Is Modi sarkar afraid of a sexual revolution in India?

This morning, as part of a teaching assignment at one of the Bangalore’s leading mass communication institutes, we ended up discussing the porn ban.

In a classroom of 40, with six boys and the rest girls - all in their 20s. This was one hot subject that made sense to most.

Mincing no words and sharing a vast range of emotions, from repulsive anger towards the BJP government for force feeding Hindutva down their throats (with the beef ban, sadhvis and their child breeding logic, censorship, et al) to abject disappointment at the way Modi, considered a youth icon, is not bringing change. These youngsters feel suffocated, have sexually bottled up emotions and seem confused with the way the government is invading their privacy and freedom.

Dirty secrets

Let’s face it. Most youngsters in the land of Kamasutra grow up on a staunch, self imposed diet of sexual self discovery. Their exploration largely involves masturbating awkwardly, borrowing and buying imported porn magazines and downloading X-rated films.

In the lonely life of the average desi youth, porn plays an important role.

It is also a much needed release in a highly asexual, stifling environment of ours, where conservative parents shudder to kiss openly or indulge in any other display of affection. Especially, in homes where the youngest child still sleeps in the middle or ageing grandparents hover around. Where girls are stereotypically asked to cover their breasts and not talk to strangers waiting outside their educational institutions on bikes, hoping to catch a glimpse of their bare legs. Where a mother hides sanitary napkins and never really openly educates her daughter about what she is to expect when her school skirt is suddenly stained dark brown. Where schools treat sex education like a strange, deadly disease. Where daughters are prohibited from entering the temple, the same way they are stopped from crossing the kitchen's threshold during their period. Where young couples can’t even find a decent place to make out, leave alone have sex. The price of pleasure always high – always hidden, always hellish.

Sting of the bee

Birth control is hardly an easy choice for Indian women, confronted with sexually dominating and selfish men - preferring to pull out just in time.

The idea of contraception, in the form of a prescribed pill, is almost non-existent in India thanks to the stigma of being judged by a gynaecologist - who, in all probability, is a scarier version of the opinionated Indian parent. Adding to the misery is the availability of over-the-counter emergency contraceptives, often misused by sexually-active young women who pop the IPill - available with any chemist for Rs 1,000 to 1,500 - oblivious to its side effects. Sometimes buying the medication, sans prescription or consuming it without proper medical supervision.

Why are we afraid of sex?

"In a country that sells Khajuraho and Kamasutra to tourists all the time, why are we so afraid of sex? I mean, why not just legalise the damn thing and normalise something as basic," shouted an angry female student, at the session in Bangalore.

Savita bhabhi is the biggest example of rampant male chauvinism. Maybe, if the fictional comic book character were single, India wouldn’t have been so jittery. Can’t an Indian woman even seduce without this overarching notion of shame and sin?

Take Ahalya for example – even Sujoy Ghosh’s short film shows the lover turned into a wooden doll. Why is desire so dirty? Especially, when popular culture reduces women to the lowest common denominator, sexually. If you can watch sleazy item numbers on screen and dance to raunchy, double-meaning lyrics at discotheques, why stop us from watching porn?

Punishing porn

While the effects of pornography on young minds are highly debatable, the Indian government seems to have failed miserably in segregating what to punish and what to preserve.

Among the 857 blocked websites, five sites didn’t even contain pornographic material. The names that crop up are CollegeHumor.com, a comedy website owned by media conglomerate IAC which hosts short comedy videos that make fun of pop culture. Likewise, the video section of 9Gag hosts funny videos. Barstool Sports, a satirical blog focusing on sports and lifestyle is also banned, as was ShitBrix.com, which collates internet memes and factoids. Even social media content aggregator PopURLs was blocked as per the order.

Is the BJP threatened by the new Indian youth? Is their sexual brazenness and urge, their bold lifestyle and clothing choices, their casual lingo and rejection of austere sexual authority, too hot to handle?

Dare to bare

After a point, it is unnerving: The way Sanskrit is being reintroduced in school curriculums, the insistence on performing yoga as the penultimate means for achieving physical fitness, Baba Ramdev’s presence at IIT-Delhi, the stubbornness to remove Gajendra Chauhan from FTII – does it all hark back to our insecurity with the right to sexual freedom of a new generation of Indians who search for Sunny Leone on their latest phones and increasingly shun the idea of arranged marriage? To those who treat infidelity casually, find monogamy outdated, are bisexual or not afraid to be gay, openly? Whose personalities are an extension of their sexuality.

Is Western liberalism easier to blame than our own moral perversion? Is the porn policing a threat that seeks to punish India's sexual revolution? The state playing the role of the bad cop, in the guise of the good cop? Sex a palpable threat. A disruptive, socio-cultural practice, a report card with ugly red marks - the sum of all our failures. Our national libido uncovering our deepest hypocrisies and failed justices.

Is the Indian youth not adult enough?

Will they pay the price for a sexually squeamish political regime?

Is their swacchata still debatable? Should it be sternly disciplined?