The Pink Chaddi Campaign

February 11, 2009 10:00 PM

The Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Womenof India want to celebrate Valentine's Day by sending pink chaddis (underwear) to the right-wing Hindu group Sri Ram Sena. The group says it is "not acceptable" for women to go to bars in India, and members attacked a group of women at a bar last month. They have also threatened to attack couples who publicly celebrate Valentine's Day. [Via]
posted by homunculus (34 comments total)

This reminds me of the Panties for Peace movement in Burma.
posted by homunculus at 10:13 PM on February 11

thank you for chaddis, no one gave me pink chaddis on internet before
posted by netbros at 10:31 PM on February 11

kiss my chuddies
posted by micketymoc at 10:49 PM on February 11

As a UK-based fellow traveller (and definitely a pub-going, loose and forward woman), I feel the need to send the most risque, sub-Ann Summers pink knickers I can find to Sri Ram Sena.
posted by Grrlscout at 10:57 PM on February 11

b-b-but Christians...
posted by uncanny hengeman at 11:03 PM on February 11

This isn't about you, uncanny.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:45 PM on February 11

Beat me to it; was _juuuuust_ going to post this here. :-)

This has become massively popular among pub-crawling, Facebook-ing friends of both genders; we're all sending our pink chaddis (a hint to all guys: 'chaddi' is gender-neutral) over with love to the Sri Rama Sene goons. In addition, there's also a pub-bharo ("Fill the pubs!") campaign (in the style of jail bharo ("Fill the jails!") protest move that's popular with political groups) for Feb 14th. The cops have said they'll be there to protect, but many aren't taking chances; there will also be karate experts with chilli powder roaming the streets on that day to fight these nincompoops. Many are also sending Valentine's Day greetings to the still-unmarried leader of the group.

Gandhigiri, indeed, has finally reached the urban middle-class.

The Rama Sene has responded to the Pink Chaddi Campaign with Durga Sene; they'll be sending saris to everyone who's sent pink-chaddis. While there's every reason to believe that this character was created by the television media, nevertheless, there are concerns about his links with actual terror groups.

A shame though, that the first 'attack' had to happen in Mangalore; spent a part of my childhood there, one of the culturally and linguistically diverse places I've ever been to. In addition to the city's _four_ local languages, Tulu, Konkani, Kannada, and Beary, you could speak in Malayalam, Hindi/ Urdu and English on the street. It has one of the highest literacy rates for a district, and its very-own unique eclectic cuisine, a reflection of its composite culture going back many many centuries.
posted by the cydonian at 11:54 PM on February 11 [11 favorites]

damn worlds colliding

just saw my brother in law joined the movement on facebook and piled on ;p as one of the original pub going loose and forward women who still remembers The Pub in Bangalore (now Nasa I think)
posted by infini at 12:21 AM on February 12

I can has pub slut?

At least no one got acid thrown in their face.
posted by Curry at 12:34 AM on February 12

be my chaddi-buddy. you wear mine i wear yours.
posted by whiterussian at 12:46 AM on February 12

I find it kind of odd that a culture so obsessed with love in their films (isn't that the essence of Bollywood?) finds it so objectionable in real life. I guess India really is a mass of contradictions.
posted by chuckdarwin at 1:46 AM on February 12

I know what I am calling underpants from now on. Forget the old British staples of grundies, trolleys, scants, etc. it really has to be chaddies from now on.

I also love the name of the Facebook group. I just hope no one gets hurt by the backward arseholes as the Sri Ram Sena would appear to be a repressed and thin-skinned bunch at the best of times never mind when they are getting the old Tom Jones treatment through the mail.
posted by ClanvidHorse at 2:30 AM on February 12

It really has to be chaddis from now on.
posted by ClanvidHorse at 2:31 AM on February 12

Can somebody please explain Pink Chaddi, Yellow Buddy to me? Are they all standing in a giant condom? Is the condom the Yellow Buddy? Is it even a condom, or a giant piece of toast? Why is there a coathanger there?
posted by Shepherd at 2:48 AM on February 12

Shepard, it looks like a slice of bread to me. This offers no answers, i know.
posted by 5imian at 2:52 AM on February 12

Who does X(a) think it/they is/are to try to exercise this kind of control over all X? Does X(a) not know that X includes X(b), a vital contributing part of the X community?
posted by 1adam12 at 3:27 AM on February 12

we're all sending our pink chaddis (a hint to all guys: 'chaddi' is gender-neutral)

er, but pink ones might not be. last time i was out chaddi-shopping, pink was conspicuously absent from the colours on offer.
posted by UbuRoivas at 3:50 AM on February 12

If I were a budding social scientist I would try to figure out why it is all fundamentalist religious types, no matter what their core belief is, seem to think it's OK to treat women like crap. Christian? check. Muslim? check. Hindu? check.

