Tell us the movie that you feel is Bollywood‘s best. To help you make that choice, we have compiled a list of 100 films we have seen and loved, films that are sensitive and sensible in their own way and films that brought ‘larger than life’ into our living rooms.

Of course, lists like this are always subjective and biased and we’re sure many impressive films have been missed. In case we have not included the movie that you treasure the most, do share your views in the comments below.

(With inputs from the India Online team)

Beautiful clothes aside, designer Aneeth Arora’s show was remarkable for its models — they seemed to be having fun on the runway. It almost seemed like Arora’s creations let them be their usual selves.

Fashionable comfort is perhaps what makes Arora’s designs stand out. Hers are the kind of clothes that don’t require you to tuck your tummy in, or sit in a certain posture and not slouch or worry about clothes getting dirty — all this while being fashionable. Alas! The kind of clothes you don’t find easily on the runway.

The designer, who defines her style as effortlessly comfortable and fashionable, is very clear about defining fashion as wearing “something that you are comfortable in”.

On the fourth day of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, Arora’s collection was a breath of fresh air. It was an immediate hit and the audience was enchanted by the music, the magician’s hats, bow ties, cherry noses, balloons and the juggling bottles the models carried.

The collection featured checkered loose dresses in pashmina, loose trousers, wool jackets, striped and checkered cotton shorts, pinafores, pleated dresses, wool jumpsuits and hand knitted sweaters.

The clothes were multi-layered and worn with colourful knee socks, striped and dotted bow ties, oversized bags and boots. She evoked the image of a carefree young girl who stamped her feet while walking, someone we have all seen somewhere.

Arora, known for her use of organic fabric, used a wide colour palette. There were combinations of green, black, red, orange, maroon, mustard and white in cashmere, wool, cotton, silk and pashmina.

“The mood that I created was the circus but my inspiration has always been Indian textiles and the people I see on the street,” Arora told reporters.

“I have worked with a lot of wool and pashmina. The theme was kaleidoscope so there were a lot of central Asian Ikats and Maharashtrian textiles and textiles from all over India,” she said.

The designer’s label is called Pero (‘to wear’ in Marwari). Her clothes are retailed in India and internationally but Arora still doesn’t have a store of her own.

“I just go by my instincts and I do what I want to do,” she says.

Read more from Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3

Indian textiles, fabrics, weaves and embroideries have been used in clothing in India and outside for hundreds of years, and exported to numerous counties but have still not lost their charm. Designers have reinvented them over and over again to suit contemporary clothing.

There are few Indian designers who do not use at least one traditional element in their garments. On the third day of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, designers took up some traditional weaves and embroideries and interpreted it for the ramp. Manish Malhotra did a spectacular job of it.

The designer has often been criticised for repeating the same styles but his clientele  don’t seem to be complaining. This time he took to phulkari, a kind of colourful traditional Punjabi embroidery, and put it on his signature lehengas, anarkalis, angarakhas, and dupattas. The phulkari appeared on borders, with jackets and dupattas giving a distinct and colourful look to the clothes.

One of the most commercially successful Indian designers, Malhotra has been working on popularising local craft. He has earlier worked on chikankari and Kashmir thread work.

“A fashion week is not just celebration and being here… but in my style presenting an art form of India which is somewhere ignored these days,” Malhotra told reporters.

Like always, the designer’s collection was very feminine and in bright colours. He used a palette of white, mustard, blue, rust, olive, red and pink. The clothes featured detailing on the back and sheer panels.

“I love the whole translucency…I think women look so sensuous when the backs are so interesting,” Malhotra said.

Designer duo Abraham and Thakore, whose show was sponsored by the Ministry of Textiles, worked on another famous craft, the Benarasi brocade, with gold or imitation gold patterning on a silk fabric.

The collection ‘Shaadi Redux’ is meant for the modern Indian bride.

“We were very keen to work on Benaras brocade and to sort of modernise it and so we did it with geometrics and checks,” designer David Abraham said.

