Note:Following Article may contain inappropriate content for children
It was about 6 on a fine morning that my phone rang “soona man ka aangan” , with much irritation I attended the call that broke my sleep. The voice of a close friend from the other end told me “watch ‘India’s Daughter’ before YouTube takes it down.” I cursed him for disturbing my beautiful dream of a bus journey (coincidences), and hung up the phone to go back to sleep. There was hope of the dream continuing. Well, I didn’t see the dream anymore nor could I see India’s Daughter as YouTube took it down like he predicted. Waiting for hours in front of a slow broadband network I was able to download a copy of it through torrent. I watched the documentary, unable to figure out why it should be banned.
Banning has become the new political mantra in the country it seems. Starting from beef to parties with foreigners, and now documentaries. Enthused by the banning incidents, I wanted to know about the things that were banned in India and the reasons behind the ban. A research into this revealed most movies and books were banned for 3 reasons- fear of communal violence, obscenity, and political criticism. Even after so many measures have been taken to prevent the ‘morally rich’ Indian public from watching or reading this stuff why is it that communal riots, rape cases, acid attacks and dirty politics continue? Is it that the rape accused had seen the obscene shots in “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, or “Kamasutra: The Tale of Love”? Is that what prompted them to rape a girl? When thousands of porn sites are wide open to the public what is the whole idea of banning obscenity in movies? Some stories demand them; sex isn’t a myth, it is a part of normal life. But being ‘cultured’ citizens we are told not to discuss it, not to watch it, not to know about it. This is the exact problem. The urge to know leads to experimentation and if the door to experimentation too is closed it leads to frustration. That is exactly what we are “a sexually frustrated group.” Censoring things is the first way by which fascists create a plot for them to act. By censoring things we are denied the right to knowledge. Salman Rushdie once remarked, “An attack upon our ability to tell stories is not just censorship - it is a crime against our nature as human beings.” This is the era of information revolutions. The world of internet provides you with what you want. Penguin was able to reduce Wendy Doninger’s book “Hindus: An Alternative History” to paper pulp but the idea of her book remains as e-book copies and will be read and shared among millions. So the whole idea of censorship contradicts itself. Banning creates demand and if there is demand, supply will surely follow. ‘India’s Daughter’ would have been watched by many in any case but the fact that it got banned increased its viewership. The glory and brilliance of the Indian constitution is repeated time and again. But the truth is our constitution was the first way by which we were deceived. We always talk of and were taught about the right to express, but never about the amendment that had restricted the same. We have an extremely religious government with a Hindutva agenda. Our censor board is full of people with the same agenda. The fields of science, arts and history no more have the neutrality that they boasted about, being inclined towards political trends. After all this, we are taught India is a democracy. Every censored word, commodity has politics behind it. When we have the confidence to do self-censorship why do we require a censor board? Why was it that beef was banned and not chicken or pork? Why do you think the movies ‘Fire’ or ‘Water’ were banned? It is not a movie or a book that is being banned but an idea. It is always the ‘idea’ that any fascist force fears the most. It is an idea that can create revolution and bring about change. There should be an opportunity to read things, criticize them and analyze them ourselves. Are we that weak that on seeing nudity we will be tempted to rape? Or are our gods that fragile that a single piece of writing on them will tarnish their image? Are our political leaders so cowardly that they cannot take criticism in a healthy manner? It is high time to rethink where we are heading to as a society. We have to think why people like Perumal Murugan had to stop writing. We have to think why there are many Soni Soris, Binayak Sens and Irom Sharmilas coming up time and again. The moment we are restricted from information, the moment people are arrested for meaningful protests and the moment our tongue trembles to speak, is the moment we need to realize that we are under slavery. We have to realize that the need of the hour isn’t item dances, cricket or glam ,it is the right to speak up. ~Anamika Video:India's Daughter
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