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Buses throughout India have segregated seating for male (at the back) and female (in the front) passengers. Subway trains in most metro-cities often literally

Buses throughout India have segregated seating for male (at the back) and female (in the front) passengers. Subway trains in most metro-cities often literally have seperate carriages reserved only for women. Most co-ed schools in India also segregate their classrooms by having girls and boys sit in distinct clusters of seats, perhaps a legacy practice inherited from missionary convent schools of the Raj. Co-ed hostels are literally unheard of; and no landlord ever accepts explicitly leasing a flat/house to men and women together unless they are related or married. Such physical separation between the sexes has been a long-practiced convention across a lot of domains in India. So when Indigo says this policy change is "to make the travel experience more comfortable for our female passengers", what this means is that they are trying to make air travel conform to the practices the female passengers have grown up experiencing in other modes of public transport and everywhere else, to reduce friction and needless culture shock for new flyers.

wkat4242 2y ago
Wow some of these practices were in place in the Netherlands in the 50s when the country was still very traditional (also, women in a government job were forced to resign when they married) but I'm so glad they are no longer the case. Like not being allowed to live together without being married. And of course now the whole gender thing is not as black and white anymore anyway. E.g. gender neutral toilets, there's no longer just 2 categories. So this kind of thing wouldn't make sense anymore. I have many colleagues in India and especially the ones from rural areas are experiencing extreme pressure from their families to get married in their early 20s. If they don't hurry up finding a partner their families find one for them, and if they refuse they get discommunicated completely. I find it really sad because most of them are living modern lives in Bangalore. They seem a bit torn between two worlds, one really modern like ours (Bangalore) and one very traditional where they come from. I know several of them have partners without their families knowing, and they drink and party also without them knowing etc. One of them did tell her parents about her partner and wanted to marry him but her parents objected because he was not from the 'correct' caste (they didn't even meet him). It seems to be a country deeply struggling with this transition and forcing young people into a way of life they don't want. I'm really happy I didn't have to deal with that when I was young and I could explore the world as I pleased. I'm in my late 40s now and never got married (though I did have one very long-term relationship). Personally I strongly believe in the right of the individual to live their life as they choose free from social pressures.
- dartharva 2y ago
  Many say this cultural stigma and discomfort against casual interactions with the opposite gender is the main source behind the "pervy Indian male" stereotype. It is natural that a man won't have a comfortable presence around women if he was simply never raised with healthy female interactions, and such cases are unfortunately prevalent in rural India. But it is true that there are extreme differences regarding this across the diverse sections of Indian society. The tech/management crowd in cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad is practically indistinguishable in its tendencies as against similar crowds in the West, for example. > I have many colleagues in India and especially the ones from rural areas are experiencing extreme pressure from their families to get married in their early 20s. If they don't hurry up finding a partner their families find one for them, and if they refuse they get discommunicated completely. LOL, Is there some kind of massive inheritence waiting for your friends that they stand to lose if they don't get married on time?
  - wkat4242 2y ago
    > But it is true that there are extreme differences regarding this across the diverse sections of Indian society. The tech/management crowd in cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad is practically indistinguishable in its tendencies as against similar crowds in the West, for example. Yes I think also that Modi's conservative success is based on this, a lot of the rural hindus seem to view the tech centres as "cities of sin" and view them as running out of control. It is a very diverse country of course. They don't all emancipate at the same speed. > LOL, Is there some kind of massive inheritence waiting for your friends that they stand to lose if they don't get married on time? No, they come from pretty humble backgrounds generally, but the prospect of losing touch with their family is a much bigger deterrent as far as I understand. One of my friends said her family wasn't really to blame either, as they would be ostracised in the village too. Not even for her 'living in sin' so to say (I'm not sure if that's even a thing there) but because her family attended many wedding parties and it's expected to reciprocate. There's a lot of social pressure on them too. At least this is how I understood it. I'm sure my understanding is coloured through the lens of my western background.

wkat4242 2y ago

Wow some of these practices were in place in the Netherlands in the 50s when the country was still very traditional (also, women in a government job were forced to resign when they married) but I'm so glad they are no longer the case. Like not being allowed to live together without being married. And of course now the whole gender thing is not as black and white anymore anyway. E.g. gender neutral toilets, there's no longer just 2 categories. So this kind of thing wouldn't make sense anymore. I have many colleagues in India and especially the ones from rural areas are experiencing extreme pressure from their families to get married in their early 20s. If they don't hurry up finding a partner their families find one for them, and if they refuse they get discommunicated completely. I find it really sad because most of them are living modern lives in Bangalore. They seem a bit torn between two worlds, one really modern like ours (Bangalore) and one very traditional where they come from. I know several of them have partners without their families knowing, and they drink and party also without them knowing etc. One of them did tell her parents about her partner and wanted to marry him but her parents objected because he was not from the 'correct' caste (they didn't even meet him). It seems to be a country deeply struggling with this transition and forcing young people into a way of life they don't want. I'm really happy I didn't have to deal with that when I was young and I could explore the world as I pleased. I'm in my late 40s now and never got married (though I did have one very long-term relationship). Personally I strongly believe in the right of the individual to live their life as they choose free from social pressures.

dartharva 2y ago
Many say this cultural stigma and discomfort against casual interactions with the opposite gender is the main source behind the "pervy Indian male" stereotype. It is natural that a man won't have a comfortable presence around women if he was simply never raised with healthy female interactions, and such cases are unfortunately prevalent in rural India. But it is true that there are extreme differences regarding this across the diverse sections of Indian society. The tech/management crowd in cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad is practically indistinguishable in its tendencies as against similar crowds in the West, for example. > I have many colleagues in India and especially the ones from rural areas are experiencing extreme pressure from their families to get married in their early 20s. If they don't hurry up finding a partner their families find one for them, and if they refuse they get discommunicated completely. LOL, Is there some kind of massive inheritence waiting for your friends that they stand to lose if they don't get married on time?
- wkat4242 2y ago
  > But it is true that there are extreme differences regarding this across the diverse sections of Indian society. The tech/management crowd in cities like Bangalore and Hyderabad is practically indistinguishable in its tendencies as against similar crowds in the West, for example. Yes I think also that Modi's conservative success is based on this, a lot of the rural hindus seem to view the tech centres as "cities of sin" and view them as running out of control. It is a very diverse country of course. They don't all emancipate at the same speed. > LOL, Is there some kind of massive inheritence waiting for your friends that they stand to lose if they don't get married on time? No, they come from pretty humble backgrounds generally, but the prospect of losing touch with their family is a much bigger deterrent as far as I understand. One of my friends said her family wasn't really to blame either, as they would be ostracised in the village too. Not even for her 'living in sin' so to say (I'm not sure if that's even a thing there) but because her family attended many wedding parties and it's expected to reciprocate. There's a lot of social pressure on them too. At least this is how I understood it. I'm sure my understanding is coloured through the lens of my western background.