After being on the receiving end of outrage and protest, the hostel association of Delhi University’s Hindu College has decided to alter its tradition of worshipping the ‘Damdami Mai’ or a curvaceous goddess on Valentine’s Day, reported The Times of India.
However, this year, after multiple protests by women’s collective Pinjra Tod and other female students of Hindu College about the ‘sexist’ and ‘misogynistic’ nature of the puja, the college altered it, instead electing to worship a famous couple – Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli.
The college has long since held a puja on Valentine’s Day, during which condoms are hung from the ‘Virgin Tree’ on the college grounds. A male student dresses up as a priest and conducts the religious rituals.
Students offer prayers at the tree, an act which is supposed to bring ‘good luck’ to the student, by helping them lose their virginity within six months of the ceremony.
Protests Against the Custom
Many women students had protested this year, saying that the custom sexually objectified women. They feel that such a regressive tradition has no place in a ‘intellectual and secular space’ as their college.
Aashi Datta, a 20-year-old undergrad student of the college, told BBC: “The male students pick an actress who is attractive enough to be labelled Damdami Mai and the puja reeks of Brahminical ritual practices of caste pride.”
According to Datta, very few women actually participated in the puja and that the event is held in a “hyper masculine, aggressive environment.”
However, according to the The Times of India report, male residents of the college hostel turned violent, a female student said.
Last year too, protests had broken out, after which a decision was made that Ranveer Singh would be worshipped as a ‘love guru’.
Defenders of the Custom
Teli Venkatesh, 19, the president of the boys’ hostel union, told BBC that the event was only about “some harmless fun”, which was initiated because people wanted to celebrate love. He also claimed that many women participate in the event.
According to him, Datta was trying to politicise a harmless college event. He added that they were making additions to the event to make it more inclusive, saying that they would be selecting a couple and hanging pride flags and placards to celebrate the LGBT community.
He also reportedly said the hymn that is sung at the event would be reworded to be less descriptive of the female torso and less offensive.
A meeting between the protesters and the defenders was held on Tuesday to find a solution, reported BBC. At the meeting, a professor who was invited to give his opinion on the matter said that instead of banning the custom, the women students of the college should take over it and change it.
However, the protesters did not want to accept this, demanding that the custom be stopped for good, reported BBC.
Pinjra Tod Takes Action
Pinjra Tod had announced that they would hold protests against the custom on Thursday, 14 February. According to posts on their Facebook page, they made their way inside the college, breaking through “two gates, fighting barricades, fighting heavy police deployment”.
A video showed the women disrupting the event and waving flags inside the campus of the college.
(With inputs from BBC and The Times of India.)
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