Over the past couple of years, I've come across the phrase 'blurring of boundaries' a hundred times, with respect to literature (merging of genres, less high brow attitude to high vs low lit, acceptance of literature from various countries and cultures into the literary canon, etc.), films (lesser distinction between art and commercial cinema with the advent of multiplex culture, intertwined genres again, diaspora movies attempting to 'bridge' the gap between the East and the West), nations (globalization, the European Union, internet) etc.
The same is now being said about the sexual preferences of Indians - the LGBT pride parade being heralded as an example of how India, or at least Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta are 'ready' for a change and are more understanding and accommodating of people with different orientations. The boundaries between the two extremes - male and female - being blurred by transgenders, hijras, et al. Such an open outlook may exist, or may not exist at the moment.
Yet, the boundaries still exist. And some are very difficult to erase. Relationships for example, and their nomenclature. We are so used to fitting every relation neatly into a category under a specific name. When a name does not exist, or multiple options present themselves, it creates problems. To quote from innumerable Hindi movies, what was the relationship between Lord Krishna and Radha. If we keep aside moral issues for a while, for the sake of hypothesis, if a father begets a daughter from his daughter, what relation gets primacy? Is father or grandfather more acceptable. Is mother or sister more prominent a link? How about the man's wife? What relation does she have with the newborn. This is a relatively simple and straightforward example. There exist a million such cases all around us (including the famous Khushwant Singh joke). As long we stick to the boundaries of definitions etched out long, long ago, we will run into problems - increasingly so as the society propels forward at breakneck speed.
The same is now being said about the sexual preferences of Indians - the LGBT pride parade being heralded as an example of how India, or at least Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta are 'ready' for a change and are more understanding and accommodating of people with different orientations. The boundaries between the two extremes - male and female - being blurred by transgenders, hijras, et al. Such an open outlook may exist, or may not exist at the moment.
Yet, the boundaries still exist. And some are very difficult to erase. Relationships for example, and their nomenclature. We are so used to fitting every relation neatly into a category under a specific name. When a name does not exist, or multiple options present themselves, it creates problems. To quote from innumerable Hindi movies, what was the relationship between Lord Krishna and Radha. If we keep aside moral issues for a while, for the sake of hypothesis, if a father begets a daughter from his daughter, what relation gets primacy? Is father or grandfather more acceptable. Is mother or sister more prominent a link? How about the man's wife? What relation does she have with the newborn. This is a relatively simple and straightforward example. There exist a million such cases all around us (including the famous Khushwant Singh joke). As long we stick to the boundaries of definitions etched out long, long ago, we will run into problems - increasingly so as the society propels forward at breakneck speed.
4 comments:
Nice first paragraph...
Thanks!
I know it was just an example you gave to illustrate your point, but would you call incest 'propelling forward'?
No, I wouldn't. And while I was writing, I didn't even realize they were so close together in their placement. When I was thinking of 'society propelling forward', I was thinking of live-in relationships (where probably, a decade or two down the line, having children would become acceptable, the way I see it - in which case, would you still call every such person a bastard, and would bastard still have such a negative connotation) or relationships where parents get divorced and enter into a second nuptial bond - that's three marriages considering only one pair - what about their children, will it continue to be a relationship of hatred/apathy depending upon the situation, or will the boundaries between step-siblings blur? And I'm not necessarily thinking of India at the moment. There probably are numerous such cases in the US and other countries already. What happens there? I'm not aware, but I'd like to know.
It's these boundaries that I'm talking about. Marriages are not 'till death do us part' promises anymore, not to a much larger percentage than a generation back. As this attitude propagates through more people, won't we be running into problems trying to define everything in 'neat' categories.
So, no, I didn't mean incest as propelling the society forward, but there may come a day when it's acceptable. What then? Do we have answers, or will society change and adapt itself, as it probably always has, to fit everything that happens withins its purview?
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