The collection featured saris, lehengas and kurtas worn with pants and waist belts, in black, gold, pink, and red. The designers used Zari cutwork, tussar brocade and badla cutwork.

Designer Rajesh Pratap Singh’s show was a welcome change as it was an apt autumn/winter collection and he experimented with wool and androgynous styles for women.

His clothes were structured and had clean silhouettes. The designer had check jackets for both men and women, knit tops over skirts, and jackets and trousers for women. His colour palette was brown, blue, black and white.

“We are from India, our clothes definitely get inspired with the way we live but we don’t have to push a point of view all the time, every time, this time I wanted to make the clothing which was very international,” Singh said. “This time I wanted to make clothing which was very international.”

More than 2,000 years old, the festival is a meeting point for Hindu sadhus, some of whom live in the forest or in Himalayan caves. The sadhus at the Kumbh can be quite a spectacle – some are ash-smeared, some naked, sporting dreadlocks and beads, while some wrap themselves in saffron clothing.

On the second day of the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, Tahiliani showcased his “Coombhack Collection”, an interpretation of sadhu wear. Tahiliani gave the traditional drapes a modern and structured outlook in contemporary clothing.

“We went and we photographed thousands of people… and it is spectacular,” Tahiliani said. “The colours, the draping, just the way everyone drapes fabric in the most simplest way.”

The collection featured dresses with interesting drapes and folds, cashmere wraps worn over lehengas, saris wrapped in unique styles, palazzo pants with dupatta-like wraps, kalidar kurtas, draped jersey skirts and jackets. There were dhotis for men worn with jackets, kurtas and dupattas. The collection was in black, saffron, marigold, aubergine, orange, red and pink.

It’s not the first time that faith, religion, festivals and spirituality have surfaced in pop fashion culture. Japanese designer Yohji Yamamoto interpreted clergyman’s clothing for one of his collections. He recreated the loose pants and jacket, with watch chains fastened on to waistcoats for the runway.

Dolce and Gabbana have used ecclesiastical-style embroidery on their clothes. For Pre-Fall 2013, Alexander McQueen’s Sarah Burton designed women’s clothes inspired by nuns’ habits and high-ranking clergy in the Catholic Church. Hoods with a clerical vibe have been spotted on fashion runways in New York and Paris.

Models at the Tahiliani show walked to the beat of a live drum, sported rudraksh beads, wore long braids, had marigold-like hair accessories and wore dupattas. A couturier, Tahiliani is known for his exquisite wedding saris and lehengas. He has, however, kept his clothing contemporary and appeals to the modern woman.

“I don’t think intelligent women need to look like they are in a costume … I am not interested in costume I am not interested in going back, I am not interested in reinventing costumes of royal India … fashion has to address our time and our lives,” said Tahiliani. “I like the reality.”

The “Coombhack” clothes had zardozi, applique, bandhani and tie-dye work. Tahiliani used silk, cotton, ajarakh, cotton silk, velvet tapes and cashmere. But despite the traditional elements the garments had a contemporary look.

Indian styles must become contemporary too, he said. “Otherwise it’s just something you wear to a wedding”.

“It’s sexy, it’s a sari, it’s comfortable, but it is hot.” said designer Anupama Dayal, who brought her collection “Ishq-e-Dilli” (“Delhi Passion”) to the show.

The sari, said to be 5,000 years old and wearable in more than 80 ways, has found favour with Indian designers for a long time, and now young designers are taking a fancy to it.

Masaba Gupta, the 24-year old designer who opened the show with her debut collection for the Satya Paul label, had saris featuring colour blocking, splashes of neon and quirky prints.

“We tried to characterise a girl who was fun and young and quirky, since the main clientele of Satya Paul has always been someone who is older, someone who is above the age of 30,” Masaba said. “We repositioned the brand and made it for a young girl who loves colour and loves print.”

