it was not always like this. Hinduism was a liberating experience for body, mind and soul. The higher traditions of Hinduism did not distinguish between the sensual and the spiritual, nor did they draw a veil over the carnal desire of men and women, both as a yearning for the union of their bodies and oneness with the other. Jayadeva’s soul-stirringly lyrical tribute to this desire remains unmatched.
Hinduism, we have long forgotten, was a religion to live by, as Nirad C Chaudhuri eloquently put it in his eponymous book. Our ancient indigenous literature and texts bear testimony to this fact.
Kumara Sambhava by Kalidas is only one example. From Konark to Khajuraho, our temples celebrate the Hinduism we have lost. Vatsayana’s
Kama Sutra is a treatise on the way we were, once upon a time.
Somewhere we lost our way and began copying ‘virtues’ that were alien to our culture and civilisation, trading them with the ‘vices’ that defined who we were. Faux renunciation and fake chastity became the new standards of public and private life. Shame and sin entered our religious discourse. Women with desire became sinful sluts. Men who pursued carnal pleasure were to be shamed and shunned.
Read more at:
https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/hindu-dystopia-celebrates-condom-ad-ban-whats-changed
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