We have a problem in India. The government spends very little on education. In fact we spend the least amount of public money per student for higher education among all developed and developing nations (source). We have a huge illiterate population.The result is a disenfranchised idle segment of people, who are being used by all kinds of groups for their agenda. All political parties do this. Naturally extreme ideologies seem more attractive when the system has failed you and left you with no tools to survive from within. Shiv Sena (an extremist right-wing xenophobic Hindu nationalist party) is good at recruiting people from this group. So are muslim extremist groups. Usually the 2 groups quarrel and kill each other. But when Mr. Gere kissed Ms. Shetty and wounded our delicate sensibilities and harmed the fragile Indian culture, they worked together to organize the marches and effigy-burning festivities. So heartwarming.
The Indian leaders are starting to put more public money towards education (not at a rate that will make significant changes in the near future, but it is a good direction). Hopefully, as the literacy situation improves, we will see the end of such parties. The judge who issued the arrest warrant for Richard Gere will still be there. Somebody get her some psychiatric help.
In the meanwhile, the sensible people of India should keep speaking up, so these idiotic zealots don't hijack the national dialogue and define our culture for us.
There is a very descriptive account of Shiv Sena's activities in Suketu Mehta's Maximum City
. He also talks about communal riots, the mob, Bollywood, and 'dance bars' in the book. It is a good read, although it could have used a good editor who could curb Mr. Mehta's logorrhea. Apparently the censoring forces in India thought the same, so they removed specific passages from the Indian edition of the book. God forbid we offend the mob or Shiv Sena!
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