The Kiss of Love protest was a non-violent protest against moral policing. It started in Kerala, India, and later spread to other parts of the country.[3][4][5][6][7]
The movement began when a Facebook page called Kiss of Love called forth the youth across Kerala to participate in a protest against moral policing on November 2, 2014, at Marine Drive, Kochi.[8][9] The Facebook page garnered more than 154,404 followers.[10][11] After the initial protest in Kochi, similar protests were organized in other major cities of the country.
In the 2000s and early 2010s, there were a series of high-profile incidents of violence against individuals for perceived obscene conduct. Attacks were carried out by both police and vigilante actors.
Activities
Origins
The Kiss of Love protest began in October 2014 when Jai Hind TV, a Malayalam news channel owned by the Indian National Congress, telecast an exclusive report on alleged immoral activity at the parking space of Downtown Cafe in Kozhikode.[21] The video showed a young couple kissing and hugging each other.[22] A mob of attackers, who were later identified as belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, vandalized the cafe following the report. Following this, a group of friends from a Facebook page called 'Freethinkers', started the Facebook page 'Kiss of Love'.[23] Activists from all over Kerala decided to protest against the series of moral policing incidents by organizing a public event at Marine Drive Beach, Kochi on November 2.[24]
On November 2, 2014, activists gathered at Marine Drive, Kochi to express solidarity with the movement against moral policing. A planned march proceeded from the campus of Ernakulam Law College to the venue, during which the police took around 50 activists into preventive custody, citing law and order issues.[25][26] Various religious and political groups also gathered on the protest grounds to physically prevent the activists from kissing and hugging in public.[27]
Kerala Police was criticized for its failure to control the event.[28][29] Police allowed counter-protesters—which included members of Shiv Sena, SDPI, and Bajrang Dal—to attack the protesters.[30] Although they attempted to physically stop the Kiss of Love protesters from legally protesting, none of the counter-protesters were removed.[29][31] Police later claimed that they arrested the Kiss of Love protesters to save the protesters' lives.[32]
Further activities
The protest went viral on social networking sites and in the news media.[10][11] The opposing groups allegedly compelled the Facebook authorities to block the Kiss of Love page through mass reporting[33] on November 3.[34] All of the administrators' profile pages were blocked as well. One of the administrators said that the Kiss of Love page had 50,000 members at the time of blocking. The page was reinstated later that day and the number of members soon crossed 75,000.[35] Supporters of the campaign had been posting pictures of them kissing on social networking sites.[36]
Kollam-based women's rights activist Resmi R Nair was the co-founder and spokesperson of the Kiss of Love protest.[37] Another activist, Rehana Fathima, also participated in the protest along with her partner, filmmaker Manoj K Sreedhar.[38]
A group of students at Maharaja's College, Ernakulam protested against moral policing by conducting an event named 'Hug of Love'. All the participants were later suspended for 10 days by the college authorities for violating their code of conduct.[39]
Another group of students from the Government Law College Kozhikode organized an event called Hug of Love on 10/12/2014. Authorities took this as an act of indiscipline and served show cause notice to participants.
A protest against moral policing in Thiruvananthapuram with kisses and hugs under the banner 'kiss against fascism' was conducted before the Kairali theatre complex during the 19th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK) on 13 December 2014.[40]
Kiss In The Streets
A Kiss protest dubbed 'Kiss In The Streets' was organized on 7 December in Kozhikode. Right-wing opponents of the kiss protest issued threats before the event, stating that protesters would be stripped naked in public if they attempted to kiss.[41] The event was marred by violence towards the protesters by Shiv Sena and Hanuman Sena.[42] Police caned and took the Kiss of Love protesters and their opponents into preventive custody.[43] Protesters claimed that Kerala Police were more brutal than their right-wing opponents.[44]
On November 8, a group of protestors demonstrated by kissing and hugging outside RSS headquarters in Delhi.[54] While JNU students were at the forefront, there were representatives from several universities in the city such as Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Ambedkar University Delhi, and National Law University.[55] Hindu Sena members arrived on the scene stating that the "Western culture was corrupting and degrading Indian culture".[56] Hindu Sena members tried to physically attack kissing couples.[57] On November 9, a similar protest was organized by students on the JNU campus, in solidarity with those who courted police action at the 'Kiss of Love' event in Kochi on November 2.[58] A Kiss of Love event that was scheduled for 30 November in Bengaluru was canceled when permission for the protest was denied by Bengaluru Police.[59][60]
Legality
