In India, a public kiss is not just a kiss
A warrant for Richard Gere's arrest is part of the nation's struggle to come to terms with its views of women and sexuality.
By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the April 30, 2007 edition
Page 1 of 3
NEW DELHI - Sitting in the shade nibbling on her vanilla ice cream cone, Kirna Mohra isn't the sort of person to burn an effigy of Richard Gere.
She knows that people in India have done just that – furious at the American actor's abrupt kiss on the cheek of a Bollywood starlet at a charity function earlier this month. She also knows that last week an Indian judge issued a warrant for Mr. Gere's arrest.
It is all a bit over the top, Ms. Mohra says. But were Gere's actions appropriate? "No," she says, after a moment of grandmotherly reflection. "From generation to generation, we have not had that in our country – it's not our culture."
India is a nation struggling to come to terms with its own views on women and sexuality – and kissing has become a symbolic line in the sand for India's self-appointed stewards of tradition.
Public kissing brings a $12 fine in Delhi. Yet onscreen, Bollywood heroines sigh and gyrate to rhythms that might make Hugh Hefner blush. Last year, political opponents called on the chief minister of the state of Rajasthan to resign because she offered a ceremonial kiss of welcome to a businesswoman at the World Economic Forum.
"The kiss is the threshold marker," says sociologist Shiv Visvanathan. "It represents the more Western notion of sexual behavior."
The judge who issued the warrant for Gere's arrest called the kiss at the AIDS-awareness event "highly sexually erotic." Gere says he was playfully reenacting a scene from his film, "Shall We Dance," by sweeping actress Shilpa Shetty into his arms, dipping her, and then giving her several pecks on the cheek.
He has since apologized, saying in an issued statement Friday that "the dance move was a naive misread of Indian customs."
Gere has blamed the furor on right-wing "moral police" playing politics with any perceived corruption of Indian values. He is right, say analysts here, who add that the warrant is not likely to survive legal scrutiny.
RSS feed