Bollywood has contributed to the growing popularity of saris among young women. Popular actresses such as Sonam Kapoor  and Vidya Balan have been spotted in unconventional saris, and Aishwarya Rai wore saris at Cannes. Celebrities elsewhere have too.  Last year, Lady Gaga sported a version of a sari during her India trip. The Pussycat Dolls, Paris Hilton and Naomi Campbell all have been spotted in a sari. Burlesque queen Dita von Teese wore a sheer one on her trip to Delhi.

Indian designers have tried their hand at Western designs, but there are few success stories. To stay in business with the Indian market, designers must work with traditional clothing for a new generation of women who are well travelled and exposed to global styles and trends.

It’s not just saris. The Ishq-e-Dilli collection featured clothes inspired by the Mughal era, targeting destination weddings, but with lighter embroidery and more suited to contemporary styles.

“Not everyone wants to wear something that weighs 20 kilos, something they can’t even walk in and so much jewellery,” Dayal told reporters. “It’s for an unusual wedding, for an unusual life, which is slowly becoming most of our lives.”

Designer Nikasha Tawadey experimented with traditional clothes as well. Her collection “Raat ki raani” (Queen of the Night) had sheer pants with kurtas, dhoti pants and sharara jumpsuits.

“You could wear a sharara jumpsuit and go clubbing. A sari or a velvet Patiala can be worn to a nightclub. The concept just needs to change,” said Nikasha.

Actor and filmmaker Kamal Haasan’s film “Vishwaroopam” was supposed to open in cinemas last Friday, but that’s not happening in Tamil Nadu after Muslim groups protested against scenes that they consider offensive.

The tussle over what is acceptable material for movie audiences is the latest example of a recurring problem with art in India. If it offends someone, anyone, it risks being deemed unsuitable for everyone.

Film-makers have never had it easy in a country that is rapidly modernising, but is still largely conservative. One wrong move, and a film might never even make it to the cinema.

Here’s a look at some other Indian films which hit a wall with political or religious groups even after making it past the censor board:

My Name is Khan: This 2010 film was about a man with Asperger’s syndrome but lead actor Shah Rukh Khan irked the right-wing Shiv Sena by suggesting in an interview that Pakistan cricketers be invited to play in India. Activists vandalised some cinemas screening the film in Mumbai and burnt posters of Khan. Hundreds of protesters were arrested. Five years earlier, a comment by actor Aamir Khan on displaced villagers in Gujarat prompted a backlash against his film “Fanaa,” and cinemas in the state didn’t show the movie. Ironically, this might have helped the film.

Son of Sardaar: This Ajay Devgn production was among the few films to feature a turbaned Sikh in the lead. But the 2012 film angered the Sikh community by hurting “religious sentiments”, as did “Singh is Kinng” (2008) and “Jo Bole So Nihaal” (2005). The first two films got off lightly but “Jo Bole So Nihaal” braved two bomb attacks in Delhi cinemas.

Fire: Long before “Midnight’s Children”, Deepa Mehta’s “Fire” (1996) depicted two women in unhappy marriages having an affair. The Shiv Sena didn’t take too kindly to one of India’s first films to depict lesbianism, just as they targeted “Girlfriend” in 2004. In an interview in 1998, then party chief Bal Thackeray described “Fire” as a “sort of a social AIDS”. Mehta’s brush with controversy continued with “Water”, a 2005 movie exploring the plight of Indian widows that the filmmaker originally intended to make half a decade earlier. But right-wing activists upset over the film’s subject destroyed its main set in Varanasi, forcing Mehta to film in Sri Lanka.

Gadar – Ek Prem Katha: This 2001 film became one of the most successful Bollywood films ever, with audiences flocking to see the love story of a Sikh man and a Muslim woman during the Partition riots of 1947. But incidents of vandalism and communal tension marred the start of a spectacular run at the box office.

Oh My God!: The story of a man who takes God to court was bound to ruffle some feathers in India. Its depiction of certain Hindu beliefs did anger some, including politician Sushma Swaraj, but the 2012 film’s social message seemed to have won over critics and audiences.

