Dear friends and peers,
I write this with great anguish and a deep sense of foreboding. Over the past two decades, I have seen creative freedoms in this country whittle away by and by.
But on Monday, when I learnt that author and Indologist Wendy Doniger’s book, ‘The Hindus’ was going to be withdrawn by Penguin as part of an out of court settlement with a hitherto unknown Hindutva group, I just could not take it anymore. I knew I had to write and reach out to the rest of my ilk.
Frankly, this country’s people are a curious lot as far as taking offence is concerned. Just everybody who is anybody can take offence at the drop of a hat. ‘Our sentiments are hurt’ has become a regular refrain, consistently appearing in the media. It is almost a joke now.
People here can take offence about their religion, caste, ethnicity… just about everything.
I remember when I was growing up, groups of a certain political hue succeeded in driving Maqbool Fida Husain, one of India’s stellar painters out of India. Their grouse: How could Husain have the gall, being a Muslim, to paint Hindu deities in the buff?
I am from the city of Baroda in Gujarat, home to the M S University and its well-known Faculty of Fine Arts. In 2007, there was a ruckus on the faculty grounds as the groups who had targeted Husain, attacked the works of artist S Chandramohan, again for showing disrespect to Hindu deities.
As if Sanatan Dharma, a faith that has sustained for millennia, is so weak that it would be defamed by the actions of mere artists.
Friends, let me add here that Hindu groups are not alone in India in taking umbrage. Their Christian and Muslim counterparts too spare no opportunity to be offended.
Muslim groups have protested against authors Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasrin for their works, ‘The Satanic Verses’ and ‘Dwikhandito’ respectively. As if the glory of the Prophet of Islam (Peace be upon him) would be diminished by two books.
And the Christians. Ah, yes. They are another curiosity. While their brethren in the west criticize Jesus freely, India’s Christians take the lead in protecting the honour of the Messiah. Like when they expressed disapproval over the movie version of Dan Brown’s work ‘The Da Vinci Code’, even though it faced no problems in western nations.
Not just religion, caste-based sentiments too are hurt quite often in this country. Whether it is the Rajput Karni Sena protesting Ashutosh Gowariker’s ‘Jodhaa-Akbar’, the oil presser community getting offended over the words ‘Teli Ka Tel’ in the song ‘Dhan Tanan’ from ‘Kaminey’ or cobblers protesting against ‘bole mochi bhi khud ko sunar hai’ from a song in ‘Aaja Nachle’, the list is long…
What a country! How can a creative person function here when s/he does not who might feel hurt due to the product that the person has produced?
Worse, the political leadership and the courts are toothless. Well, let us just not talk about the politicians, shall we? In most cases, they have massive constituencies to cater to. Indeed, most politicos in India, rather than defending the right to freedom of speech and expression, actually lead the assaults on it.
And the courts? I can’t say anything here or the courts would hold me in contempt.
We Indians like to brag about ourselves as the world’s largest democracy. Last year, Reporters Without Borders listed India 140th out of 179 countries in its 2013 Press Freedom Index. That is how free and democratic we really are.
Considering all these things, my only advice to you all is that you should leave India for good. Wendy Doniger’s case was not the first attack on free speech in India. And it certainly won’t be the last. As Salman Rushdie has warned ominously (and I feel he is absolutely right), a cultural emergency has set upon India. And it is only going to get worse.
Yours truly,
Rajat Ghai
