MAHARASHTRA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY, MUMBAI

SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES

2ND SEMESTER

FINAL DRAFT

“SHOULD CENSORSHIP BE CENSORED ?”

SUBMITTED TO- Prof. (Dr.) Nilamber Chhetri

SUBMITTED BY-
AYASKANTA PARIDA
2017012
B.A.-LL. B.

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................. 3
TYPES OF CENSORSHIP .................................................................................................................................. 4
CENSORSHIP IN PRE-INDEPENDENT INDIA ................................................................................................... 8
PROS AND CONS OF CENSORSHIP................................................................................................................. 9
INDIAN LAWS WHICH FOR ADVOCATE CENSORSHIP .................................................................................. 11
ONLINE SURVEY .......................................................................................................................................... 12
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................................................ 14

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INTRODUCTION
Censorship1 means “The suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that
are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.” Should the Internet be
censored? It’s a topic of ongoing debate around the world. And it’s not an easy question to answer,
not least of which because one of the questions is who will do the censoring and how. The global
nature and the reach of the Internet pose many difficulties in controlling content that have never
come up with other mediums for communicating and disseminating information. Some countries
already censor parts of the Internet, or sometimes completely2 blocking websites and shutting
down social media services like Twitter in times of unrest. We sometimes feel uncomfortable
around a word like “censor”; it sounds too much like our freedoms are being denied. However, the
Internet can be censored in such a way that it remains a good source of information and a lively
social space while protecting those who are most vulnerable to Internet exploitation. Censoring is
a word that frightens many people, but if applied in a thoughtful, measured way that is in
accordance with community standards, censoring the Internet can protect vulnerable populations
including children from sexual exploitation, reduce hate crimes and terrorism and better protect
intellectual property. Internet “freedom” is an abstract concept, but these are real people damaged
by real problems that are the result of an uncensored Internet. Censoring the Internet will make

1
Censorship | Definition of censorship in English by Oxford Dictionaries." Oxford Dictionaries | English. Accessed
January 23, 2018. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/censorship.
2
Williams, Christopher. "How Egypt shut down the internet." The Telegraph. January 28, 2011. Accessed February
25, 2018. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8288163/How-Egypt-shut-
down-the-internet.html.

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both the Internet and the world a better place. Sometimes however, the government seems to be
increasingly determined to limit these freedoms using censorship to confine these rights that we
usually take for granted. The most important facet of media in general is that it allows people to
express themselves freely. A prime example would be Stalin’s censoring of photos to “erase”
people or to show him in a better light ("The Commissar Vanishes.") 3. Based on the cold and
secretive history of censorship of media in general, it should be clear that the government should
not have the ability to determine what the public should be allowed to hear, see or believe.

TYPES OF CENSORSHIP
The different kinds of censorship are:

➢ Moral Censorship- This censorship advocates for removal of materials that are considered to
be immoral for the general public, hence can’t be displayed/published in the open space. For
example, pornography/pictures considered to be obscene/exhibits, which is as something that
can’t be exhibited openly.
• A recent example can be Brett Bailey’s 2014 exhibit named "Exhibit B"4 which
portrayed the controversial ‘human zoos’ in the form of a black woman put in a cage,
probably for sale as slave, or just as a showpiece, which thus forced viewers to confront
a heinously racist moment in history head on. The piece was slated to run at London's
Barbican Centre, but was cancelled due to the "extreme" nature of the protests and
threats made against the performers and staff. "We find it profoundly troubling that
such methods have been used to silence artists and performers and that audiences have
been denied the opportunity to see this important work," a statement from the Barbican
read.

"It has not been my intention to alienate people with this work," Bailey wrote for The
Guardian soon after. "To challenge perceptions and histories, yes. Explicitly to offend,
no."

3
Jhashi, Tamara Machmut. "Review of 'The Commissar Vanishes' by David King." H-NET RUSSIA, November
1998. doi: 10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f.

