http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/cyber-sutra-indias-online-eroticism-925593.html
*Cyber Sutra: India's online eroticism
Now known for strict conservatism, India was the birthplace of erotica,
famed for its sensual literature and carvings. Andrew Buncombe looks at a
modern expression of an ancient urge.
*
India's cultural gifts to the world include the Kama Sutra and the sexually
charged carvings that lure and intrigue tourists at Khajuraho. But the
country's reputation today is as a much more conservative, buttoned-up
society where couples risk opprobrium even for something as chaste as daring
to hold hands in public.
Little surprise then, perhaps, at the roaring success of 21st century
India's most recent contribution to the world of eroticism. The country's
first online pornographic comic book strip is luring tens of thousands of
internet viewers, who are logging on for a daily dose of stimulation and
humour courtesy of the buxom Savita Bhabhi.
Savita Bhabhi is a busty and artfully drawn Indian housewife who loves her
husband, Ashok Patel, but gets bored during the long days she spends alone
at home while he is busy at the office. The full colour cartoons detail her
fun-filled adventures with everyone from the door-to-door lingerie salesman
("Can you help me please... The hook is stuck.") to two energetic young men
who lose their cricket ball in her garden and a hunky cousin visiting from
the US. In every episode, Savita's bountiful charms and washboard-flat
abdomen ensure she always snares her target.
But just who are the creators of Savita Bhabhi? The website of the
full-colour cartoons, which appear in English and a number of Indian
languages, including Marathi, Tamil and Malayalam, says the cartoons are the
work of the Indian Porn Empire, which has so far declined attempts by local
journalists to find out more about its increasingly popular housewife. It
also failed to respond to a series of emailed questions from The
Independent.
On the homepage and an online forum in which they interact with Savita's
army of fans, the individuals involved use only screen names. "Deshmukh" is
the site administrator and the writer of the storylines, based – viewers are
informed – on his "hot" real-life companion. In turn, the cartoons are drawn
by "Dexta" and "Mad". Given the fantastical nature of the stories and the
Lara Croft-like dimensions of the dark-haired, doe-eyed Savita, one has to
presume that the creators are men. Either that or resourceful teenagers.
Yet, in addition to the team's refusal to speak, even anonymously, about
their creation, there are other curious things about Savita's authors.
Not only do they use plenty of American slang but on the online forum they
reveal they do not speak Hindi. At the same time, the cartoon characters and
the settings are very Indian. Bhabhi is Hindi for sister-in-law, and in
northern India in particular there is a long tradition in popular culture of
flirtation between a man and his elder brother's wife. Could it be that the
creators are Indians who moved overseas and have now returned to their
mother country hoping to cash in with their saucy idea?
"I do think that India was waiting for some mature and contemporary
pornography," said Patricia Oberoi, a Delhi-based sociologist and editor of
Family, Kinship and Marriage in India. "And this is certainly Indian. It has
a very Indian touch. A number of the themes are no doubt universal but the
settings are very Indian. And in India there is this tradition of authorised
flirtation between a man and his sister-in-law."
The cartoons about Savita and her late-home-from-the-office husband began
appearing in March. Since then, largely by word of mouth, the site appears
to have attracted up to 30,000 registered users. In true comic strip style,
every day a new cartoon is posted by the administrators as the month-long
story steadily builds to a climax. The administrators say they are keen to
be contacted by viewers with script ideas to contribute, and by people who
can translate the cartoons into other regional Indian languages.
Many commentators believe that Savita – who in true Hindu style is drawn
complete with a traditional red dot or bindi on her forehead – is more about
titillation than hardcore stimulation, and point out the intentionally
ironic tone of the cartoons, even if the comments of some of the forum users
and the real-life photographs they eagerly post would not merit such a
description.
For all its history as a birthplace of some of eroticism's most famous works
– the Kama Sutra dates back perhaps 2,000 years and includes chapters not
just on sexual positions but also on how to deal with lack of sexual energy,
while countless statues and carvings in southern India feature bare-breasted
people and even naked Hindu deities – modern India remains a country
seemingly ill at ease with sex and relationships.
Gone is the sensuality contained in traditional Indian art, dance and
literature, and the enforced conservatism at times seems suffocating. The
overwhelming majority of people's marriages are still arranged by their
parents – though that may have been the case in centuries past – and a woman
is still expected to be a virgin on her wedding night. So-called honour
killings, when family members murder a woman who dares to marry outside her
caste or tribe, remain common.
Some of those attitudes may be slowly changing, at least in some parts of
urbanised, educated India. While mainstream Bollywood films remain
remarkably chaste (the majority of actors and actresses refuse even to kiss
on screen for fear that it will damage their reputations) Indian audiences
are getting used to seeing a lot more flesh than ever before. Indeed, many
of the latest music videos are all but indistinguishable from a US rap music
production.
Publishing too, is seeing a change, with the growth of so-called Indian
chick-lit that could hardly be described as pornography but which is still
far more frank and forthcoming than lots of other genres. Last month saw the
publication of Almost Single, the first work by Advaita Kala, a
confessional-blogger-turned-novelist. Her publishers went out of their way
to promote the story of a single young professional woman's experiences in
Delhi as decadent and daring.
Urvashi Butalia, a feminist writer and publisher, said comic strips and
graphic novels were an increasingly important part of English-language
publishing in India. She also believed the success of the Savita Bhabhi
project mirrored a shift in parts of Indian society towards a more
progressive sensibility. "Bollywood is increasingly focussing on bodies,
male and female, and there is an increasing acceptance of sexuality," she
said. "Also, Mills and Boon, which is mildly pornographic, is coming to
India in a very big way."
But other commentators believe the inspiration to create Savita must, at
least in part, be a result of India's continued repressive atmosphere.
Sarnath Banerjee, a graphic novelist who is currently working on a book of
stories about sexuality in India, said that writing pornography required a
number of different skills. "Writing good pornography, or erotica, needs
rigour and an understanding of humanity. You are an anthropologist looking
at socio-psychology," he told the news magazine Tehelka, which recently
devoted a lengthy feature to Savita.
"You have to be repressed to write good pornography. For me, I was
fascinated when I saw these prostitutes in Amsterdam, coming as I did from
the usual anal middle class and its protected environment, where sexy was Ms
Peters, the geography teacher."
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