Jodhaa Akbar:  The love story of 16th-century Mughal emperor Akbar and a Rajput Hindu princess sparked protests in northern India over its alleged historical inaccuracies, especially by Rajput groups who believe Jodhaa was Akbar’s daughter-in-law. Several states banned the 2008 film after some movie halls were attacked, but the Supreme Court later ruled in favour of the film’s makers.

Sins: This film gained notoriety in 2005 with its storyline of a Catholic priest in a relationship with a girl. Needless to say, Christian groups objected. The film also tanked at the box office, but that’s another story.

This is a partial list. Which movies did I forget? I look forward to hearing from you.

Lobsang Sangay, prime minister-in-exile in Dharamsala, told a news conference in New Delhi that Tibet remains a test for the international community with Tibetans taking drastic measures to protest what he called repressive policies and no freedom of speech.

“The international community ought to act now, ought to speak against continuing occupation and repression of Tibetan people,” Sangay said ahead of a four-day solidarity campaign in New Delhi on Wednesday.

China has defended its iron-fisted rule in Tibet, saying the remote region suffered from dire poverty, brutal exploitation of serfs and economic stagnation until 1950 when Communist troops “peacefully liberated” it.

China has tightened already strict controls since an upsurge in self-immolations by Tibetans over the past two years. Nearly 100 Tibetans have set themselves alight since the protests began in 2009, most of whom have died.

“We continue to appeal to (them) not to resort to such drastic matters yet it persists, which reflects the desperation and determination of Tibetan people,” Sangay said.

The Harvard law scholar, who in 2011 replaced the Dalai Lama as political leader of the exiled Tibetans, said uprisings in countries like Syria have got more support from the international community despite their violent nature.

“It makes us wonder what the priority is because we have been subscribing to non-violence and democracy, and how come the support we get is comparatively less than some other movements where they have resorted to non-violent ways to pursue their goals,” he said.

Sangay also said he wanted India to “do more” for the Tibetan people.

“I think Indian representatives often do and they ought to speak out as frankly as possible on the issue of Tibet,”he said.

(Reporting by Arnika Thakur; Writing by Tony Tharakan)

The Delhi rape case and the molestation of a young girl in Guwahati in Assam last year have underscored the place that women often occupy in Indian society. These incidents have made me wonder to what extent our country’s political parties will focus on gender inequality as they look forward to the 2014 general elections. How will they vie for the women’s vote?

Until now, political parties and their largely male leadership focussed on the ‘aam aadmi’, or the common man, a phrase which subsumes women. Politicians and other public figures don’t make much hay of gender inequality and many of the attitudes toward women that hurt a large portion of our society — and when they do, they’re often lacking. The best attitude that politicians often apply to women is a patronising one. Instead of focusing on women’s empowerment through education and awareness, politicians distribute saris, cookers and sanitary napkins.

There is some attempt to change that. The Congress party’s weekend “Chintan Shivir“, or brainstorming session, in Jaipur put a special focus on women.

“Discrimination against the girl child and atrocities against women are a blot on our collective conscience,” party chief Sonia Gandhi said while opening the gathering. “Gender issues are fundamental and should be of concern to all of us.”

The party has come up with a new slogan, “Pehle mahila ka samman, phir Bharat nirman” — First respect women, then build the nation. This could be seen as an attempt at targeting the women voter. However, the idea is not just appeasing women, but recognising them as an important part of the electorate and the democracy, and cosidering their specific needs as a part of developing national policy.

For most of the larger parties, the issue of women’s participation in the political process boils down to the question of the Women’s Reservation Bill, which has been languishing for years. But the issue is not limited to reservation.

Women are not seen as politically important as their votes are taken for granted and political parties assume that their voting patterns are mostly influenced by the male members of the family or community. In India, where women constitute nearly half the electorate, around 364 million voters remain excluded from the decision-making process.

No mainstream party has shown enthusiasm in addressing women’s problems. As of now, all they are talking about is a speedy and efficient trial for those accused in rape cases. Maybe that strikes them as being a strong pro-female statement.

