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Showing posts from September, 2015

Ban the Ban

‘Censorship is the child of fear and the father of ignorance’- Laurie Halse Anderson.  There is a growing trend in the socio-political landscape of this country to impose restrictions, supress voices and ban freedom. The present spate on bans of different kinds is slowly making India –the Republic of Bans! Growing intolerance and the tendency to mainstream the fringe is at the heart of the debate. It is not the first time the state is telling us what to read, view or even eat. Although the Constitution of India, has given ‘We the people’, the ‘Right to Freedom and Speech’, yet since time immemorial, bans have been imposed in this country. However, this tendency has seen a growth in recent times. In a diverse country like India, the people may or may not take these ‘Bans’ or ‘Fatwas’ seriously, but argumentative Indians and particularly the media takes sadistic pleasure in order to play up these restrictions. To an extent, the media reflects the society. It mirrors