Social norms are an interesting thing. If only because they tend to change quite strongly from country to country, from culture to culture. What seems strange, and sometimes completely unacceptable in one society, is normal in another. For example, in India, among the representatives of the strong half of humanity, there is a very strange tradition - to walk hand in hand.
There are many strange things in India that can confuse an inexperienced traveler. Some Hindu traditions may seem wild at all. And you know, veneration of "beef" is the most harmless thing in this wonderful country. So, one of the first things that one way or another catches the eye of all tourists is the behavior of local men, namely the tradition of holding hands like little children, best friends or the most stereotypical representatives of non-traditional sexual orientation.
By the way, the majority of our compatriots, for obvious reasons, will have an association with the latter. Two huge mustachioed men holding hands look really strange to us. However, holding hands in India among men does not mean anything like that at all. The fact is that here the grip of the hand by hand only demonstrates the exclusive trust of one person to another. In other words, holding hands for two friends or even colleagues is not reprehensible.
The custom of demonstrating closeness to others in this way in India is very ancient. Moreover, a similar tradition is common in a number of countries in the region, including Pakistan. You can see this in a number of Arab countries.
Separately, it should be noted that holding hands was not considered something strange even in the native open spaces during the years of the Soviet Union. All this changed in the years of the next "failed" sexual revolution, which began in the 1980s during Perestroika and was extremely unsuccessfully superimposed on the collapse of the country, the criminalization of social relations and a drop in living standards. The Western culture that poured out at one point did not spare local customs too much.
Want to know even more interesting things? How about to find out why in the East in the old days they wore shoes with sharp bent toes and what came of it in the end.