The Pink Chaddi Campaign (or Pink Underwear Campaign) is a

nonviolent protest Nonviolent resistance (NVR), or nonviolent action, sometimes called civil resistance, is the practice of achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience, economic or political noncooperation, satyagraha, const ...

movement launched by ''Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women'' in February 2009, in response to notable incidences of violent

ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. '' ...

-conservative and right-wing

vigilantism Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without Right, legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a pers ...

; against perceived violations of

Hindu culture Hinduism () is an Indian religions, Indian religion or ''dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the Major religious groups, world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion ...

by women, who were attacked at a

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

Mangalore Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ker ...

. The campaign was a brainchild of Nisha Susan, an employee of

Tehelka ''Tehelka'' (Hindi: Sensation) is an Indian news magazine known for its investigative journalism and sting operations. According to the British newspaper ''The Independent'', the ''Tehelka'' was founded by Tarun Tejpal, Aniruddha Bahal and a ...

political magazine. The campaign was conceived particularly in protest against a threat by Pramod Muthalik of the

Sri Ram Sena The Sri Ram Sena (), or Sri Ram Sene, is a Hindutva-wing Hindu group founded & headed by Pramod Muthalik. It has received media attention for its acts of moral policing, including the 2009 Mangalore pub attack. Ideology The Sena is a right ...

(also spelled as ''Sri Ram Sene'' and ''Sriram Sena''), a

Hindu extremist Hindu terrorism, sometimes called Hindutva terror or, metonymically, saffron terror, comprises terrorist acts carried out on the basis of motivations in broad association with Hinduism. Such acts have principally been perpetrated by members, ...

group based in Mangalore. Muthalik threatened to marry off and take other action on any young couples found together on

Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...

. Valentine's Day is traditionally not observed in India, as it is celebrated in Western cultures.

Background

On 24th January 2009 a group men attacked a group of women in Mangalore, India. The attack was an isolated incident and allegedly carried out by members of the Shri Rama Sene. Later that month, Muthalik announced an action plan to target couples found dating on 14 February, Valentine's Day. He said "Our activists will go around with a priest, a

turmeric Turmeric () is a flowering plant, ''Curcuma longa'' (), of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, the rhizomes of which are used in cooking. The plant is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous plant native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asi ...

stub and a

mangalsutra A mangala sutra (), or thaali (ISO: ''tāḷi''), is a necklace that the groom ties around the bride's neck in the Indian subcontinent, in a ceremony called ''Mangalya Dharanam'' (). The necklace serves as a visual marker of status as a ma ...

on 14 February. If we come across couples being together in public and expressing their love, we will take them to the nearest temple and conduct their marriage. On 9 February 2009, Home Minister

P. Chidambaram Palaniappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945), better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee ...

said that "Sri Ram Sene is a threat to the country. The Centre is watching its activities with great concern".

Pink Chaddi campaign

In the midst of the tension, a protest was started by a group of young women, called the "Pink Chaddi" campaign, where they urged a peaceful protest (described as

Gandhian The followers of Mahatma Gandhi, the greatest figure of the Indian independence movement, are called Gandhians. Gandhi's legacy includes a wide range of ideas ranging from his dream of ideal India (or ''Rama Rajya)'', economics, environmentalism, ...

in the press) to all of India, by sending pink underwear ("Chaddi" in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

) to Muthalik's office on Valentine's Day. The novel form of protest was initiated by Nisha Susan, Mihira Sood,

Jasmeen Patheja Jasmeen Patheja is a human rights activist in India and was born in Kolkata, West Bengal. She graduated from Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in fine arts. She is a former Ashoka Fellow and works towards gender sensitization. She has ...

and Isha Manchanda As the protest grew, underwear started pouring in from locations all over India in solidarity for the "Love Sena". Over 500 pink chaddis were couriered on Friday. Other cities collected hundreds of such chaddis and decided to courier them directly.

Reaction to the campaign

The Pink Chaddi Campaign received widespread media coverage, and the Facebook group saw numbers of members growing exponentially in the following days. A few reports were also critical of the campaign accusing it of trivialising an important issue like attack on women. There was also political reaction to the campaign as supporters of

RSS RSS ( RDF Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a web feed that allows users and applications to access updates to websites in a standardized, computer-readable format. Subscribing to RSS feeds can allow a user to keep track of many di ...

objected to use of pictures of RSS members on the campaign blog. RSS had criticised the Mangalore attack and favoured ban on the Sri Ram Sena. The blog owner removed the pictures of RSS members following this objection. A counter-campaign calling itself "The Pink Condom Campaign" was started by some unknown activists a few days before Valentine's Day.

Preventive custody

As an additional precaution, Muthalik and 140 others of the Sri Ram Sena were held in preventive custody on Valentine's Eve.

References

External links

The Pink Panties Campaign: The Indian Women's Sexual Revolution.
by Rita Banerji in ''Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific Issue 23, January 2010 ''
Consortium of Pub-going, loose and forward women
* {{cite news, author1=Nisha Susan, title=Valentine's Warriors: The Pink Chaddi Campaign: why it began and how, url=http://archive.tehelka.com/story_main41.asp?filename=Op280209valentine_warrior.asp, work=