Moral Policing Attitudes in the Society Ma Sociology 2018-2020

MORAL POLICING ATTITUDES IN THE SOCIETY A CASE STUDY ON THE EXPERIENCES OF DIFFERENT MORAL POLICING VICTIMS IN THIRUVANATHAPURAM MA SOCIOLOGY 2018-2020 i TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT CHAPTERS TITLE PAGE NO I INTRODUCTION 1-10 II REVIEW OF LITERATURE 11-21 III METHODOLOGY 22-24 IV CASES PRESENTATION 25-30 V THEMATIC ANALYSIS 31-41 & DICUSSION VI FINDINGS, SUGGESTION 42-46 & CONCLUSION BIBILIOGRAPHY 47-49 APPENDIX 49-51 ii ABSTRACT The present study titled “MORAL POLICING ATTITUDES IN THE SOCIETY: A CASE STUDY ON THE EXPERIENCES OF DIFFERENT MORAL POLICING VICTIMS IN THIRUVANATHAPURAM” is to understand the different moral policing attitudes existing in our society. It is been conducted on people who either reside or study in Thiruvananthapuram district and has experienced moral policing in their lives. The study is been conducted using qualitative methods. Moral Policing is not an uncommon scenario in Modern India. It refers to the process through which certain groups or individual tries enforce a code of morality either harming or non harming. The cases of moral policing are on a high in India and Kerala. These kinds of activities are considered to be illegal under the legal law. It is said that certain groups harm people in the name of moral policing with the support of the political parties and cops. The voices of the people who undergoes such activities are paid less interest. In a nation where everything has a secular and democratic face such activities seem to be less focussed. However, a culture of silence exists in showcasing the experiences of the moral policing victims. Therefore, taking into consider such activities. The study had laid emphasis on understanding the experiences of the victims who had been in different moral policing situations. There exists a need to shower light over such activities happening in our society and provide a clear understanding regarding the experiences of the victims to the people in the society. There is indeed a need for the people to understand the intensity of such activities taking place in the society. iii CHAPTER-1 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” – Martin Luther King. In modern times a state is adjudged, evaluated and known by the just governance and the effectively of its system to deliver justice. As Justice J.S Verma had rightly remarked that, “Human dignity is the quintessence of human rights”. MORAL POLICING Moral policing is mainly termed to refer an umbrella category of vigilante groups and individuals who act to enforce a code of morality. Several vigilante groups that claim to protect the Indian culture. They resist and oppose cultural concepts that they deem to have been imported from the Western culture. Many people in the country have accepted them but there are some people who are not willing to accept them and will neither let others follow them. These people start to protest against these trends and culture as well as against the people following them. This is called moral policing and the group of people who do this are called the moral police. According to these people, the western trend is spoiling our culture and spoiling the youth population of the country. They think that in India there is no place for the western culture. India has its own culture and it should follow that. They also think that if some tries to follow the western culture in a form which is against the Indian culture should be punished. If the Indian law does not have any provision to punish them, it becomes their responsibility to punish these people. For this, the moral police groups attack pubs and bars, shut down exhibitions. In some areas, they also oppose western dresses, love marriages and occasions like Valentine’s Day, kiss day, hug day etc. sometimes, their actions get so violent that they are not even accepted by the law. “Moral Policing in India” is quite interesting because of its subjective nature. Moral Policing in its broadest sense could mean a system where a strict vigil and restriction is imposed on those who violate the basic standards of our society. The basic standard of our society could be found in its cultures, age-old customs which are derived from the scriptures and ancient texts like Ramayana, Manu smriti, and other relevant religious texts. The basic duty of a moral police is to uphold their cultural values wherever they feel it is in danger by the existence of an alternative culture, and they especially presume even if it is not that the alternative culture tries to violate and destroy the existing Indian culture. Consequently, such kind of moral policing is an act of ‘conformity’ which makes it really difficult for the alternate culture to coexist with the Indian culture and often it is deemed as a 1 dangerous situation because it leaves not even a tiny space for difference and toleration to exist which leads to