Indian culture is frail, susceptible to serious damage at the hands of deft comedians and artists. Our decade old problem of comedic intolerance has a lot to offer in terms of classic punishments; jail terms, meaningless censorships and the occasional trips to the hospital.
Ironically, comedy is taken very seriously in our country. Shameful acts of violence against comedians have only increased in the past 5 years, questioning the parity of freedom of speech between artists and Sena bhakts. This, as compared to different forms of public political humour in western countries, is an abash feat. Some examples of such media include movies like The Dictator, Wag the Dog and The Interview. In India, media like this would be subjected to myriad Sanskaarization processes to be released mainstream. This of course portrays a tardy image, one that most conformist comedians and artists no longer want to face, thus subjecting themselves to self-censorship to avoid hassles in publication. While political traditionalist intend to imbibe such fear behind the curtain of Section 19(1)(a), one has to agree, it’s a inexcusable demonetisation of the value of intelligent comedy.
Let’s take a look at some of our controversial failures of freedom of speech.
AIB’s Roast
This was probably one of the most popular stand-up comedy controversies of the decade. All India Backchod (AIB), hosted a roast event on the lines of those in American television; only ours was a bit more funny in the aftermath, seeing the roast of the cast and organisers by the government. While the US counterpart of the show featured widely accepted roasts of the now President, Donald Trump, Indian celebrities didn’t even have the liberty to roast their own friends without the episode being banned and released on second grade sites in black.
The problem here was of course the contrasting opinions on freedom of speech and the mass delusion that we have it. Irrespective, the months long controversy scared the bejesus out of AIB (probably), resulting in self-censorship of their content. AIB now follows the lines of BollywoodHungama and IndiaGlitz, playing banal interviews of supporting celebs like Shahrukh Khan, Irrfan Khan, etc. While this trend is parsecs away from the Tanmay Bhatt — cute Lata Mangeshkar act, it still pools in safe viewership.
Kiku Sharda as Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh
Slain comedian Kiku Sharda, better known as Palak from Comedy Nights with Kapil, was sentenced to 14 days in imprisonment in December 2015. His crime? Mimicry of the, now notorious, Dera Sacha Sauda chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh. While imitation is considered the best form of flattery, Sharda’s skit did not bode well with Singh’s followers, thus resulting in an outrageous spat against the former. Of course, apologetic words were exchanged between the two parties over twitter and sooner rather than later, both returned to their public lives. However, the row went down in media history as an example of breach of 19(1)(a) by religious fanatics and shall always be remembered in the light of intolerance.
Azeem Trivedi’s Cartoons Against Corruption
Azeem Trivedi’s case was not much different from the Charlie Hebdo case except for the latter’s demise. Trivedi is a renowned cartoon artist and a supporter of the Anna Hazare movement against corruption in India. A cause for which he was sent to the hospital on a gurney, with some complementary death threats. His crime was simple, a parody of the national emblem replacing the word ‘Satymev’ with ‘Bhrashtmev’, and the iconic lions with bloody wolves, literally! (See image below) And as hilarious as the cartoon was, it received flak for its verity. Most people were appalled at Trivedi’s brave decision to alter the patriotic symbol as it hurt some unimportant sentiments.
Of course, he wasn’t the only person to have been attacked for such a feat. Years earlier to this incident, a Muslim techie in Pune was attacked by 7 people from a conservative Hindu group, for posting derogatory pictures of Bal Thackeray and Shivaji Maharaj on Facebook. Mandira Bedi also became a victim of twitter shaming, for wearing the Indian flag-themed saree in public. Perumal Murugan declared his death as a ‘writer’ after facing massive protests for his book ‘One Part Woman’. And of course, all of this is considerably different yet equally shameful as the departure of the late M.F. Hussain, India’s Picasso, due to religious zealots’ protests against a painting of a Hindu Goddess.
Chevella Ravi’s Teenmaar News
According to a 2017 Pew report, between the years 2007 and 2015, India’s average Social Hostility Index (SHI) was as high as 9.8 ,placing it in the bottom rungs with Syria, Nigeria and Iraq. The Teenmaar News controversy is a staple example of our SHI. Chevella Ravi, who plays reporter Bithiri Saathi in Telugu programme Teenmaar News was physically attacked inside the channel’s office in Hyderabad. Attackers claimed Ravi defaced Telangana’s culture in his show and demanded it be banned. Ravi’s incident is similar to that of Trivedi’s; despite the former’s threats being more communal than national.
However, the impact of these threats is the same for every comedian in India, who fears serious maims by heterogeneous audiences. Many stand-up comedians like Daniel Fernandes have now shifted their comedic agendas from political to intrinsic/incidental.
What does all of this boil down to? The fact that the world’s fastest growing economy has also achieved a remarkable feat in intolerance and political chicanery? The question here is not our sentiments about political cartoons, but political agendas influencing our sentiments. Only recently, India’s leading newspaper, The Times of India, had published an edition of their popular cartoon Agent Rana depicting the sexual violence and murder of the opposition party’s youth wing activist Shehla Rashid. In 2012, BJP had put up hoardings of cartoons mocking Congress leaders for the Coal Scam.
The conclusion of this report is that either freedom of speech is a crime in India, or that the faulty political system does not know where offence lies. Or has the shifting political agenda confused us to the point where we attempt to justify Shehla Rashid rape comedy, while letting Aseem Trivedi quietly suffer?
Humour me.
