Whether it takes place in Afghan wastelands, in Mangalore or in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian republic of Gilead, one thing is obvious: every form of religious coercion involves the regulation and control of female behaviour. In a disgraceful incident, around 20 members of the Sri Rama Sena, a stray sprout of the Bajrang Dal, barged into a pub called Amnesia in Mangalore and roughed up the young women drinking there — “in the interests of society”. “There are some activities going on here that spoil Hindu tradition. We’ve just shown our frustration at that assault on Indian tradition. We don’t like such indecent behaviour and tried to stop it,” said a spokesman.
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