The Indian film world thrives on sex and violence ? in any collocation. So when a heroine of Tamil films, Kushboo, talked about sex, she was greeted with violence. Months have passed since her comment in a news magazine that no educated man should expect his wife to be a virgin. But the fervour of the hostility towards her has not abated. When in court recently in response to a non-bailable arrest warrant issued against her by a lawyer for failing to appear for the hearing of a defamation case ? Kushboo is alleged to have defamed all women ? the actor was pelted with slippers, rotten tomatoes and eggs. She is said to have ?denigrated? Tamil women, assaulted Tamil culture and promoted licentiousness. The culture police in Tamil Nadu have become particularly vocal and offensive, especially since the Dalit Panthers of India and the Pattali Makkal Katchi launched their Tamil Protection Movement. But the police come in all colours and under all banners. It is remarkable how a repressive conservatism, wholly directed against women, has been drummed up in recent times by most politicians and the media. While the media thrives on sensationalizing all issues related to women and sex, the Tamil film enjoys alternately vulgarizing and deifying the female image. But Tamil women, say the culture experts, must uphold the ?honour? of Tamilness, by not wearing jeans and T-shirts, not dancing or singing in discos, not drinking, not smoking and ? woe be to Kushboo ? not having sex before marriage.

Tamil Nadu?s rates of female infanticide, its sex ratio, its rate of dowry-related violence are some of the worst in the country. So it is not enough to see the new idea of protecting Tamil culture as an exact reverse of the liberalizing ideals of earlier cultural movements. The repression and violence signal the strength of male domination in the culture and its built-in hypocrisy. Kushboo was not only caught up in a rivalry between two TV channels where she was the anchor of a show in one, but has also been identified as an ?outsider? ? not Tamil and of the minority community to boot. The viciousness of the attacks on her, the complicity of the establishment in disgracing her by dragging her through the courts, all show the dangers posed by a society whose politics turn on a new conservatism founded on the victimization of women.