“This, however, cannot be a good election issue for good reason,” said sociologist Dipankar Gupta. “I cannot see any party opposing this move for they know that nothing will really change on the ground.”

It is time for political parties to think of the impact that their policies will have on women. Promises of more jobs, better education and tackling domestic violence are all part of election manifestos, but how will they explicitly target obstacles faced by women? Addressing gender issues in politics also depends on how many women candidates are endorsed by parties and how they choose candidates.

“It would make a lot of difference to the cause of women’s empowerment if parties concur in making sure that nobody who has been charged with rape, armed assault and kidnapping gets a ticket to fight elections at whatever level,” said Gupta. “Every party has cupboards full of skeletons and can barely get their doors to shut.”

The issue of political representation for women in India was first raised in 1917 as a demand for universal adult suffrage. Women got the right to vote in 1930, but nobody really sees them as a “vote bank”. Women have held the highest offices in India. We have had a woman president, woman prime minister, speaker of the Lok Sabha and leader of the opposition. But they still do not have adequate representation or a say in the political process — note that there are 59 women MPs in a parliament that includes nearly 800 seats.

A United Nations report said it will take more than 50 years for countries like India to achieve gender balance in politics if women’s participation in parliaments does not improve. On the brighter side, statistics show that women are voting in larger numbers. State elections in Uttar Pradesh last year saw nearly 60 percent of women coming to vote, compared to just 42 percent in 2007.

It is not that women in urban and rural areas are not politically aware. They simply don’t always display interest in the process, and when they do, people don’t take their opinions seriously. Political parties don’t take into account the idea that women voters might have different demands. In elections in Punjab, women voters demanded security and less inflation. Before Gujarat’s elections in December, the Congress promised affordable housing to married women who rent

In 2009, activists organised a “Wada Na Todo Abhiyan” (holding the government accountable to promises), and a women’s manifesto developed in consultation with people in 100 parliamentary constituencies. Education for girls enforced by law, enactment of the Women’s Reservation Bill and stronger implementation of the domestic violence law were three key demands. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s “Mukhyamantri Balika Cycle Yojana” was a game changer in the 2010 assembly elections, providing thousands of bicycles to school girls.

I wonder if any political party will be brave enough to reach out to women’s votes in the next elections — with an invitation to be taken seriously. That’s much better than receiving a pressure cooker.

“It appears to be that a rod was inserted into her and it was pulled out with so much force that the act brought out her intestines along. That is probably the only thing that explains such severe damage to her intestines,” he said.

According to sources, one of the accused persons who were brought to the hospital for a medical examination on Tuesday confessed to having seen a rope-like object — likely her intestines — being pulled out of the girl by the other assailants on the bus. The sources said that the girl had bite marks on her body.

“There was permanent damage to her intestines, and with the intestines completely gone she will have to feed through intravenous fluids all her life. But that is secondary, our primary focus at the moment is to save her life,” said Dr BD Athani, Medical Superintendent, Safdarjung Hospital.

– The Hindustan Times

Six men gang-raped this woman, a 23-year-old medical student, on a moving bus. They beat her with an iron rod. They beat the man she was travelling with. They threw her off the bus and left her and the man for dead. She has undergone several surgeries. Doctors reportedly had to remove her small intestine.

The men who did this to her, if convicted, face a lifetime prison sentence – or maybe just 10 years. With a low conviction rate, they might yet beat the charges. What we have now is not enough. They should be hanged. To do otherwise will put India and its legal system to shame.

Newsrooms, television networks, newspapers, the people – they’re reeling from this horrific incident, which took place last Sunday night. Parliamentarians, the prime minister, politicians, the police… everybody had something to say. The people are in the streets, and some of them are demanding death for the accused.

Here are the objections:

Capital punishment is barbaric or cruel. It is inhuman. It is the mark of repressive, bloodthirsty societies. Countries around the world are looking to do away with it, preferring to focus on rehabilitation, treatment or simply life in prison. No crime warrants human annihilation. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Violence to repay violence is morally indefensible. The poor get the scaffold, but the rich escape punishment. What if you convict and execute the wrong man? The death penalty is not a deterrent that can sway a nation.