altercation and conflicts in the society. They have been known to attack bars and pubs. Some of these groups have attacked or have forced to shut down art exhibitions, where they claim obscene paintings were being displayed. They have issued diktats against western attires. The conception of this phenomenon contravenes the secular nature of our Country as well as its Constitution to some extent if we speculate and assess the outfits which are involved in promoting their conservative beliefs and ideologies. Apart from this vigilante groups the common man is also a part of this morality keeping policing. People who came forward with this moral policing usually consider themselves upholding the Indian culture, they raise their voice and stop private interactions as they consider it offending their Indian culture and traditional norms of the society. Such kind of people are in all areas of society be it institutions, common public places, government firms, localities, political agendas upholders, police people etc. Some members of the media have also colluded with such groups. There have been instances were politicians supported these viewpoints and such activities. Mainly these groups or individuals tries to sort out or prevent the happening of obscenity or other activities which they deem is against Indian culture. Literally the word ‘obscene’ means chastity or modesty whereas legally the word ‘obscene’ means the tendency of which is deprave those whose minds are open to immoral influence. The term obscene is a wide term whatever vulgar and indecent cannot be attached to it. Sections 292 to 294 in the Indian Penal Code (IPC), dating back to 1860, were used to fight against or to prevent "obscenity," a term whose scope was always perhaps intentionally unclear. Today, "obscenity" remains in the eye of the beholder as the age-old trend in moral policing gathers fresh momentum. Cultural values and moral standard differ from nation to nation, simply sexually explicit is not obscene in Western countries the same may be considered obscene in India. The acceptance of different patterns of elements of ‘decency’ or ‘morality’ differs from country to country. Moral policing has been hastened recently due to fake rumours which are usually spread on the social networking platforms, but parts of rural and small-town India remain profoundly traditional. Rag tag entities are so intoxicated with destroying anything that is alien to the Indian culture, then they should destroy that very culture which is an assimilation of several cultures, some of which do not belong to this land. Further, the so-called Indian culture, with which such groups are so obsessed, has predominantly Aryan 2 imprints and even a cursory glance at eighth standard History books will be enough to know that Aryans came from the Steppes of southern Russia and Central Asia (alien lands with an ‘alien’ culture). And a majority of the Indians, especially in the Indo-Gangetic belt, are a descendant of those Aryans and as such outsiders. So, these brigands may very well think of destroying them. The very thought of such an act is horrifying Women walk a few paces behind their husbands and some still wear face veils. The list highlights the cultural flux that India finds itself in. Many young urban Indians are guilty of all the don'ts — and worse. Dating and premarital sex, for example, are rising. The roots of moral policing were laid down in the very essence of the idea that the Indian culture needs to be ‘protected’ from falling prey to the vices of the western culture. More often, acts of moral policing aren't as violent, but they can still result in criminal complaints. Parents usually have a reputation to be strict and controlling about morality, and their children tries to uphold and take up their parent’s moral values. The rising western culture have resulted in moral policing activities says the nationwide data. There are families which resist and oppose cultural concepts that deemed to have come western culture. Moral Policing in extreme cases tends to violence, killings and damage to property. Moral Policing is some cases affect the artistic creativity and innovations. MORAL POLICING: THE INDIAN CONTEXT Moral policing is a very predominant phenomenon in India. In a world that is rapidly modernizing both in terms of socio-economic development as well as collective thinking, India seems to be taking a step backward. ‘Moral policing’ is reported y national media’s one of the many means employed to make the conventional orthodox and dogmatic culture homogenised among the mass to invoke a false consciousness of what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’. Moral policing is a gripping example of radicalization of ideology at play. Often, when we scroll through our social media newsfeed or flip through the pages of the daily newspaper, we come across instances of ‘moral policing’.

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