Image copyrightPinjratodImage caption Some women students say the celebration is anti-women A Valentine's Day celebration at a prestigious college in the Indian capital, Delhi, where students worship a "virgin tree" every year has run into trouble with some female students who say it's "patriarchal" and "misogynistic" and must be shelved.For decades now, male students of the Hindu College have been hosting a puja (ritualistic worship) at the tree, and balloons, colourful ribbons and condoms filled with water would be hung from its branches.
Posters of the latest avatar of the goddess Damdami Mai - generally a top Bollywood actress or a model chosen by the students - would be unveiled in the morning and pinned to the tree.A male student dressed as a Hindu priest would perform religious rituals, hundreds of students would sing a hymn in praise of the "generally curvaceous goddess", prasad (food offering made to her) would be distributed among the students who would dance and celebrate.Over the years, a legend has grown that worshipping at the tree would help a student lose his virginity within six months.
In a largely conservative country like India where pre-marital sex is still taboo, many young adults believe nothing less than divine intervention will help them hook up.Image copyrightHindu Boys' Hostel UnionImage caption Posters of Bollywood actors Jacqueline Fernandez and Ranveer Singh were put up at last year's event Teli Venkatesh, the 19-year-old president of the boys' hostel union which is organising the event, told the TheIndianSubcontinent that the virgin tree puja was an old tradition at the college and that hundreds of students, including women, participated in it every year.Describing it as "some harmless fun", he said it had started "because people wanted to celebrate love".Some female students, however, say the event "sexualises and objectifies" women and has no place in a "secular, intellectual" space like their college."The male students pick an actress who is attractive enough to be labelled Damdami Mai and the puja reeks of Brahminical ritual practices of caste pride," Aashi Datta, a 20-year-old undergrad student at the college, told the TheIndianSubcontinent.Ms Datta - a member of the Pinjra Tod (or Break the Cage) movement that's campaigning for equal rights for women on college campuses and also part of the Women Development Cell of the Hindu College - says the event is held in a "hyper masculine, aggressive environment" and that in past years, women's participation was "not even 5%".
Image copyrightFacebook/Hindu College HostelOn Thursday morning, she will be near the tree along with "some 20 other students, including a few men" to hold a protest, demanding a "complete stop" to this "offensive" puja.Mr Venkatesh accuses Ms Datta of trying to "politicise" a college event and says that students who "enthusiastically participate" in the celebrations come from different states and belong to different religions and castes.He also lists the changes they have incorporated this time to make the event more inclusive."Since this is about celebrating love, we are selecting a couple who are in a long-lasting relationship.
To address the criticism that we are not just about heterosexual love, we are putting up pride flags and placards to celebrate the LGBT community.
And we are hanging condoms to promote safe sex, bring awareness about sexually transmitted diseases and end taboos about sex."He also said that they would use a fully clothed photograph of the actress chosen as this year's goddess and that the hymn lyrics had been rewritten to make it less descriptive of the female body.Ms Datta and the other protesters, however, say nothing short of completely stopping this event will do.
"Legacy and tradition are not good enough reasons to continue with a festival.
It's a liberal college, we need to choose which traditions to follow and which ones to drop," she insists.On Tuesday, the two warring sides met, along with some professors, to find a way out, but the stalemate remains.Image copyrightWomen's Development Cell, Hindu CollegeImage caption A meeting held on Tuesday to sort out the differences over the controversial event ended in a stalemate Prof PK Vijayan, who was invited by the female students to speak at the meeting, was a student at Hindu in the late 1980s when the virgin tree puja began."It started with courting couples sitting around the tree and so it came to be known as the lovers' tree," he says.
"In those days, there was little awareness about Valentine's Day in India.
But over the years, the celebrations became more structured and the tree was festooned with condoms and posters of women regarded as beautiful.
"And then students began believing that eating the prasad would help them lose their virginity and the boys lined up for it and so did some girls." Prof Vijayan agrees that women's participation in the festival is very low and says he's heard some women say that they are uncomfortable with the way it is conducted.
But he says he's not comfortable with "any type of puritanical ideas" and suggests that they continue with the puja but modify it."I think the female students should be more flexible and instead of demanding a ban, they should take it over and redesign it the way they want to.
"Unfortunately, at the moment it is done as a celebration of machismo.
It should be made more inclusive so that women could participate as those who also desire, and not just as the desired."