NEW DELHI: February 14 is celebrated around the world as Valentine’s Day or the Day of Love. On this day, people, especially youth, give gifts to their lovers. This week-long festival of love is celebrated in different parts of the world in a very beautiful way.
But you would be surprised to know that the male students of Delhi’s famous Hindu College had been engaged in a sexist ritual for several decades despite huge opposition from the female students of the college.
Yes, that’s true. The male students of Delhi’s Hindu College had been worshipping the Virgin Tree on February 14 (Valentine’s Day). The puja involved a male student dressing up as a priest to perform religious rituals while other men sang hymns in praise of Damdami Mai or some leading Bollywood actress.
On this day, hundreds of male Hindu College students used to gather around the Virgin Tree and offered prayers for good luck and to increase their chances of finding their true love.
For some, ‘V-Tree Puja’ was also meant to help students enter relationships and lose their virginity within six months. It was believed that those who participate in V-Tree Puja will be in a relationship within six months and lose their virginity soon.
As part of this highly controversial sexist ritual, male students used to organise a ‘puja’ where they worshipped the V-Tree and also decorated it with condoms, posters of Bollywood actresses and balloons.
However, after female students of the college objected to this misogynistic ritual as it encouraged the objectification of women, the male students started worshipping a male Bollywood actor, calling him as ‘Love Guru’’.
