Media Censorship in India

India resorts to censorship as the country has diverse cultures and tries to maintain communal and religious harmony. The constitution guarantees freedom of speech but not at the price of hurting ethical sentiments. Let’s face it, the nation highly protective and sensitive to anything that offends or mocks it. In certain cases censorship is justified but in others, it’s just bizarre.

Movies containing sexually explicit content are often passed off with an A-certificated by the Central Board of Film Certification which is a regulatory film board of India and has the power to order producers/directors to remove anything it deems as offensive, sexual, nudity, violence or politically harsh.

It demanded to cut five scenes containing sex and nudity from the 2011 American film, ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.’ Ultimately, the producers/directors shelved the release of the movie as they felt that those scenes were an integral part of the plot. They suffered financially due to this, however eager readers of the book who wanted to watch the adapted movie, did so for free online.

 Salman Rushdie’s book “The Satanic Verses” as well as Ram Swarup’s “Understanding Islam through Hadis” was banned in India mostly due to the fear of Islamic communities getting offended. Although, these books may not contain seriously offending content, they are banned to avoid controversies and create uproar amongst the community, which is understood. In that case of books such as ‘The Princess Diaries’ and ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’, they also contained atrocities within the community; however it was not banned as it had strong global support and was in the limelight for favorable reasons.  

Pornography is illegal and attracts several penal provisions. In spite of this, several restricted soft porn magazines are easily available at news vendor shops on request if not confiscated by the Customs and CDs are accessible outside railway stations in Mumbai. Scoring porn is not difficult as it also available online, free of cost. Obviously, there are regulations being passed to censor such websites, however they still continue to run. Judging by the past, I think it is here to stay despite being atrocious and completely distasteful to women.

At first glance, India may enjoy the freedom to express by speaking and criticizing just like other democratic countries such as America and Europe but the picture is rather different when it comes to the use of internet. Certain news that highlights the malpractices of Indian government is censored by search engines and unavailable. Even content that may marginally offend a religious or political community has to be pulled down within 36 hours of reporting a complaint or the website can be dragged to court. This according to me is ridiculous as the government should focus on implementing change and combating corruption in real life and leave the versatile internet world alone.

Another action that I felt was absurd was the banning of Axe Dark Temptation commercial which featured a man being transformed into a chocolate figurine after spraying himself with the deodorant and walking around the city as women tried to devour him. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting barred the ad form being televised after receiving a complaint from a viewer who found the shot of a women biting off of the chocolate man’s bottom offensive.

Seriously, there is far more tantalizing content of television. Adults found it funny and children found it amusing. At the end of the day however, Axe had to pull down the ad incurring some loss and the viewer who complaint felt content for whatever the reason. 

During the screening of Hindi and English serials on television, a note appears below stating that if anyone has complaints regarding the content being sexually offensive they can complain to the BCCC i.e. the Broadcast Content Complaint Council. This works fittingly as the sexually provocative American serial, ‘Sex and the City’ on Love CBS used to show uncensored versions of the program before the notification of BCCI appeared. Now, such scenes get chopped.

Although adults may find nothing wrong with the program, it could create wrong impressions in the minds of youngsters or those who watch it with their parents around. Even though the remote is in the person’s hand, instant changing could lead to embarrassment and questioning, hence at times it is best to filter content.

So I stick to my belief, that certain content should be censored if backed with obvious reasons. In other cases, even if something does filter in the media, we will never know as the content will be killed before it reaches our senses.