Let’s look at the other side.

There are 1.2 billion people in this country. Regardless of religion, the general rule is that men are more important than women, more exalted, somehow less expendable. Sons are better than daughters, sons are worth more than daughters. Women are mothers or sisters or maids, or they are vessels for men and their sexual needs. Subjugating a woman against her will carries little fear of reprisal in the eyes of many men. It was probably her fault anyway because she was drinking, hanging out with men, a slut or dressing in appropriately because she was in heat like a dog and asking for it. To rape a woman is to break a glass of little value. You can replace it with another one, and nobody will scold you. If you amended the laws against rape to include death by hanging (India’s method of execution) as a possible remedy for the crime, the threat of paying the highest price will always be there. This will not depend on economic differences. Rich men rape, and so do poor.

The laws against rape are inadequate to the point of being shameful. If a man rapes his wife, he faces no more than two years in jail. Others face comparatively little time in prison. The women, meanwhile, could face ostracism from their families and villages, scorn from the people around them, and possibly death at the hands of their own family.

Swift and harsh penalties against rapists, including the death penalty, would prevent people from seeing the crime as just one more infraction to overcome. Here are people whose history of rape did not get in the way of their lives. There was the convict who cleared his civil service exam while serving his sentence for rape. The Delhi High Court said he was in jail for such a long time that he “redeemed himself.” Last June, former President Pratibha Patil commuted the death sentences of several rapists. Among them was a man who killed a family of five and raped their young daughter.

The death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the “rarest of the rare” cases. Does that mean that the incidence of rapes makes the crime not rare enough? (One every 22 minutes, according to the National Crime Records Bureau, cited in CNN). Is it not rare enough when an estimated 20 percent of rapes are reported? (In Delhi this year: 635 reported, 754 people arrested, 348 cases pending, says India Today)

The laws also are inadequate because of the definition of rape. Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code specifies that sexual intercourse comprises rape. What about fingers? Fists? Bottles? Iron rods? Broomsticks? All of these have penetrated women and men in acts of violent aggression. Are these not rape? Are these not enough to cause injury or death? They do constitute rape, and they are enough to cause injury or death. This kind of assault should include the death penalty as a government reprisal.

Finally, assaults like the one on the bus are enough to leave the victim as good as dead, psychologically and physically. The victim does not have to die to justify a penalty of death. Remember that India allows death penalty for other non-lethal crimes: large-scale narcotics trafficking and treason are enough to get the noose. But rape – the ultimate mental and psychological violation of another human being – is not?

The idea is gaining some currency among the political class (as well as immediate opposition). See these lines from The Times of India:

Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj made a strong pitch for capital punishment for such crimes, a demand which did not find favour with Girija Vyas (Cong), who said such a penalty would lead to killing of women after rape.

Swaraj, however, got support from her party colleague Najma Heptulla as well as UPA ally DMK member Vasanthy Stanley and V Maitreyan (AIADMK) in the Rajya Sabha, who said “these culprits should be hanged till death”.

Maitreyan also urged the government to amend the law and introduce death penalty for rapists.

“Death penalty is the only punishment that is to be given. We can enact a law. This will serve as a deterrent,” Heptulla said.

Judging by the photos of street protests, some people want the same thing. People on Twitter are angrily recommending castration, anal penetration with an iron rod for the woman’s attackers, and yes, the death penalty. I understand the feeling. Passions are running high because a woman can’t go out on the street and go to work or to the movies without facing the threat of rape, evisceration, murder. Leaving aside the hot bloodlust for revenge, let’s remember that the idea is to make India a better place with a better society. There are countless ways to begin doing it. Not all will succeed on their own.

