Namaste Believer ji,
I want to acknoweldge that you are speaking to native Indians here and I am not one so feel free to ignore me. While I agree that it is kind of strange at first look that there might appear be some attack at a suggestion that Indians should take back some of their own cultural pride through dress. But if analyzed I think many have said that more cultural pride would be nice and the dress is beautiful. Not one person has argued against this. And respectfully, I kind of wonder at your own logic in defending his comments because once you look past the surface they really don't seem to be about cultural pride at all. I don't believe the negative reactions are about that, but on the actual point he is making - which while I would like to call it subtext is really not all that cleverly hidden at all.
I'm very sorry to disagree but it looks very much as if Yesudas himself is denying exactly that.
To quote from the article in the OP, (emphasis mine):
I see no call to return pride back to culture here. This sounds like a guy is uncomfortable with his own libido and women getting 'uppity' and joining in society more actively, and is blaming women for it. He's a bit hot under the collar so everyone else should bow to his desire to "not be bothered" by others lest they somehow "force" him to do something. If only I could ask the same of every person who sometimes bothers me, and credibly blame them for my own actions to boot. But then I don't have such a public face with which to make such sweeping requests."Women should not trouble others by wearing jeans. When they put on jeans, men are tempted to look beyond that (jeans),” he said. “Women’s beauty lies in their modesty. They should not try to become like men. They should not force others* to do unnecessary things by wearing jeans...”
Good Christians know that part of the point of Temptation is that it's a Test from God to overcome the Temptation. If he's such a good Christian, he should probably be working more on this than making comments asking society to take a step back into the middle ages for his own comfort and those like him. How very Christian of him. Next why not ask Women to cover their hair, since it's well known that the Angels can't control themselves when they see a Woman's hair. We certainly wouldn't want to start having Nephilim running around all over again, that wouldn't be good at all. Honestly, speaking as someone who has grown up within a Christian culture, in this quote he speaks more like a Muslim from a Sharia state.
I admit do not really know this man, though it's true he has an amazing singing voice, but any public figure who decides to use their Celebrity as a platform to speak on a social issue should expect a backlash from those that disagree, particularly on a hot-button issue. I'm going to go out on a limb and bet that he knew exactly what he was doing when he used his Name to launch this op-ed through a media interview, and he probably knew the publicity it would get him too - or his publicist did, because as they say, there's no such thing a 'bad' publicity.
All this said, your point about reclaiming pride in the cultural heritage is sound - and I don't think that's at all what he was talking about. Perhaps you don't, but I see Indian people taking pride in their cultural heritage all the time, even when they aren't dressed in Sari or Shalwar. You don't need to wear it ever day to appreciate or take pride in it, and wearing it every day doesn't mean you apreciate or take pride in it either. Clothes do not make the person or the Culture. People do that themselves. Taking pride in Cultural History and Heritage doesn't mean people or society need to stay stuck in the past, that is stagnation. Restricting one group's freedoms because it makes another group uncomfortable is injustice.
Ekam sums up my feeling on earlier comments perfectly, as does the student mentioned in the article. Bindu Krishna, from the same article sums up my feeling on Yesudas' statements perfectly as well (Not claiming I would always agree with him, but he's on point here):
That's it in a nutshell for me. Viraja ji did ask about final thoughts after all. I'm sure my comments will have detractors, either on point or on my making them at all, but that's it for me. I risk becoming a broken record...“His comments are not fit for a civilized society,” said Krishna
~Pranam
* Ok, what??? Who is trying to force who to do 'unnecessary things' here? Wow.
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