Oh, and if you are pub-going loose and forward woman, call me. Really.
posted by lordrunningclam at 4:35 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

and that's not treating women like crap?
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:37 AM on February 12

Slightly disappointed to find that the Consortium of Pubgoing, Loose and Forward Women's version of pink chaddis is a pair of granny-panties. Darn.
posted by orme at 4:43 AM on February 12

that's Hindustan for you. sexy underwear is not very prominent in the market.
posted by UbuRoivas at 4:54 AM on February 12

My father and I were deep in the old souk in Damascus one time when I came upon a very large gaggle of middle-aged Iranian women yelling and fighting and shouting and throwing things and generally carrying on all of them clad from head to toe in full, conservative black chadors. In the center of the chaos was a lone, shrinking peddler with a hand-cart full of very frilly, lacy, lilly white, thong underwear. Because I don't speak Farsi and I was sure that the women were angry, I asked my father if they were yelling at the man for peddling his naughty wears in front of the Shia Mosque that was near by. My father told me, "heavens no, they are trying to get him to lower his prices!"
posted by Pollomacho at 5:21 AM on February 12 [12 favorites]

This coming from the country that created Kama Sutra.......
posted by Mastercheddaar at 5:24 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

No. 11, Behind new bus stand? People really do that with Indian addresses?
posted by emelenjr at 5:28 AM on February 12

No, it isn't.
posted by lordrunningclam at 5:36 AM on February 12

emelenjr: Yeah. My apartment building, for example, does have a plot no. if you check with the registrar of societies, but there's none displayed on the front facade or near the gate. So, specifying nearby landmarks is the way to get people & post to you.
posted by Gyan at 5:36 AM on February 12

Loose and forward pub-crawling women, finding the biggest assholes in the room and just throwing their panties at them. Sigh. What else is new, amirite?
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:30 AM on February 12 [2 favorites]

Updates... the Consortium has responded to the Durga Sene:

We have heard that Mr. Muthalik has decided to send pink saris "with love" in response. We greatly appreciate this and hope he continues to choose similar, non-violent methods to get his point across, just as we have chosen to be non-violent and loving in response to the brutality of the attacks on lovers and women in Mangalore and other parts of Karnataka.

We will gladly wear the pink saris.

The ladies win this round as well!

last time i was out chaddi-shopping, pink was conspicuously absent from the colours on offer.

You'll be surprised. Those cloth factories in Tirupur can produce just about anything. :-)

Can somebody please explain Pink Chaddi, Yellow Buddy to me?

HEHEH! Well, Amul Butter is considered India's most well-known brand, and its brand icon, the Amul butter girl, one of its most loved icons. Amul Butter's cartoons have had a long and chequered history of social commentary mixed with product-advertisement; when I was growing up in India, the ad behind a slab of Amul butter (we bought butter every week; one of those socialist India things) was much a part of our Sunday mornings as the cartoons on newspapers. I think the Consortium can effectively say that their lives are complete, now that Amul Butter has noticed their effort and clearly supports them. :-)

Oh, this cartoon you ask... well, that's a silhouette of a slice of bread, and the Amul Butter Girl, who seems to be one of those Forward Women, but is actually being protected (and covered) with Amul butter. In addition, and this is a rather Indian reading which may or may not be intended, but the Amul Butter Girl is clearly being "maskaa-ed" (buttered up) to. The other cartoon is a play on a Hindi expression, "Ab tu toh gaya" ("now you're finished") and 'pub tu toh gaya' ("You'll go to a pub anyway")

Incidentally, Amul, as an entity has a rather interesting sub-history that is well-worth exploring; it initially started as a dairy co-operative against exploitative middlemen, but quickly scaled itself up into being India's biggest food-processing entity, with one of the best supply-chains in the country.
posted by the cydonian at 6:54 AM on February 12 [11 favorites]

No time to write a well thought out post or even inject some levity. Instead, I'm just going to suggest you Google Veer Savarkar. This is not without some backstory.

Oh, and what Lordrunningclam said!
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 7:07 AM on February 12

Thanks so much, the cydonian! You should FPP up Amul at some point -- that's fascinating stuff!
posted by Shepherd at 7:16 AM on February 12

This. is. FABULOUS.
posted by Space Kitty at 10:34 AM on February 12

More power to 'em.
posted by medea42 at 3:41 PM on February 12

Wow, the comments on that blog are amazing.

From the Amul entry:

Few unanswered questions

1. Why Taliban Woman Nisha Susan put up RSS Image on the her Panty Blog ? And then Removed later, if this was protest against SRS, not Hinduism ?

2. In the name of sarcasm, can I slap some one and say, understand my sarcasm in slapping you, dude ? I slap you for my personal liberty.

3. Throwing Panty is Talibanisation of Women. We all must oppose Talibanism in India, be it SRS or Pubgoing Loose Women.

4. Pub Bharo either symbolic or not, is supporting alcoholism and alcoholism must be opposed. Those supporting in the name personal freedom have no right to impose their drinking habit on others.

Bottom Line is

STOP WOMEN TALIBANISATION IN INDIA LED BY NISHA SUSAN.

STOP HINDU BASHING IN THE NAME OF TALIBANISATION

I guess it's the same everywhere. Even in India, the religious right thinks you're either with them or with the terrorists, even if you oppose them based on their misogyny.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 5:51 PM on February 12

Perhaps the pub-going, loose and forward women could appease religious right by mixing their liquor with fundy-approved cola made from sacred cow urine.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:32 PM on February 12