Ban on Dancing in Bangalore

I once thought the movie Footloose was a work of fiction, and here I am in a country that has a city living the actual movie. No dancing in bars! I wish I was kidding. But I'm not. I have heard that there are several different reasons for the ban, such as they want to lower the chances of rape, that they want to promote a healthy lifestyle, they want to prevent westernization, and that it is the combination of drinking and dancing that is the problem (if you've seen Footloose this one was preached on that movie as well). No one can really put their finger on the real reason, but now the bars are closing at 11:30pm, and the cops show up precisely at 11:30pm waving their bamboo night sticks harassing the customers to leave and get home.

First my issue is with the fact that politicians think that dancing is a "western" thing to do. India boasts some of the most amazing dancing in the world, their movies (Bollywood) are all about dancing and singing numbers. Dance is a huge part of their culture. Yes, perhaps the bar scene is more a western thing, but, dancing?? I mean, really?? How is dancing and drinking corrupting the minds of the youth?

Now if the ban on dancing is to prevent rape, well I just don't even know if i want to justify this with an educated response. Everyone who is educated knows rape is about power, and not about sex. You can get raped while wearing a snowsuit, or a bikini. You can get raped anywhere, anytime, if eliminating rape was as easy as banning dancing, I am sure the many rape victims would have protested clubs and dancing ages ago. Give. Me. A. Break.

India is a democracy, the choice should be up to the person. Bangalore has become the "silicon valley" of India, and young people are moving from all over India to work here, westerners come to work here, so to me it just doesn't make sense. A democracy means having the right to choose. I'm so damn flabbergasted with this new ban I just don't even know what to say.

Here are some quotes from the movie Footloose....

Reverend Shaw Moore: "If our Lord wasn't testing us, how would you account for the proliferation, these days, of this obscene rock and roll music, with its gospel of easy sexuality and relaxed morality? "

Ren: "What did David Do? What did David do? What DID David do? David DANCED. Leaping and dancing before the lord. LEAPING AND DANCING."

Reverend Shaw Moore:"Even if this was not a law, which it is, I'm afraid I would have a lot of difficulty endorsing an enterprise which is as fraught with genuine peril as I believe this one to be. Besides the liquor and the drugs which always seem to accompany such an event the thing that distresses me even more, Ren, is the spiritual corruption that can be involved. These dances and this kind of music can be destructive, and, uh, Ren, I'm afraid you're going to find most of the people in our community are gonna agree with me on this."

Ren: "We danced, we danced our asses off."

I remember when I watched this movie, I thought what would I do if i lived in a place that banned dancing? I love to dance. I dance when I'm happy, I dance with my friends to celebrate, I dance when I'm sad, and I dance to have fun. Having this part of my life taken from me, would be difficult, very difficult.

So my words of wisdom, come from Kenny Loggins himself;
"Everybody cut footloose, you're playing so cool, obeying every rule, dig way down in your heart, you're yearning yearning for some, somebody to tell you, that life ain't passing you by, I'm trying to tell you, it will if you don't try you'd fly if you'd only cut, loose footloose."

Come on Bangalore, lift the ban on dancing, trust your youth to make the right decisions. You can't hand hold them their entire lives. People need to grow up and make their own choices eventually!!