According to Washington Post article “New generation of men in India shaving off mustaches“  a survey found that 72 percent of the women who responded in Mumbai and 83 percent of those surveyed in the southern city of Chennai said they were more likely to want to kiss a cleanshaven man. The numbers were similar in New Delhi, India’s capital, and in the eastern city of Kolkata, often seen as a center of tradition. 

The number of women rejecting facial hair appeared to surprise many Indian cultural commentators. Indian women’s magazines have printed letters to the editor saying how happy they are that the great Indian mustache may be trimmed, a sentiment that many young women here say they agree with.  “The mustache represents all the aspects of old India — the corruption, the baddie cop in an old film, the government job for life — that the young generation want to leave behind,” said Richard McCallum a pogonologist, or student of facial hair. “Besides, no one wants to look like their parents.”