Outraged Indian women say they will collect thousands of pairs of underwear to send to a man whose supporters say women should not visit pubs nor celebrate Valentine’s Day as it is against Indian culture.

Pink underwear is being collected in earnest, and the ‘Pink Chaddi’ campaigners say they hope to collect 3,000 pairs of panties to present to Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik to counter his moral policing. The Sri Rama Sene has questioned the "family background" of the campaigners who are targeting him.

The campaign launched on social networking site Facebook has generated immense interest, and support.

The ‘Pink Chaddi’ campaign has been initiated by a group of women who call themselves the Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women. Men can also send in their underpants, and if they don’t have pink ones, any other colour will do, says a group member.

Activists of the right-wing Sene attacked and beat up women at a pub in Mangalore last month, claiming pub-going was against Indian traditions.

While members of the campaign (www.thepinkchaddicampaign.blogspot.com) are determined to counter the Sri Rama Sene, activists of the fringe Hindu nationalist group are raising questions about the "family background" of the campaigners.

"We were raised by our mother in such a manner that we are working against pub culture and vulgarity. What about the family background of those working for the Pink Chaddi campaign," said Binay Kumar Singh, general secretary the Sri Rama Sene.

"The campaign shows the limit of their activism and bankruptcy of their ideology," he said.

Nisha Susan, convenor of the Pink Chaddi campaign, writes on the group’s blog: "Most women in this country have enough curbs on their lives without a whole new franchise cashing in with their bully-boy tactics. Pink is a colour of love and is a frivolous colour. We wanted to disgust them too."