Kohhra

I just watched a TV series, Kohhra, which was a searing depiction of hypermasculinity and the violence it wreaks in the lives of men and women alike. I am not for a moment suggesting that patriarchy hurts men as much as women. It obviously hurts women more. But, the difference between hypermasculine cultures and other patriarchal cultures is there is lot of violence by men against men in the former in addition to violence by men against women, which is a feature of all patriarchal cultures. To be sure, there are plenty of ways that the patriarchy destroy lives without resorting to outright violence. But, I do feel that men, especially upper-caste men, have it much better in non-hypermasculine cultures as there is much more tolerance for departing from the masculine norm. The particular culture depicted is celebrated in the popular culture for its chivalry and sense of public service, so this was as a useful corrective. The line between being protective towards women and controlling women is a thin one. So, was it all doom and gloom? No. People rebel against repressive cultures for the freedom to live their lives as they please, to love whomever they wish, at the risk of losing their limbs or even lives. 

What I also appreciated about the series is its depiction of police violence in India against suspects, and how routine custodial torture is. I have never been at the receiving end of it and likely will never be due to my privileged position. But, I have seen enough to know that its routine. The time I saw a cop slap a truck driver just because he was parked in the wrong place; my visit to a police station where I saw a man trembling with pain and covered in bruises being led away in handcuffs. And, the time when I rode with a police patrol as part of a journalism assignment  and accompanied them on "raids" whose only purpose was to harass migrant workers by landing up at their lodges in the middle of the night, waking them up in the middle of the night and demanding to know their names and why they were there. In most TV series, police violence is glamorised, but not in this one.