The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism Read online

probable questions are of course prepared in advance and rehearsed several times. The venues for these mega events are so chosen as to push up market in new areas. This is not without reason that in 1994 suddenly women of India became the most glamorous ladies of the world seizing the Miss Universe as well as the Miss World title. It is also not without reason that the 1996 Miss Universe contest was staged in India and it was preceded by a fortnight by the arrival of Michael Jackson, the greatest dancing star of that time in Mumbai. Obviously, all these events were the outcome of the “open” market policies of the government of India, and India being perhaps the biggest potential market started attracting the multinational companies. To stir up mass hysteria for Western style of living, the satellite TV commenced its operation as soon as the government exhibited willingness to “reform” its economic policies that would suit the market.

  The commercialisation of beauty resulted in the staging of exciting cabaret shows in hotels. The customers thronged to the hotels and were prepared to take dinner there rather than inside the sombre environs of their homes. Striptease shows became a fashion. In films, produced even in countries like India, the display of talent by the cabaret dancers became a regular feature. When the people accepted it, the main female characters started appearing in revealing costumes. The erotic magazines had already been doing brisk business in the West. It has now picked up in India with a boom of soft porno magazines in the market some of which have readers in millions.

  Prostitution, as its champions put it, is the “oldest profession of the world”. There are historical evidences to testify the existence of the flesh trade in various forms in several countries even in the pre-Christ days. But it must be noted, it was then neither common nor glorified. It was a pastime for a few covetous landlords or ruling elite. The women engaged in the flesh trade were mostly those who somehow either bitten by penury or through the guile of some corrupt relatives had landed in the brothels. They naturally did not enjoy it and exhibited as much resentment and resistance as they could. But once they got bogged in the mine of the "profession", all the doors for exit were slammed shut upon them. They would become unacceptable to society; the poor girls would ultimately have to live an unfortunate life in the same brothel. In many coun­tries like India, prostitution was limited to dancing and sing­ing. With the bathos of culture in the West, successfully instituted by the economic fundamentalist, sex became a highly profitable business. This is why the advocates of the continuance of prostitu­tion had the impetuosity to call it a "profession" and the women engaged in it “sex workers”. By describing it as the oldest profession, they sought to glorify it and remove whatever stigma was associated with it. But a constant boom in the trade necessi­tated constant, uninterrupted supply of women as well as rapid multiplication of the customers. Both these essentials required a very different approach towards sex among the masses from what “plagued” the whole world in the medieval age.

  The “medieval” approach, as the economic fundamentalists labelled it, was constructed on the foundation of shame. It regarded sex as an essential part of human life. But there were two important premises associated with it. One was that the sexual liaison was an absolutely private function that in no condition whatsoev­er could be performed in front of a third person whoever he or she was. It followed that the sexually sensuous organs were to be kept away from the public gaze. The other was that the sexual activities were not isolated from the other affairs of life in the sense that the two sexually engaged persons, obviously of the opposite sexes, must also look after each other throughout their lives or at least till they did not decide to separate. Any decision of living together or separating must be duly conveyed to society. Every wife had to confine the relationship called marriage to her husband only. The husband would also normally restrict himself to a single consort: but in special circum­stances, he could take more wives. The fidelity in sex was almost sanctimonious and any breach of it was considered to be an act of extreme repugnance that invited not only universal condemnation but also legal punishment. This well-defined approach gave rise to a well-established family system; it was to be defended against all kinds of invasions and kept pure from all the ble­mishes and profanities. Sex before marriage or outside marriage was uncommon, and anyone indulging in it could do so only clandestinely. The adulterers and fornicators were haunted not only by the fear of social stigmatization and legal punishment but also by God’s indignation. Love affairs used to be there but had mostly only emotional dimensions; sometimes an affair would continue for decades without any physical involvement. Even the slightest inkling of such innocuous emotional relations would send signals of alarm to the families of both who would either arrange for their marriage or would dissuade them from meeting each other.

  In the emerging socioeconomic scenario where economics had attained a position ahead of all other branches of the world affairs, the medieval approach was intangible and therefore, intolerable. Society had been left by the high-profile, resourceful, wily and calculative bosses of business with no option but to alter according to the commercial demands. Sex now had to go public; any expression of sexual desire in assemblies, especially, parties and personal meetings at dinner, was regarded as an indomitable act worth celebration. Premarital and extramarital relationships were promptly reconciled as normal social phenomena that had to be understood and accommodated and not countered or punished. The ball dances and disco became an indispensable feature of all high-class parties. In the West, these would be followed by overtures for sex. The inebriated couple would hardly be in any position to resist each other’s sexual advances.

  Adultery and fornication were taboo in the past; but the new culture assiduously tried to make marriage itself a taboo. Economic fundamentalism envisaged that the institution of marriage had to be weakened, preferably shattered altogether, to enhance the prospects of many markets including the market of sex. The fundamentalists reckoned that a man in the safe arms of his charming wife would be harder to trap, and a woman in the benign custody of the loving husband would not be easily available for her services. In order to derail the marriage system, a number of steps were taken. The minimum age-limit for marriage, for instance, was raised making it legally impossible for a man and woman to marry before the specified age. The rapid growth of population was presented for public consumption as the ground for this amendment in the law. Boys and girls, denied marriage, were however, always welcome to have sex before the specified age, which did not attract any legal action. Polygamy was abolished and an animated, outrageous, multi-pronged campaign was orchestrated against it wherever it continued to exist. While promiscuity was not illegal which meant that a man’s relationship with any number of women, accompanied with total denial to their social and financial rights, and those of their probable children, was sanctioned, a man was legally forbidden relations with a second woman who enjoyed all the rights of a wife. And the irony is that it was done in the name of the women’s rights. Women themselves, not properly realizing the motive of their “benefactors”, were jubilant in accepting a system wherein they could easily become wretched mistresses or casual partners (without, of course, any legal rights against their paramours) but not second wives (having full conjugal rights). Still another step was the creation of huge legal fallouts of divorce. The extra- marital relationships and self dependence in financial matters combined to result in an increasingly large number of marriages culminating in divorce. The legal stresses faced due to divorce made people reluctant to enter marriages. They would prefer to be boyfriends and girlfriends rather than husbands and wives because the “burden” of marriage, the responsibilities it entailed and the dangers of the complications in case of divorce were enough to dissuade men and women from early marriages. Live-in relationship prospered. They would like to marry only when they decide to have children.

  The opponents of polygamy used several other arguments to contend their case. They charged that it was a privilege bestowed on men. It was
conveniently forgotten that the incidence of polygamy depended on the ratio of adult men and women in society. Polygamy would increase when there are a greater number of adult women than men and would decrease when this ratio approaches one. It has usually been the case, particularly in war-ravaged countries that the women’s population far outnumbered the men’s population. If every woman’s right to marriage was to be accepted, strict monogamy could not serve the purpose. A controlled polygamy would provide the only answer and this “privilege” of man would then become a boon for deprived women as well. Further, it ensured that no man already married can continue to exploit any other woman on the plea that marrying her was not legally possible. Another argument put forward was that it would increase population. It was again forgotten that the growth of population in a particular community was dependent only on the number of adult, fertile women in that society, and had nothing to do with the number of men they were married to. To give similar right to