4
Frank, Priscilla. "A Brief History Of Art Censorship From 1508 To 2014." Huffington Post India. December 06,
2017. Accessed February 25, 2018. http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/art-censorship_n_6465010.

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 • This has also happened in the past, even with the well-known artist Edouard Manet. In
1865, Manet's red-headed nude in “Olympia”5 was deemed ‘vulgar’ due to her unwavering
gaze and realistic representation. While most nudes at the time were rendered in an
idealized style, Manet chose to capture nudity in all its bodily reality. Olympia stares
head-on at the viewer without hesitation, displaying her form in all its fleshly, erotic
glory. Although the work was allowed to exhibit at Paris' annual salon in 1865 (no
censorship there), two policemen were brought in to protect the canvas from furious
bystanders who flooded the show.

While most nudes at the time were rendered in an idealized style, Manet chose to
capture nudity in all its bodily reality. Olympia stares head-on at the viewer without
hesitation, displaying her form in all its fleshly, erotic glory. Although the work was
allowed to exhibit at Paris' annual salon in 1865 (no censorship there), two policemen
were brought in to protect the canvas from furious bystanders who flooded the show.

➢ Military Censorship- The military uses some tactics to keep away its confidential information
away from the enemy, hence avoiding espionage. These tactics can vary from country to
country. Some examples can be used to substantiate this above notion.

• Throughout the Persian Gulf War of 1991, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
permitted only one foreign journalist to remain in Baghdad—CNN's veteran war
correspondent Peter Arnett. Arnett had to abide by the Iraqi press-censorship
rules.6 "From the beginning," Arnett later disclosed, "I accepted the constraints that
the Iraqis laid down. They said, 'Anything you do, you put on paper. We go over
it, and we alter it. We change it if we wish to, and that's what you're going to use.'"

5
Frank, Priscilla. "A Brief History Of Art Censorship From 1508 To 2014." Huffington Post India. December 06,
2017. Accessed February 25, 2018. http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/art-censorship_n_6465010.

6
Day, Julia. "Peter Arnett in Iraqi TV propaganda row." The Guardian. March 31, 2003. Accessed February 25,
2018. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/mar/31/iraq.iraqandthemedia.

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 Once the war began, the Iraqi government selected Arnett's reporting locations and
monitored his interviews. As a result, many of Arnett's stories dwelled on bombing
damage to civilian areas and the suffering of the Iraqi people.

Many Americans, including members of Congress and even fellow journalists,

severely criticized Arnett for reporting material provided or censored by the Iraqi
Government Sources.
• On the other hand, Israel has actually got a separate unit, aptly named the Israeli
Military Censor, whose main role to keep an eye on the information published
about the Israeli Military. This unit is a highly important one, which can be seen
by the fact that it is headed by the Chief Censor, an officer directly appointed by
the Defence Minister, itself. Some of its works are the Lavon Affair, a failed 1954
Mossad Operation in which the Israeli Military Sensor censored information by
using code words. For example, the words ‘unfortunate business’ referred to the
failed operation.7

➢ Political Censorship- It often happens that Government doesn’t reveal some information to the
public, fearing outcry and rebellion against itself.
• The files on Subash Chandra Bose is a good example. Only after 70 years of his
death, in 2015, the government decided to declassify the files8. There was always
a confusion about Bose’s activities in Germany, whether he had a legally wedded
wife or not, what were his whereabouts, and how he died. The Indian
Governments, over the period of time, never thought about disclosing them. This
loop finally ended with the present government, which finally decided to remove
the clouds over this particular topic. The secrets revealed were quite surprising,
indeed.
• Another example can be the ‘Watergate’ Scandal, where the Richard Nixon
administration tried to resist the probes of the United States Congress into the

7
Teveth, Shabtai (1974). Moshe Dayan: The soldier, the man, the legend. Quartet Books. pp. 265, 266. ISBN 0-
7043-1080-5
8
Pathak, Vikas. "PM releases 100 secret files on Netaji." The Hindu. January 23, 2016. Accessed February 26,
2018. http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/narendra-modi-declassifies-netaji-files/article8145670.ece.

