Indian society is forever evolving. Gone are the days of the maharajas and sultans. Gone are the days of british subjugation. Gone are days of Sati and other practices. In such a modern society anything is possible. Men and women are treated more equally than lets say 50 years ago. Caste prejudice is way more invisible now than it was then. Education system is better. Healthcare is better. India has struggled in the past to keep up with first world countries. But slowly the nation is catching up. As the nation grows and embraces progress at such a rapid pace, something else is left behind. India as a nation did not exist until the British identified us as one. What they saw in us as idol worship or elephant herders was infact the tip of the iceberg to a rich and flourishing culture which has remained intact for ages. Infact the culture when subjected to western influence was almost like forcibily contacting an uncontacted tribe. It struggled to change and adapt to its new environment. But as generations passed and children begin to grow up in a more modern world and a more progressive world, this culture seemed to have its influence diminished. Priorities changed from modesty and piety to freedom and expression of power. In such a society the older generation is mostly incapable of understanding these priority changes and hence tend to make mistakes and incorrect statements. That doesnt mean the upcoming generation is faultless. They tend to lack certain core elements that the rich indian cuture left has behind.
So when they clash there is often going to be a huge disagreement in ideals. And there has been in recent times. The current generation fights a battle for a justifiably noble cause against a supposedly archaic mindset and thought process of the old. But this doesnt meant there method of fighting is ethical. Fight fire with fire, the current strategy of the general public. If everybody in history had decided to fight the same way, Mahatma Gandhi would have just been a jailed barrister, Martin luther King's famous words "I have a dream" would have never resonated beyond his own mind and millions of subjugated men, women and children would have died in a one sided battle which had already claimed so many lives. It is a matter of principle. To show that your opinion is right, you must first be cautious of whether what you are doing is morally wrong or not. If we commit a blunder in our quest to prove our point then we are no worse than the opposition. This ofcourse in no way justifies the words of those who are wrong. In recent days there was a video making shockwaves throughout India. The woman in question made a poor choice of words and chose a poor place to use those words. The woman who was the victim of their words was justified for being angry. In such a day and age when the womens movement is stronger than ever such words are a major blow because it shows that there are still many among women who dont believe in modern feminist ideals. This may be due to what remains of (in modern terms) the archaic mode of thinking. The idea of modesty that is still redundant now. But in no way was any of that an excuse for encouraging heinous crimes against women. There is no nice way to put it but disgusting. The other side to it is that the offenders life is probably ruined and other than that, even if they recorded it and posted it, the choice of language and tone of the others around is poor. So it is fair to say that it will raise eyebrows on how they dealt with it. They were angry, yes. But if they had chosen to be calmer about it then their side of the case would have been clear. In the end the woman was wrong but represented the thoughts of many in the Indian society. It shows that the womens movement has many more obstacles than it might have earlier foreseen. It is going to be a long rocky road, but India has the capacity to change, capacity to embrace women power, capacity to break down its patriarchal society once and for all. That is going to be the modern India every citizen dreams off.