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Campaign: Pink Panties to Fight Fundamentalism

Description: When a gang of politically well-connected Indian religious conservatives beat up women because they were in a
pub in the Indian city of Mangalore in end-January 2009, few expected the response to be so innovative and impactful.

Mixing Facebook and the bizarre, a group of young women (and some men backing them) launched the Consortium of Pub-going,
Loose and Forward Women. Not only was their name unusually self-deprecatory, but their action wholly unexpected. They
announced plans to send “pink underwear” in protest to the offices of the Rama Sene, one of the many sprouting groups
here that uses religiosity and the name of the Indian god Rama to justify its campaigns.

This caught on fast, and the Facebook group has currently grown to 56,160 members. The media loved the story, and literally hundreds of articles were written about it.

Its success came from the fact that the campaign was innovative, almost bizarre, and appealing to the youth too. The cause got wide coverage, embarrassing conservatives justifying restrictions on women or religious-infighting among different groups in this diverse country. For example, the ad from a billboard from a prominent Indian butter company (Amul), below, refers to the campaigners’ unusual act, drawing even more attention.

This has become one of India’s cause celebre in campaigning, though it has earned criticism from both Right (who see it as targeted against one important conservative party, in a key election year) and the Left (a section of which seems taken by surprise, or even inable to comprehend the kind of campaign involved).

Digital Tools Being Used: Facebook, blog

How These Tools are Being Used: Internet users can join a Facebook group. Real-world action involved actually posting pink ‘chaddis’ (underwear) to the fundamentalists. Off-line campaigns have continued, including Take Back The Night campaigns in States where conservative governments were in power, such as Karnataka. Groups are being formed in other parts of India too.

On Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=49641698651&ref=ts

Interesting analysis; Three Lessons Activists and Marketers Can Learn From India’s Valentine’s Day Pink Panty Campaign
http://tinyurl.com/d4znu4

Nisha Susan (group founder) explains: Valentine’ Warriors — The Pink Chaddi Campaign: why it began and how
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main41.asp?filename=Op280209valentine_warrior.asp

UPDATE: please also check out Gaurav Mishra’s excellent post on the many online responses to the Sri Rama Sene attacks, including several interesting videos:
http://www.gauravonomics.com/blog/the-valentines-day-pink-chaddi-campaign-indian-pubgoing-women-vs-shri-ram-sena/