Here we go again. The first impulse from the troglodytes on seeing something that is troubling is to shut their own eyes and insist that others be prevented from seeing it also. Apparently their conception of the good society is one in which the people are rendered blind and mute, and where they get to dictate to the people what is allowed to be said, heard, written or read, and by whom. At the center of the current turmoil among the troglodytes is a book by Joseph Lelyveld, “Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India.”
Continue reading “Banning a Book on Gandhi”
Category: Freedom of Expression
Arundhati Roy is a Damn Nuisance
Arundhati Roy is really — how should I put it delicately — an attention whore. Maybe she has a point or maybe she doesn’t. Her vile attacks on India are thinly disguised attacks on Hindus. The UPA, which normally would be allied with her united as they are in their hatred of Hindus, find themselves parting company since she is bringing attention to the disaster that is Kashmir — a disaster that Chacha Nehru created. That is not kosher. So what does the UPA do? Try to throttle her. Same as they do with anyone who speaks out against the vile stupidity of their misgovernance.
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Philip Pullman on Being Offended and Free Speech
Happy Birthday, April Fools! And for the birthday cake, we have a short YouTube video of Philip Pullman, author of the the novel The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. On March 28th, he was addressing an audience in Oxford. Here’s how Mr Pullman replied to one person’s charge that the title of the book to an ordinary Christian was offensive. Continue reading “Philip Pullman on Being Offended and Free Speech”
“This Page Intentionally Left Blank by the Government of India””
I don’t know what zone-h.org is. Someone pointed me to the site saying that he could not access it from India and believes that the government of India has banned it. He said that he has “heard (from a reliable source) a rumour that the Government of India has a fairly regular habit of issuing fiats to ISPs to block various websites that it feels are objectionable for some reason.”
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The Indecency of Legislating Decency
Malavika Patil asked in a comment to the post “My Position on MF Husain”: “Does obscenity/pornography deserve free speech rights?” As a free speech fundamentalists, I can only answer, “Yes, yes, and yes!” I am enough of a realist to believe that no individual or group is so wise as to be a judge of what speech deserves the protection of law and what doesn’t. The only way forward is to allow all speech, regardless of how someone feels about it. Continue reading “The Indecency of Legislating Decency”
The Land of Retards and Hypocrites
I find two items interesting today. One is an online petition titled “Demand for withdrawal of a flawed book on Hindu History published by PENGUIN” is making the rounds. Addressed to the presidents of the Penguin Group and Penguin India Pvt Ltd, it says, “The Hindus: An Alternative History” by Wendy Doniger “is rife with numerous errors in its historical facts and Sanskrit translations. These errors and misrepresentations are bound and perhaps intended to mislead students of Indian and Hindu history.” The other item is the story about M F Husain giving up his Indian citizenship and becoming a citizen of Qatar. Continue reading “The Land of Retards and Hypocrites”
The Danger of Surrending our Most Potent Weapon
For me, the freedom of speech is sacrosanct (to the extent that anything about the world is sacrosanct to me) and absolutely non-negotiable. Why?Because to me ideas matter. Ideas are what distinguishes us from other terrestrial life forms and in the ultimate analysis, they lie at the root of all progress any human civilization has made anywhere. There are two other very important facts.
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A Simple Story About Real Contentment
I came across this story on a mailing list. Let me retell the story first and then the source of the story.
Continue reading “A Simple Story About Real Contentment”
This Blog is Banned in Iran
You know that you have arrived when you find that your writing has been banned in some place. Nihar, when he was traveling in Iran, found that some blog posts of mine are banned there. He sent me a screen capture which you will find below the fold. Now at least I hope you are impressed. Or will you be impressed only after the Indian government bans this blog?
PS: I don’t think it will be long before the government of India bans this blog. There are too many things here which are embarrassing for the Indian government. Recall that the government of India banned Salman Rushdie even before the mullahs in Iran got their act together. The Indian government is holier than the mullahs of fundamentalist Islam. After all, how else can India be a “secular” state if it cannot pander to Islamic fundamentalism, eh?
Continue reading “This Blog is Banned in Iran”
YouTube bends over
YouTube has banned the James Randi Educational Foundation channel.
The reason is not yet known. I fear that it did so because of some religious group was offended by the JREF’s rational argument. Can’t really blame them since even governments are bending over. Recently the UN was the site of an unsightly scene where it was decided that any expression that offends the followers of one particular religion was to be banned. In India, they jailed a newspaper editor because thousands of violent thugs demanded his death for offending them by publishing an article that pointed out that certain beliefs are silly.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 