When the Kochi police and right-wing groups moved to prevent the Kiss of Love protest from getting underway on Sunday afternoon, they began to beat up anyone in a T-shirt and jeans who looked like they could be potential lip-lockers. In the process, they ended up assaulting a group of stylish young people who were actually there to express their outrage at the phenomenon of public kissing. They called themselves the Freakerz of Kochi.The mistaken attack put the spotlight on the startling Kerala subculture of Freakers, known primarily for their striking gel-supported hairstyles, oversized sunglasses, bright clothes and highly Photoshopped social-media uploads. There are hundreds of Freakers groups on Facebook, all with thousands of "likes" and endless photographs of young men with a fixation for scooters, motorcycles and guitars.Despite their youthful flamboyance, many Freakers are startlingly conservative. In fact, one of them had even set up a Facebook page titled Ban Kiss of Love – Freakerz in Kochi . Though the group started less than two days before the event, it already has 21,000 "likes".That's about a fifth of the number of people who approved of the page of the Kiss of Love campaign, which was called on Sunday to protest against an attack by Bharatiya Janata Party supporters on a cafe in Kozhikode on October 23. The BJP youth said they had attacked the establishment to stop the "immoral acts" that the cafe's young patrons were indulging in, such as hugging and kissing.The Kiss of Love event asked people who opposed such "moral policing " to gather on Kochi's Marine Drive to signal their disagreement by kissing in public. They faced a jeering, violent mob of right-wing political organisations. But also yelling their disapproval were the Freakerz of Kochi and their friends from the Revolters Motor Club, a group of Harley Davidson bikers. They were standing outside the Marine Drive police station, away from the protests, shouting, "Ban ban, Kiss of Love."That didn't prevent them from being beaten with fists and sticks. “The Shiv Sena, RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] and BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] suspected that with our freaky hair and stylish clothes we too were part of Kiss of Love,” said Sreeya Bashi, a 24-year-old TV anchor and one of the Freakerz of Kochi. “The police knew that we were against Kiss of Love, but they also joined the lathi-charge.”



Photo credit: Kiss of Love.

Bashi’s husband Basheer, a disk jockey and founder the Ban Kiss of Love group, insists that Freakers actually oppose moral policing. "But protesting against moral policing in this way is wrong,” said Bashi. “We might be modernised in Western looks and style, but not so much in other things. We can’t go beyond our limits. Public kissing, up to a limit, is fine. We can kiss our mother and father. Even husband and wife kissing cheeks is alright. But smooching, that is wrong. French kissing is the first step of sex. This culture in India is wrong.”Freakers seem to be everywhere Malayalis are found, including Bangalore and possibly the Central African Republic . The IT industry is also not immune to their style. Freakers in the Thiruvananthapuram Technopark even have advice for those office-goers who still want to express themselves openly.Most members of the Kochi Freakers group are young men in the 18-35 age group, says Bashi. The youngest member is the daughter of Basheer’s first wife. She insists that all of them are part of the group with the permission of their parents.After stopping the Kiss of Love protest, Bashi, her husband and his first wife do not want to limit their efforts at social reform only to moral policing. They are taking the lead in other affairs, particularly drug abuse.“People used to dress up and walk free, used to be stylish, but now they also use drugs,” Bashi said. “So we are trying to stop this by working with people in the community. Both my husband and I have verified profiles [on Facebook], so people look up to us as role models. We thought we should show them the way.”



Photo credit: Freakerz in Kochi.

Most Freakers might be harmless, but the Kerala police seems to disagree. In a note on Facebook explaining the Freakers phenomenon, SR Praveen, a journalist with The Hindu in Kochi, wrote of how the police had begun to associate anyone wearing a black T-shirt with drug use.“There was a slight controversy five or six months back when the police in Cochin did an official drive cracking down on symbols like Bob Marley and the Jamaican flag because they associated it with Freakers and ganja,” said Praveen in a conversation with Scroll.in. “My friends have even been stopped for wearing Tantra T-shirts.”It isn't just the police who are after them. The Freakers’ vocal support for a ban on the Kiss of Love campaign has now led to a vicious backlash online, especially after Basheer posted a photograph of a bruise on his arm saying that he was proud to have done this for Indian culture.



Photo credit: Ban Kiss of Love - Freakerz in Kochi.

“People are saying we went there to show off,” said Bashi. “We went there thinking we would just protest, we did not expect to be beaten up. We already have so many friends and followers who are for Kiss of Love. Still we went against them only to keep our culture strong.”