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 burglary at the Democratic National Convention. This eventually led to Nixon’s
downfall, as it ended his term, and eventually his political career9

➢ Religious Censorship- Here, a particular religion tries to remove any material that it sees as
objectionable from the glare of the public. Two prominent examples in this field will be
‘Satanic Verses’ by Salman Rushdie10 and ‘The Hindus’ by Wendy Doniger, which were
heavily opposed by Islamic and Hindu organizations respectively in India.
• In Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses11, the controversy arose after the Muslims saw it
as blasphemous and hate speech. Ayatollah Khomeini, the then supreme leader of Iran
issued a fatwa12 against Rushdie, asking him to be murdered. Emboldened by this, the
Indian Muslims started protesting against it, leading to its ban.13
• In the “Hindus” by Wendy Doniger, the author tried to portray Hinduism not from the
usual Brahmanical/Colonizer’s point of view, but rather from the viewpoint of the
oppressed like the women and the outcaste. The result was that it was seen by Hindus
to be completely incorrect, both factually and morally.
Dinanath Batra, head of the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti filed a case under Section
295A of IPC which states that forbids deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage
the feelings of any religious community. Hence the book was taken out by its Indian
Publisher, Penguin. However, the book returned after some time, under a different
publisher.

9
"A burglary turns into a constitutional crisis." CNN. Accessed February 26, 2018.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/06/11/watergate/index.html?_s=PM%3AUS.

10
Campbell, Carola, and Gabrielle Mander. "The Satanic Verses." Encyclopedia Britannica. February 10, 2017.
Accessed February 26, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Satanic-Verses.
11
Author), Wendy Doniger (Goodreads, Uma, Sajith Kumar, and R. Ramachandran. "The Hindus." By Wendy
Doniger. Accessed February 26, 2018. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5263037-the-hindus.
12
Supra 10
13
Mitta, Manoj. "Reading 'Satanic Verses' legal - Times of India." The Times of India. January 24, 2012. Accessed
February 26, 2018. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Reading-Satanic-Verses-
legal/articleshow/11622048.cms?referral=PM.

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➢ Corporate censorship – It is a process by which editors in corporate outlets intervene to disrupt
the publishing of information that portrays their business or business partners in a negative
light. Many incidents of such nature have happened in the recent past.
• in November 2017, it was found out that Uber, the biggest Cab- Aggregator Company
in the world had hidden a massive hack14 into its systems, which exposed data of about
57 million users and drivers across the world. It paid 100,000$ to the hackers to delete
the data and not disclose the breach.
“None of this should have happened, and I will not make excuses for it,” Uber’s chief
executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, said15, acknowledging the breach and cover-up. “While
I can’t erase the past, I can commit on behalf of every Uber employee that we will learn
from our mistakes.”
• The most prominent case, however, is the case of Volkswagen, who actually implanted
‘defeat devices’ in their cars in order to circumvent environment regulations.16 This
was declared by United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2015. In 2016,
Volkswagen had to pay $15.3 billion as settlement, the largest auto-related consumer
class-action lawsuit in the history of USA.17

CENSORSHIP IN PRE-INDEPENDENT INDIA

In British-Ruled India, it was the press, which suffered the most under the colonizers. Many
Acts were passed as stringent curbs over the press. Prior to the rumblings of the 1857 mutiny,
the Press was fiercely involved in rallying the masses, and as a result, the British government
was increasingly becoming apprehensive about the Press’ freedom. From the efforts of the
press, a nationalistic rebellion was slowly being pieced together through words. As a result,

