Posted on 08/14/2003 11:57:02 AM PDT by dighton
GUWAHATI: Young lovers in the northeast are outraged at separatists and other pressure groups imposing a ban on dating in restaurants and marriages outside the community.
The Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), a rebel group fighting for an independent homeland for the Meitei majority community in Manipur, on Monday clamped a ban on restaurants and cafes having dimly lit cubicles.
The KYKL says restaurants having dimly lit private cabins were “encouraging pre-marital sex” among young lovers. The rebels warned of “drastic action” if anyone violated the prohibition.
The ban, however, does not apply to restaurants with a common hall that don’t have partitions and private cabins.
The militant ban on restaurants with low lights follows a campaign by women’s groups in Manipur that have ransacked several such dimly lit cafes in the past one month, roughing up couples found in such cafes.
The ban has angered young couples, but then in a state riddled by insurgency people generally don’t speak out openly for fear of reprisal.
“It is wrong to presume that someone sitting in a private cabin in a restaurant would indulge in sex. There could be one or two cases, but to generalise that all couples make love in a café is nonsense,” said Ranjita Devi, a college girl in Imphal.
In adjoining Nagaland, the powerful Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) has imposed a ban on tribal Naga girls marrying Bangladeshi migrants.
“Any Naga girl marrying an outsider should not be allowed to acquire property in the state,” NSF leader N. Lotha said.
The ban on marrying outsiders comes amid allegations that a large number of Bangladeshi nationals enter Nagaland and get married to local women for material gains.
Regional governments in the northeast too accuse illegal Bangladeshi migrants of entering the states to look for odd jobs and then marrying local girls to settle down there.
Earlier this week, at least 11 separatist groups in the northeast called for a ban on the screening of Hindi films in cinemas, saying traditional ways were under threat from increasing Indian influences.
The ban will come into effect from November 15 in six of the seven northeastern states, barring Mizoram where no rebel groups officially exist.
Popular Hindi film star Raveena Tandon Monday ridiculed the rebel ban on screening Hindi films in the northeast.
“How can some militants speak about morality when they themselves go about murdering people?” Tandon, who was in Guwahati, asked addressing journalists.
In Manipur, the KYKL had earlier imposed a traditional dress code for women in the state and threatened a death penalty. The code prohibits women from wearing trousers or saris in public. Instead they have to don traditional sarongs known as phaneks.
Many of the region’s rebel groups have taken up campaigns in their respective areas of operation to ban drug addiction and alcoholism.
“Many of the rebel bans have actually been adhered to with people scared to violate their diktats out of fear although some prohibitions are really ridiculous,” a women’s activist in Imphal said.
There are at least 30 rebel groups active in the northeast with demands ranging from secession to greater autonomy and the right to self-determination.
Over 50,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency in the northeast since India’s independence in 1947.
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