Section 294(a) of the Indian Penal Code states that "Whoever, to the annoyance of others, does any obscene act in any public place shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, or with fine, or with both".[61] IPC does not define the word 'obscene', hence it is interpreted differently by different authorities. The Supreme Court has noted that '"obscenity" should be gauged with respect to contemporary community standards'.[62]
The court has also observed that the 'standards of contemporary society in India are … fast changing' in Chandrakant Kalyandas Kakodar vs The State Of Maharashtra And Ors (1969).[63] Regarding 'contemporary community standards', the Supreme Court has noted that it is not 'the standard of a group of susceptible or sensitive persons' that can be held as the standard of the community, in Aveek Sarkar & Anr vs State of West Bengal And Anr (2014).[64] Regarding social morality, the Supreme Court has observed that "notions of social morality are inherently subjective and the criminal law cannot be used as a means to unduly interfere with the domain of personal autonomy" in S. Khushboo vs Kanniammal & Anr (2010).[62] Now regarding kissing and hugging in public places, the Supreme Court of India has made it clear that 'no case can be made out' of two people consensually hugging and/or kissing.[16][17] The Supreme Court gave this verdict in response to a petition by actor Richard Gere to quash the arrest warrant issued by a Jaipur court. The arrest warrant was issued after the actor had taken Shilpa Shetty in his embrace and kissed her on the cheek at an AIDS awareness program.[65] A verdict by the Delhi High Court has also made it clear that kissing in public is not a criminal offense.[66]
Opposition
Kiss of Love was met with opposition and criticism from certain sections of Indian society.[3] Several religious and political groups such as Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, SDPI, Sunni Yuvajana Sangham, Vishva Hindu Parishad, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal, Hindu Sena, Campus Front, Samastha Kerala Sunni Yuvajana Sanghom, Pattali Makkal Katchi, Hindu Makkal Katchi, and the Ernakulam wing of Kerala Students Union opposed this movement.[12][13][14][15] These opposing groups claimed that public display of affection is against both Indian culture and the law of the land (under section 294 of the Indian Penal Code).[67] The Kerala State Women's Commission opposed Kiss of Love stating that it was against the culture of Kerala.[45][68]
The proposed Kiss of Love event in Bengaluru received opposition from several quarters. Manjula Manasa, chairperson of the Karnataka State Women's Commission, described the event as uncivilized.[69]Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, several Congress and BJP leaders, and various Hindutva proponents also opposed it.[70] Bengaluru Police refused permission for the event, stating that kissing is an obscene act.[60][71]Pramod Muthalik of Sri Ram Sena, the organizer behind the 2009 Mangalore pub attack, threatened to take the law into his hands if the campaign was held.[72]
Vigilante attacks
In June 2014, a female theatre artist and her male colleague were detained in police custody for traveling together at night, which stirred protests against moral policing on social media. Hima Shankar and her friend Sreeram Rameshand were arrested because they were traveling in a two-wheeler late at night. They were not released from the police station after the parents came and clarified the issue.[73]
In July 2014, police arrested a couple from a beach in Alappuzha for suspected "immoral activity" as the woman was not wearing any accessories to suggest that she was married.[73]
A month earlier, police were accused of asking for money from young couples traveling on motorcycles threatening that they would inform the girl's father.[74]
In June 2011, an IT professional, on her way to work at Kochi's IT park, was accosted by a group of drunken men because she was riding a pillion on a male colleague's bike. The drunken men argued with her, and then abused and slapped her.[75]
In 2011, a man was discovered to have had an affair with a woman in his village. A group of 15 men beat him to death with rods and sticks. All of the accused were sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2014.[76]
In April 2013, an artist from Kochi was harassed by two policewomen when she went for a stroll on Marine Drive with a male friend.[77]
In February 2013, in Vatakara, Kozhikode, a 19-year-old boy died after being chased by a group of people for the crime of riding on a motorcycle with his girlfriend. The girl was also wounded and was admitted to a hospital.[78]
On 23 October 2014, a restaurant in Kozhikode was attacked and vandalized. The attackers claimed that the eatery was entertaining the dating of unmarried couples.[79] The attack came after a local Malayalam-language TV channel broadcast a report claiming that some coffee shops and restaurants in Kozhikode had become centers of "immoral activities".[80]
On 14 July 2015, a Madhyamam Daily journalist and her husband were attacked by a group at her office mistaking them for an unmarried couple. Later, a Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader was arrested for leading the attack.[81][82]
Mankada, Malappuram district, attracted the attention of national newspapers in 2016 when a 42-year-old man was beaten to death by his neighbors for visiting his girlfriend in the night.[83]