14
Wong, Julia Carrie. "Uber concealed massive hack that exposed data of 57m users and drivers." The Guardian.
November 22, 2017. Accessed February 26, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/21/uber-data-
hack-cyber-attack.
15
ibid
16
Abbany, Zulfikar. "Auto expert: 'A conscious breach of US law' | Science| In-depth reporting on science and
technology | DW | 21.09.2015." DW.COM. September 21, 2015. Accessed February 26, 2018.
http://www.dw.com/en/auto-expert-a-conscious-breach-of-us-law/a-18728394
17
Lewis, Michael. "Volkswagen agrees to landmark $15.3-billion emissions settlement in U.S." Thestar.com. June
28, 2016. Accessed February 26, 2018. https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/06/28/volkswagen-agrees-to-
landmark-147-billion-emissions-settlement-in-us.html.

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 the “Gagging Act” was passed by Lord Canning, which was driven to curtail and control the
Indian publications’ content. The Act compelled all Indian publications to apply for a license
from the government, while also ensuring that nothing was written against the British
government, nor was the government challenged in any measure.

However, the Press was impervious to the “Gagging Act”, working its way around
disseminating news. It pushed the government to design far more stringent measures. For
instance, in the 1870s, it focused on the regional vernacular publications that were individually
inspiring the masses to partake in the fight against the British empire, by giving them the
information about the dire situation of the Indian people. One such publication was the Bengali
weekly, Amrita Bazar Patrika (established in 1868 in Jessore district, now in present-day
Bangladesh). Amrita Bazar Patrika caught the authorities’ attention when it reported on the
exploited indigo farmers.

Sir Ashley Eden, a British official, approached the editor of Amrita Bazar Patrika, Sisir Kumar
Ghose, and asked him to hand over the final approval of editorial content to Eden. Ghose
bluntly refused. As did several other Indian editors of regional papers across the country. In
the light of this, the Vernacular Press Act was passed on March 14, 1878, where the British
government claimed stronger control over the vernacular newspapers in the interest to curb
“seditious writing” in “publications in oriental languages”. This Act was not imposed on
English-language publications. Amrita Bazar Patrika, a bilingual, adapted to the circumstances
and became solely an English weekly, going on to play an important role in the development
of investigative Indian journalism, rooting its politics in the freedom struggle. It was fierce,
politically vocal and unputdownable. The weekly once even described the Viceroy of India,
Lord Curzon, as “Young and a little foppish, and without previous training but invested with
unlimited powers.”

PROS AND CONS OF CENSORSHIP

On one hand, Censorship does do a good job. Taking the example of Pornography ahead, it is
a big business on the Internet. This is perfectly legal in many places, and plenty of people
would say that consenting adults should be able to do as they like as long as they aren’t hurting
anyone. Those last four words are key; porn has always been an exploitative industry, and the
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Internet has only made it worse. At one level there is the exploitation of adults, men and
women, who may have been coerced into appearing in porn clips for any number of reasons.
This problem isn’t unique to the Internet, but some other problems are. One of these is the
proliferation of amateur porn. Too often, clips of people are uploaded without their knowledge
or consent. The two worst problems concern sex trafficking and child pornography. It’s one
thing if someone is coerced into porn because they need the money or have a drug problem;
sex trafficking, however, crosses the coercion line into abuse, rape and kidnapping, and victims
may be forced to perform in pornography. Child pornography is a particularly big problem on
the Internet, and unfortunately pedophiles are now literally able to network in a way they never
have in the past. While both sex trafficking and child pornography are already illegal, the
Internet provides a whole new world of profit and distribution for those behind these crimes.
Do the rights of people to freely surf the Internet trump the rights and protections due to
children and victims of sex trafficking?
Just as the Internet can become a breeding ground for pedophiles, it’s also a place where hate
is spread. A number of Internet sites exist simply to promote hatred of different types of people.
Once upon a time, a racist might have been isolated or only had contact with other people in
the immediate community. Now, a disgruntled person nursing racist tendencies can go online
and have those fanned into full-fledged hatred. Future terrorists can be made and recruited
online as well, too. This is an issue of exploitation as well. In the past, an angry, alienated
young person might pass through such a phase more or less unscathed. Today, angry young
people go online and find people who are waiting to prey upon them and convince them to
direct that disillusionment toward hate and terrorist activities. Both so-called home-grown and
foreign terrorists can be nurtured in this way. Does anyone in the world really benefit from an
Internet that allows sites to spew racism and hatred toward other types of people? Whose rights
are being preserved here?
A final reason that censorship is good is due to violations of intellectual property rights. Many
people may imagine that such people as artists and writers would be wholly in favor of a free
and open Internet, but the truth is that people who create movies, music, books and more are
hurt by an uncensored Internet. Every year, pirates get more and more clever about skirting
national and international laws and distributing intellectual content illegally. People may think
of piracy as something that only hurts big companies like movie studios, but individuals are

