An article by Chaitanya Kalbag in Economic Times on humour, free expression and growing fundamentalist intolerance, mentions my case. In India, we are quick to discern expanding and invisible curbs on the free airing of views, but we seem to be mostly indifferent to the firing and then savage attack on Kerala lecturer T.J. Joseph in 2010 for perceived insults to Prophet Muhammad; to the killing of Pune rationalist Narendra Dabholkar in 2013; to the harassment and exile to Finland of his ally Sanal Edamaruku for his perceived insults to Jesus Christ; and to the Mumbai lawyer who had charges filed against him last month under the sweeping provisions of our blasphemy and anti-hate speech law, Section 295(a) of the Indian Penal Code. We need to ask ourselves if we want to be like the audiences who give the cast of The Book of Mormon standing ovations, and emerge laughing and refreshed, or whether we want to huddle in a Paris park or a Mumbai chawl to plot the next revenge against somebody who might laugh at us and our faith and foibles. Read the full article: blogs.economictimes.indiatimes/the-needles-eye/laughing-through-our-tears-or-the-wages-of-deadly-humour/
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 06:47:30 +0000
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