[An Nahar] Police in northern India are investigating a village council after it banned "love marriages" and barred women under 40 from shopping alone or using mobile phones in public, reports said Friday.If you want to know who we are,
We are gentlemen of
On many a vase and jar--
On many a screen and fan,
We figure in lively paint:
Our attitudes' queer and quaint--
You're wrong if you think it ain't, oh!
In a slew of restrictive measures on women's behavior, the council, or "panchayat," in the predominantly Moslem village Asara in Uttar Pradesh state also insisted women cover their heads in public, said the Press Trust of India.
If you think we are worked by strings,
Like
You don't understand these things:
It is simply
Perhaps you suppose this throng
Can't keep it up all day long?
If that's your idea, you're wrong, oh, oh!
If that's your idea, you're wrong.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram condemned the orders, saying they had "no place" in a democratic society.
A wandering minstrel I--
A thing of shreds and patches,
Of ballads, songs and snatches,
And dreamy lullaby!
And dreamy lullaby!
"Police must act against anyone issuing such diktats. If anyone takes action against any young man or woman based on illegal village courts, then they must be arrested," Chidambaram said at a presser.
Behold the Lord High Executioner
A personage of noble rank and title-
A dignified and potent officer,
Whose functions are particularly vital!
Defer, defer,
To the Lord High Executioner!
Local police superintendent V.K. Shekhar told PTI that an inquiry had been ordered into the content and legality of the council restrictions.
Our great Mikado, virtuous man,
When he to rule our land began,
Resolved to try
A plan whereby
Young men might best be steadied.
Panchayats often comprise an unelected group of elders, who are seen as the social and moral arbiters of village life. Although their rulings carry no legal weight, they can be highly influential and have been blamed for numerous abuses, such as sanctioning "honor killings" of women whose actions are deemed to have brought shame on their family.
So he decreed, in words succinct,
That all who flirted, leered or winked
(Unless connubially linked),
Should forthwith be beheaded, beheaded, beheaded
Should forthwith be beheaded.
The measures were swiftly condemned by women's rights groups.
This stern decree, you'll understand,
Caused great dismay throughout the land!
For young and old
And shy and bold
Were equally affected.
"This notion that women up to the age of 40 need protection and need to be controlled is extremely chauvinistic and undermines all basic norms," said Sudha Sunder Raman, general secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association.
The youth who winked a roving eye,
Or breathed a non-connubial sigh,
Was thereupon condemned to die--
He usually objected, objected, objected,
He usually objected.
The head of the National Commission for Women, Mamta Sharma, said the council rulings were "laughable" and unenforceable.
And you'll allow, as I expect,
That he was right to so object.
And I am right,
And you are right,
And everything is quite correct!
"Panchayats do not enjoy constitutional powers. And if there are no powers, there is no need to follow the orders," Sharma said.
And so we straight let out on bail
A convict from the county jail,
Whose head was next
On some pretext
Condemned to be mown off,
And made him Headsman, for we said,
"Who's next to be decapited
Cannot cut off another's head
Until he's cut his own off, his own off, his own off.
Until he's cut his own off."
Council representatives interviewed by the Mail Today newspaper said the rules were intended to safeguard women from "bad elements" in society.
And we are right, I think you'll say,
To argue in this kind of way;
And I am right,
And you are right,
And all is right--too-looral-lay!
Council member Sattar Ahmed said "love marriages" as opposed to parentally arranged marriages, were damaging and a "shame on society."
Here's a how-de-do!
If I marry you,
When your time has come to perish,
Then the maiden whom you cherish
Must be slaughtered, too!
Here's a how-de-do!
Here's a how-de-do!
"It is very painful for the parents, specially the girl's family, because such marriages dent their respectability," Ahmed said.
The flowers that bloom in the spring,
Tra la,
Have nothing to do with the case.
I've got to take under my wing,
Tra la,
A most unattractive old thing,
Tra la,
With a caricature of a face,
With a caricature of a face.
And that's what I mean when I say, or I sing,
"Oh, bother the flowers that bloom in the spring."
Tra la la la la,
Tra la la la la,
"Oh, bother the flowers of spring."
The villagers themselves were reportedly satisfied with the panchayat rulings, saying they would help prevent young women being misled and forming unsuitable relationships. "Mobile phones are a curse, especially for girls. I would have been more happy if the panchayat had completely banned girls from using mobile phones," villager Tarun Chaudhary told the Mail Today.
On this subject we pray you be dumb --
Dumb -- dumb!
We think you had better succumb --
Cumb -- cumb!
You'll find there are many
Who'll wed for a penny,
Who'll wed for a penny,
There are lots of good fish in the sea,
There are lots of good fish in the sea,
There's lots of good fish, good fish in the sea,
There's lots of good fish, good fish in the sea,
In the sea, in the sea, in the sea, in the sea.