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Thugs put torch to India's free speech
The Australian - October 25, 2010
Amanda Hodge, South Asia Correspondent – In the name of Hindu nationalism, they have burned effigies of Kevin Rudd, threatened Australian cricketers, Indian artists and even Bollywood actors.
But a book-burning campaign this month by India's saffron hooligans, the Shiv Sena, which forced Mumbai University to drop a 20-year-old novel from its English syllabus, has raised questions about intellectual freedom in the world's largest democracy.
Mumbai University vice-chancellor Rajan Welukar defended the decision by the Board of Studies to drop Indian author Rohinton Mistry's novel "Such a Long Journey" from the second year Bachelor of Arts English syllabus, citing the country's apparently qualified right to free speech.
"Our constitution guarantees complete freedom of expression to every citizen of India but with a qualifying clause of enjoying it without hurting the sentiments of any section of society," Dr Welukar said last week, adding the book contained obscene words that could embarrass teachers and students.
Nominated for the 1991 Booker Prize, the novel tracks Indian political turmoil in the 1970s through the eyes of a Mumbai bank clerk and uses the sort of ribald language considered typical among the Parsi community.
But it caught the eye this month of Aditya Thackeray, 20, a student at the university and the grandson of Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray, who rallied opposition to the book among the party's youth wing because of its "foul language", sexual references and description of the Sena's rough tactics.
"The book uses very filthy language and derogatorises the honest and hardworking people of Mumbai," Shiv Sena secretary Anil Desai told The Australian. "Character assassination has been done."
While Dr Welukar denied the Shiv Sena forced his hand, Mistry condemned the "sorry spectacle of book-burning and book-banning" and accused the university of coming "perilously close to institutionalising the ugly notion of self-censorship".
"The Shiv Sena has followed its depressingly familiar script of threats and intimidation that Mumbai has endured since the organisation's founding in 1966," the Canadian-based author wrote. "More bobbing, weaving, and slippery behaviour is no doubt in the offing. But one thing remains: a political party demanded an immediate change in syllabus, and Mumbai University (made) the book disappear the very next day."
University English faculty members claimed they were now facing pressure from senior officials to sign a letter of support for the vice-chancellor's decision.
The issue has triggered debate in supposedly cosmopolitan Mumbai – and across the country – about the state's failure to uphold its laws and protect its citizenry from thuggish nationalism. Of particular concern has been the response of the Maharashtra Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan, who said the language of the book was offensive, although he admitted he had yet to finish reading the novel.
"Over the last two to three years, there's been a series of incidents that are bringing a very illiberal streak to the Indian polity, which wasn't there earlier," says Aniruddha Bahal, a Delhi-based author and one of the country's best-known investigative journalists. "What's disturbing this time around is that the state is capitulating."
Mumbai-based economist and social commentator Rupa Subramanya Dehejia said the university's decision to bow to the will of the Shiv Sainiks reflects Indians' growing fear of mob law.
"This isn't just a Maharashtra story," she says, citing the case of a Keralan college teacher who had his hand chopped off this year for setting an exam question that allegedly insulted Muslims.
"It's a sad day for Indian democracy and a step backward for the country every time the law of the mob wins. Basically, the question Indians need to be asking is if they want to stagnate in this culture of conformism and succumb to the rule of the mob or grow and flourish," she added.
Little Magazine editor and social commentator Antara Dev Sen said the latest Sena victory was a worrying indication of rising political thuggery in India.
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