Meanwhile, the woman who was raped and tortured on the bus this week likely will survive, according to reports. She is off a ventilator and communicating with her family by writing. But what of the men, the sixth of whom was arrested today? The accused men allegedly disemboweled her while alive and threw her body into the street. Now they face attempted murder charges. Even if they limited their attack to simple rape, would this woman have somehow been a victim less deserving of the ultimate restitution? No. India should consider the death penalty in the case of the Delhi bus gangrape because of the severity and callousness of the crime. The barbarity of what the men allegedly did to her lies in the intent to defile her, not just the way that they did it. That is what must be punished, and the punishment must be the most severe one than there is.

(College student shout slogans during a protest in Jammu, Dec. 20, 2012. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in various parts of the country to demand urgent action against the men who took turns to rape a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus on Dec. 16. Reuters photo.)

(The opinions expressed are the author’s own, and may not necessarily reflect those of Thomson Reuters)

Mumbai’s Sufi shrine Haji Ali Dargah Trust has barred women from entering the sanctum that houses the tomb of the Sufi saint Pir Haji Ali Shah Bukhari. The reason: authorities said that they saw a woman visit the tomb in inappropriate clothing.

This might not be entirely surprising. The mosque and dargah – or tomb – sit on a tiny island in the waters off Mumbai that is connected to the mainland by a tiny causeway. It is one of Mumbai’s most well known tourist attractions, and many people from India and other countries walk past the mendicants and beggars, some of whom are missing limbs and often chanting, on the causeway to admire the architecture and the view.

The decision to ban women from the tomb reportedly is a year old, but came to light recently when a women’s group, the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan — the Indian Muslim Women’s Movement — visited the shrine in August. The group plans to write to state authorities to try to stop this from happening.

There are other instances of preventing women from visiting shrines and other holy places. The Lord Ayyappa temple in Sabarimala in the state of Kerala bars the entry of women aged 10 to 50, the years in which they are most likely to experience menstruation. Last year, the temple high priest performed a purification ceremony there after a 35-year-old woman entered the shrine.

Women often are discouraged from visiting temples while they are menstruating because they are considered “impure”. In some households, women cannot enter kitchens or prayer rooms in their own houses while menstruating. Women in some rural areas are required to bathe and then enter the house during their periods. Hindu women also are not allowed to partake in cremation rituals or go to the cremation grounds.

Different rules for men and women is as old as religion. In a country with many patriarchal societies, women have largely accepted these rules, regardless of religion. In many parts of the world, this has gone in hand all the other traditions that much of the world today recognises as snubs or discrimination. Without education, most women in India didn’t necessarily know that they could question these rules. Despite the lack of education that many children still have, it is odd that women in a modern democratic country should be treated the same way now.

These bans, you could argue, deny women the right to publicly practice their faith. That doesn’t stack up well with the constitution, which says that Indians have the right to declare their faith openly, and have the  right to perform the duties, rites, and rituals prescribed by their religion – even if they have different rules for women.

Politicians refrain from speaking out on discrimination, however, because there’s little to no upside in upsetting large voting blocs that comprise men who have no problem with the rules. Religious conservatives have generally objected to laws or international covenants in this area because they say that the strictures mock or contradict their beliefs and religious laws.

Women have over the centuries complied with these customs, and there is no doubt that there are women who comply either because they want to or because they don’t have any objection. The point is that they have a choice, even if not every woman realises this.

This is, of course, civic law bumping up against religious law. In India, perhaps more than in many other countries, there is no easy reconciliation. While the government of India promises individual choice as a facet of religious freedom, it also takes more steps than many other countries to try to protect the sensibilities of the adherents of the many religions that have taken root within its borders. To offend one faith, especially to the perceived advantage of another, is something that the government tries to prevent. Taking offense on religious grounds is, as a result, a graver problem than in many other places, and it does get noticed.

But in a case like the Haji Ali dargah, whose rule could be taken up in other mosques or temples, India has much to lose in terms of its civic freedoms. Maharashtra’s government and the government of India have a lot to lose if they allow this ruling to stand.

(Monsoon clouds gather over Haji Ali mosque during heavy rains in this 2008 file photo. Reuters: Punit Paranjpe)