India Shining: The rage and rampage of tiny bhindis. Hinju women terrified.

Sushmita Bose, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, January 06, 2008
HT-C fore Survey: Indian males rear their ugly heads

Consider the dichotomy. India, aspiring to be a global superpower. And India, where almost half its urban male population feel that if a woman is hanging out with friends in a bar, she's "inviting trouble".

Findings of an HT-C fore survey, conducted to map the male mindset just a few days after two women were groped by a mob as they came out of a five-star hotel in one of Mumbai's poshest areas, tell another horror story.

The 'ideal woman', said three out of five men (almost 60 per cent) should be homely and not go partying; only 24 per cent respondents said that their ideal woman should be "independent, yet a good homemaker". The survey was conducted among a sample group of 500 men (upper middle class and middle class), aged between 20 and 45, from six major urban centres: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chandigarh. If 46 per cent men felt that women are "asking for trouble" by going to a pub with friends, then another 46 per cent (again, almost half the respondents), said that if a woman swore at them, they'd be tempted to get physical or aggressive: they would feel like hitting or slapping the woman.

The 'ideal woman', said three out of five men (almost 60 per cent) should be homely and not go partying; only 24 per cent respondents said that their ideal woman should be "independent, yet a good homemaker". Two out of three men (64 per cent) felt that if they made friends with a woman "in a bar", they would think of a one-night stand — never a meaningful relationship.

Four out of five men surveyed said they were part of a group that passed lewd comments at women (although a substantial chunk did say that they either tried to stop the others or weren't part of the actual eve-teasing).

Around 1.45 am on January 1, two women were molested by a 70-strong mob after they stepped out of the JW Marriott hotel in Juhu. Two HT photographers captured the incident on their cameras, triggering a blaze of outrage across the country. They also called in the police.
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