Why is the freedom of speech a delusion? - Perumal Murugan Edition

Recently I had the chance to attend the literature fest Lit For Life conducted here in Chennai. I'm glad I did, as some insightful conversations aside, one of my biggest takeaways was the issue surrounding the Tamil author Perumal Murugan.

I hadn't heard of him before, understandably, nor the seemingly brutal way that he'd been silenced. And I know this isn't the first time something like this happened. The First Amendment to the Indian Constitution basically paved the way for fanatics of all kinds to deter any material that has the slightest hint of offence to their beliefs. It's interesting when you see that the USA did the exact opposite of this on their first amendment. Here's the full text of it -

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

The above in my opinion is the ideal stance unless you want to be an extremist. In India, you could add caste, community in addition to religion. These are the primary areas where most of the "offence" seems to be targeted at. Needless to say, that one loophole in our constitution is archaic, doesn't really fit in a secular country like ours and makes exploiting the same very easy.

So what's Perumal's story? His Tamil book (now translated into English as One Part Woman) that came way back dealt with the predicament of a childless couple who's woes may well come to an end in the local temple's festival surrounding the God Ardhanareeshwara. The rules are relaxed for one night where consensual union between any man and woman is allowed. I don't know how it ends as I haven't read the book yet but I could tell from the synopsis that it's going to deal with the battle between social convention and intimate personal anxiety. It has all the makings of a riveting book that's totally unprecedented in Indian fiction. Where does all this outburst stem from then? Apparently it's the authors utter disregard for caste system in his book. Possibly the remarks over a fact that a woman during the ritual may well sleep with a man of lower caste. It's utterly disgusting that caste is a crux of debates even in the 21st century. Without pointing any fingers, the government for the most part seems to only pour more oil in the lamp. But I'm digressing.

What I really wanted to underline is that a person's freedom to put his mind on paper is something that should never be challenged. If the intent has really been to offend, it still doesn't give anyone the authority to mentally and physically cause hurt to that person. You have the freedom of speech if you want to retaliate, but not a freedom of violence. It's sad that a voice has now been silenced. I fear this will cut off some more radical voices. And India needs every single one of them it could muster. Now more than ever.  

Why are we so insecure about religion?

I'm sure at least some of us believe that India is the greatest country in the world. And if someone were to ask why, we do seem to have a set of standard responses  - cultural and spiritual birthplace, tradition, ancient science…and the list would go on.

But there's nothing wrong in believing in this, right? Rrrright. Until it spews out wrong behaviour from the society. So basically my question boils down to -  Should you really be a chauvinist?

Numerous incidents and public speeches come to mind. But none more radical than the ones propagated by the Hindutva parties. It almost feels like they want us to believe that if not for India, the world wouldn't be what it is today! Mr. Modi once called every one in India a Hindu as they are born in Hindustan. The logic seems fine but a looming problem of Hinduism being an established religion in the country meant that many were put off by this statement. He was quick to justify the statement in a later interview by saying he considers Hinduism as a way of life and not religion as such.

But -  what about people who do not want to be labelled? People who do not want to belong to any 'way of life'? People who just prefer to go by the moniker of 'Indians'. Secularism is already feeling like a fast departing train.

Probably what came as a wake up call to many (at least me) was the incident that took place in a Mumbai church a couple of years back. Guess it needs no introduction, but basically, there had been water dripping from the feet of one of Jesus's statues. People called it a miracle! The water was deemed holy as it was God's message! And more often than not with situations like this, word gets out and before you know it - it's a public spectacle. In the midst of this came a man to try to debunk the phenomenon. What he found was just plain drain water that climbed the wooden statue through capillary action. Anyone with a basic knowledge in physics would be able to see this. And so you would think this would abate the foolish beliefs! Maybe it did for some people (I'm hoping), but it also paved way for a lot of backlash from the Church. He was cast as a heretic for "trying to hurt the religious sentiments" and a criminal case was bashed on him for the same. And I finally had a tangible grasp of how religion can dominate pure common sense, if needed be. The question we need to ask is this - is your faith not strong enough if it can be threatened by just a simple man? Why do you have to guard your faith so rigorously?

The list is just endless. And then you have some dogmatic outbreaks like the one for the movie PK. Why so much of "taking offence"?

One of the best things in the world (maybe not really  :P) is having the ability to laugh at yourself. It removes those pesky blinds on your eyes and makes you see your own vices. The above are just my views on this topic. Sound-off below in the comments section if you feel otherwise!

Why won't we pay for digital content?

"I purchased an app"

If you ever dreaded saying this to your friends, you're not alone! You can be expected to be laughed at or worse, be called a rich fellow. Why are we, Indians, especially stingy when it comes to spending money on digital stuff? I'm gonna try to demystify this in the course of this article.

Possible Cause 1: We don't have the money

I'm kinda split on this. Money is very important to us and I guess some people do try to save every paisa they can. But if you're telling me that its not worth spending less than a 100 rupees for an app that you consider will be very useful to you, then I have my hands up in despair! No offence.

Possible Cause 2: No means to purchase

I want to believe that this is the major reason. I might be wrong, unfortunately. Simple fact is, credit/debit card penetration is very low in our country. So even if someone does like to pay for stuff, he can't because he hasn't got a way to buy it. We have to keep in mind that the majority of the app-crazy population are students who might also not have enough money to spare. Which is understandable.

 But I'm looking at you, working professionals! Some people just baffle me- like a colleague of mine who will never buy a game from the app store but will shamelessly play them on my phone. He says that apps should just be "free". Yea, so there's a lot of people spending their considerable time on developing something for you and you just expect them to give it away! Huh.  To put things in perspective, we've gotta put ourselves in the developer's shoes. Would you not want something in return if you ever developed a major app?

Possible Cause 3: You can always pirate

I guess each one of us is guilty of using pirated stuff at least once in our lives. And it always starts with Windows OS, doesn't it? I don't know anyone who's purchased a genuine copy of Windows. Granted, they're expensive, so you might be excused for this one crime. But by all means, if you can afford it, purchase it.

But let's get back to apps. When I was on Android, I really loved PowerAmp the music player so I bought it. But my friends just couldn't understand why I had to buy the app when a free APK file is available on the internet. Sadly, some people don’t even realize that it is neither legal nor ethical to use pirated stuff.  Again, to understand why it's wrong to pirate, you have to put yourselves in the shoes of a developer.

And since we're here, let's talk about music as well. No one purchases music anymore, that is the sad truth. Why? Because everything is available on the internet for free! And secondly, there is no means to buy MP3 songs legally in India as of now. You can stream all you want but you can't own anything legally. Nokia MixRadio was supposed to be a saving grace but they're shutting down their store in India as well. So yea, let's blame the universe for this.

Possible Cause 4: It's just cool to use things for free!

Imagine me throwing up my hands in despair once again. :)

Here ends my list of reasons. It's not exhaustive but I do think these are some of the major causes. I'm optimistic that the scenario will change with time but for now a majority of us still hesitate to take out money for digital content. I'll leave you with this funny comment an a game called Machinarium on the Windows store.

"The game is just wonderul. But please please please please please please please please

Please please please please make it free!!!!!"