A Rising Anger in India's Streets

Hindu Extremists Lash Out Against Symbols of Change

BANGALORE, India -- At a trendy pub in this cosmopolitan IT capital, Hemangini Gupta, 28, and some of her girlfriends were recently relaxing with cocktails after work. A group of Hindu men later followed them outside, verbally accosting them for drinking in a public bar and for wearing jeans.

"These guys went psycho," Gupta said. "This isn't Afghanistan. But here in Bangalore, as a young woman on the streets, if you are driving a car or in a pub or dressed a certain way, you just feel this rising anger."

The incident was mild compared with some of the violent assaults on women that have taken place here. The attacks are part of what many see as rising Hindu extremism in much of the country over the past few years, especially in places such as Bangalore, precisely because it is a bastion of India's fast-changing culture. Bangalore is home to an explosion of software companies, a lively heavy-metal rock music scene and burgeoning gay rights and environmental movements.

The growing extremism has sparked a national debate -- especially with national elections this month -- over what has become known by the Indian media and analysts as the "Talibanization of India." It features a rise of moral policing and an increasingly active constellation of Hindu right-wing groups that believe in a politicized form of religion known as Hindutva.

In Bangalore, recent street protests by Hindu extremist groups have targeted the emblems of globalization. The demonstrators have thrown rocks at the glass office buildings of call centers and software companies. They have shut down clubs that feature dancing and live music. They have hurled verbal and physical abuse at women in jeans or skirts. They have vandalized Christian churches, which are regarded as foreign trespassers.

Political experts predict that the rise of Hindu extremism will spur greater participation during India's marathon, month-long elections by the secular middle class and by those who support traditional values.

Some Indians see the growing number of attacks as a national embarrassment. The issue has resonated among young urban voters, frustrated that politicians and police have turned a blind eye or have themselves taken on the task of moral policing.

For India's young, the debate goes to the heart of India's new identity. In this fast-changing society, long-held religious sentiments about public behavior are still being negotiated in Indian homes and on the streets. The discussion is complicated by the fact that India's economic growth has been lopsided: Well-paid urban youth tend to embrace Western values, while the country's poor appear more eager than ever to stick to traditions that have been shaped by Hindu religious teachings.

"Before the IT culture, things were very peaceful. Our youth enjoyed their own Indian culture," said Vasanth Kumar Bhavani, 32, president of Bangalore's branch of Sri Ram Sene, a right-wing Hindu group involved in a string of attacks on women. "Now it's been spoiled by all these outsiders flowing in, and it's all because of this IT sector. They need to be taught a lesson."

His lesson plan apparently includes violence. In January, his followers -- 40 men wearing saffron-colored headbands -- barged into a pub called Amnesia in the southern city of Mangalore as television cameras rolled. They pulled down the skirts of several young female patrons in an effort to embarrass them and kicked others, accusing them of being prostitutes. Since the stunt, which was billed by the group as an effort to "preserve Indian culture," nearly a dozen cases of attacks on women have been reported in Bangalore.

"What they did was correct in some ways and wrong in others," Bhavani said. "When something is wrong, you have to respond. Sometimes the reaction is too much. But you must respond."

On a recent afternoon, he sipped coffee at a hotel garden in Bangalore, as his buff bodyguard hovered nearby, and said he sees his group as a custodian of Indian culture. It will soon be launching social outreach programs: visiting with tech companies and putting on street plays that preach traditional values. It will also provide marriage counseling.