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 hurt by it as well. If no one wants to pay for musicians’ music, how do musicians support
themselves so they can make more music? Many on the other side of this issue claim that
information should be free, but they forget that real people are taking time out of their lives to
create that information. Writers, for example, have the same 24 hours in a day as anyone else,
and writing a book takes time; if writers can’t make any money in the seven hours a day they
are working on the novel, they will have to shift their time management and use those seven
hours to make money in some other way.
Furthermore, the work creative people do belong to them in the same way any other possession
belongs to a person. Again, the right of people to have a free and open Internet does not take
precedence over the right of creators to own and distribute their creations.
On the other hand, censorship can be dangerous as the authorities in charge of censorship might
misuse them and promote things that might not be good for the country. Also, such a measure
would promote only those which are seen as ‘morally correct’ by the majority, but something
which might be offensive to the others. The biggest challenge, if censorship exists is protection
of freedom of speech and expression. The ability to express your views will be diminished and
we will be prevented to express our viewpoints and opinions on various topics.

INDIAN LAWS WHICH FOR ADVOCATE CENSORSHIP

There is not any law, which directly advocates for Censorship. Rather, there are laws, which
rather vouch for respecting the sentiments of everybody and not publishing anything that can
hurt someone.
➢ Article 19(2) 6 of the Constitution18 says that “ Nothing in sub clause (a) of clause ( 1 ) shall
affect the operation of any existing law, or prevent the State from making any law, in so far as
such law imposes reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by the said sub
clause in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly
relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of
court, defamation or incitement to an offence.”

18
Article 19(2) in The Constitution of India 1949. Accessed January 23, 2018.
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/493243/.

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➢ The Central Board of Film Certification labels films with sexual content as A (Adult), which
are to be shown only in restricted spaces and to be viewed only by people of age 18 and above19.
➢ The Official Secrets Act 1923 is used for the protection of official(classified) information,
mainly related to national security20.
➢ Section 295 of the Indian Penal Code21 states that: Injuring or defiling place of worship with
intent to insult the religion of any class.—Whoever destroys, damages or defiles any place of
worship, or any object held sacred by any class of persons with the intention of thereby
insulting the religion of any class of persons or with the knowledge that any class of persons
is likely to consider such destruction, damage or defile-ment as an insult to their religion, shall
be punishable with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two
years, or with fine, or with both.

ONLINE SURVEY
In order to gauge the mood of the public on censorship, the researcher decided to undertake an
online survey, where people were asked as to whether they were in support of Censorship or not.
Also asked was their age and gender.

19
Viju B; Bharati Dubey (2009-12-31). "Family entertainment? B-town flicks now open to adults only". Times of
India. TNN. Retrieved 2010-05-21. Accessed February 27, 2018
20
"The Official Secrets Act, 1923", IndiaLawInfo.com. Retrieved 4 June 2006
21
Section 295 in The Indian Penal Code. Accessed February 27, 2018. https://indiankanoon.org/doc/305995/.

