Book Baning Culture In India Flashcards
It sounds like an oxymoron: the world’s “largest democracy” routinely curtails freedom of expression.
- The books and the Nirbhaya documentary was suppressed under an old colonial catch-all provision for threats to public order and decency.
- All that is required is for the police to tell a magistrates’ court that the film “may lead to widespread public outcry and serious law and order problems.
India has no blasphemy law; its constitution proclaims the country a secular republic with freedom of expression as a fundamental right.
**But the constitution also prohibits anything that might offend religious sensitivities. ***The result has been a minefield for any Indian artist, author or performer who wants to push the boundaries, especially in areas of sexual or religious morality.
The underlying problem for free speech in India today is not simply religious intolerance but weak institutions that are incapable of upholding liberal values
Free speech has innumerable enemies in India, and comparably few principled defenders—against whom vast legal, political, and social obstacles are arrayed. A writer, publisher, or newspaper editor can fight a case in court, provided he has the patience to endure the interminable delays of the legal system. In the end, he may even win, though the relevant laws have been interpreted, over the decades, to carve out larger and larger exceptions to the right of free expression enshrined in India’s Constitution.
Another issue is the lack of will on the publisher’s part :
Indian publishers should be inspired by Juggernaut (who supported their author and got the Court to Lift the Injunction on a Book About Baba Ramdev ) and have the couage to stand up for their authors and for artistic freedom more generally. In the past, they have too easily succumbed to thugs and bullies.
However the “true villain,” is the section of the Indian Penal Code that criminalizes, in its words, “deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class.” It’s time this draconian law was amended and the freedom of speech vindicticated.
