In India

1
In India!

• By
• Susan Warnock
• And
• Brandon Garner

2
Why Censor?

• India has over 1.1 billion peoplethats a lot of
  room for misinformation to spread.
• India is deeply entrenched in customs that
  citizens seek to protect.
• Indian culture has a strong belief in syncretism,
  censorship aiding in this by keeping an
  underlying harmony throughout Indias diverse
  population.

3
Banned Books

• The Face of Mother India by Katherine Mayo.
  Banned January 18, 1936
• The Jewel in the Lotus (A Historical Survey of
  the Sexual Culture of the East). Banned July 20,
  1968
• What Has Religion Done for Mankind, Watch-tower
  Bible and Tract Society, New York. Banned Feb
  26, 1955
• Hindu Heaven by Max Wylie. Banned April 28, 1934
  
• Dark Urge by Robert W. Taylor. Banned Dec 29,
  1955
• Books are banned either for religious content,
  sexual content, or political content.

4
Banned Films

• 1984 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
• 2004 The Final Solution (Political)
• 2006 The DaVinci Code (Religious)
• India has also seen fit to ban the on-screen
  smoking or advertisement of cigarettes, in an
  effort to reduce smoking-related illnesses and
  deathseven though India is the 3rd largest
  producer of tobacco in the world. It is also the
  2nd largest consumer, with 800,000 dying a year
  there from smoking-related causes.

5
Internet Censorship
On August 10th of 2003, the Department of
Telecommunications at the Ministry of
Communications Information Technology, an arm
of the Indian Government, decided that due to a
Yahoo! Group promoting anti-national news and
containing material against the Government of
India State Government of Meghalaya, that
Yahoo! Groups would fall under a government ban.
Over 400 ISPs complied, and the whole of India
quickly found itself unable to use these
sites. An outrage over the governments ability
to control Indian media has since sparked, the
people of India questioning the need for such
measures.
6
Blasphemy Law

• The law extends into all facets of Indian media
  to prevent the blaspheming of any religion, and
  stems from this passage of the Penal Codes
  section 295C
• "Whoever by words, either spoken or written, or
  by visible representation, or by any imputation,
  innuendo or insinuation, directly or indirectly
  defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet
  MohammedPeace be upon himshall be punished with
  death and shall also be liable to a fine."
• India is not the only country with this law,
  others include Pakistan and Bangladesh

7
American Parallels

• Obscenity
• Bomb-Making Techniques
• Slander
• Books ???

8
American Differences

• The Government rarely bans books and makes them
  illegal to sell or own.
• Any sort of banning is local, limited to one
  school system or one library system, etc

9
References

• http//miteshvasa.blogspot.com/2006/07/india-banst
  he-good-bad-and-weird.html
• http//www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/full_stor
  y.php?content_id39862
• http//www.rediff.com/netguide/2003/sep/23yahoo.ht
  m
• http//www.chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid00001344
  channeluniversity20ave
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_India

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Thank You!!