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The response was terrific, as there was a total of 112 responses. 46 were in support of
Censorship,46 weren’t and 20 could not decide.

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More females participated in this survey than males. 56 out of the 112 respondents, i.e. exactly
half were of the Feminine Gender.

The above graph shows the age of the respondents. On the X-axis we have the respondents and,
on the Y-axis, we have the ages. The lowest respondent was aged 17 while the senior most was
76.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Censorship | Definition of censorship in English by Oxford Dictionaries." Oxford
Dictionaries | English. Accessed January 23, 2018.
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/censorship.
• Williams, Christopher. "How Egypt shut down the internet." The Telegraph. January
28, 2011. Accessed February 25, 2018.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/egypt/8288163/H
ow-Egypt-shut-down-the-internet.html.
• Jhashi, Tamara Machmut. "Review of 'The Commissar Vanishes' by David King." H-
NET RUSSIA, November 1998. doi: 10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f.

• Frank, Priscilla. "A Brief History Of Art Censorship From 1508 To 2014."
Huffington Post India. December 06, 2017. Accessed February 25, 2018.
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/art-censorship_n_6465010.

14 | P a g e
• Day, Julia. "Peter Arnett in Iraqi TV propaganda row." The Guardian. March 31,
2003. Accessed February 25, 2018.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/mar/31/iraq.iraqandthemedia.
• Teveth, Shabtai (1974). Moshe Dayan: The soldier, the man, the legend. Quartet
Books. pp. 265, 266. ISBN 0-7043-1080-5
• Pathak, Vikas. "PM releases 100 secret files on Netaji." The Hindu. January 23,
2016. Accessed February 26, 2018.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/narendra-modi-declassifies-netaji-
files/article8145670.ece.
• "A burglary turns into a constitutional crisis." CNN. Accessed February 26, 2018.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/06/11/watergate/index.html?_s=PM%3AUS
• Campbell, Carola, and Gabrielle Mander. "The Satanic Verses." Encyclopedia
Britannica. February 10, 2017. Accessed February 26, 2018.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Satanic-Verses.
• Author), Wendy Doniger (Goodreads, Uma, Sajith Kumar, and R. Ramachandran.
"The Hindus." By Wendy Doniger. Accessed February 26, 2018.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5263037-the-hindus.
• Mitta, Manoj. "Reading 'Satanic Verses' legal - Times of India." The Times of India.
January 24, 2012. Accessed February 26, 2018.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Reading-Satanic-Verses-
legal/articleshow/11622048.cms?referral=PM.
• Wong, Julia Carrie. "Uber concealed massive hack that exposed data of 57m users
and drivers." The Guardian. November 22, 2017. Accessed February 26, 2018.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/21/uber-data-hack-cyber-attack.
• Abbany, Zulfikar. "Auto expert: 'A conscious breach of US law' | Science| In-depth
reporting on science and technology | DW | 21.09.2015." DW.COM. September 21,
2015. Accessed February 26, 2018. http://www.dw.com/en/auto-expert-a-conscious-
breach-of-us-law/a-18728394
• Lewis, Michael. "Volkswagen agrees to landmark $15.3-billion emissions settlement
in U.S." Thestar.com. June 28, 2016. Accessed February 26, 2018.

15 | P a g e
 https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/06/28/volkswagen-agrees-to-landmark-147-
billion-emissions-settlement-in-us.html
• Article 19(2) in The Constitution of India 1949. Accessed January 23, 2018.
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/493243/.
• Viju B; Bharati Dubey (2009-12-31). "Family entertainment? B-town flicks now
open to adults only". Times of India. TNN. Retrieved 2010-05-21. Accessed February
27, 2018
• "The Official Secrets Act, 1923", IndiaLawInfo.com. Retrieved 4 June 2006
• Section 295 in The Indian Penal Code. Accessed February 27, 2018.
https://indiankanoon.org/doc/305995/

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