Penguin India has agreed to withdraw Wendy Doniger’s award-winning book The Hindus: An Alternative History, and to destroy remaining copies within six months, writes Salil Tripathi
Penguin’s disappointing surrender over Hindus book
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CATEGORY: India
India’s courts caught in pornophobia
The Indian Supreme Court’s observations while hearing a petition in which online pornography is blamed for of the “epidemic” of rape and sexual violence is redolent of the pornophobia which had gripped the puritanical English legal system in the Victorian era, writes Saurav Datta
Is India’s biometric benefits database trampling privacy?
India’s laws and controls over its massive collection, storage and use of biometric data are hugely deficient, writes Ram Mashru
Indian films at mercy of new censor board CEO — and his five-year-old daughter
The new CEO of India’s censor board has described his objection to some of India’s recent blockbusters based on the reactions of his wife and five year old daughter. Mahima Kaul reports
Did the Uttar Pradesh government ban two channels for being too critical?
It is almost impossible to believe, but the government of India’s largest and most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, seems to have taken the most popular English news channel, Times Now, off the air for criticizing it, Mahima Kaul reports
India: Social media finally has its campaign in the sun
As India’s election approaches, politicians have been taking to social media to connect with voters, Mahima Kaul reports
India: “Even the Supreme Court thinks my ‘lifestyle’ is illegal”
By reinstating a law banning gay sex, the Indian state is entering citizens’ bedrooms and infringing on their integrity and bodily autonomy, writes Sayan Bhattacharya
India: Digital freedom under threat?
The rules India makes for its online users are highly significant – for not only will they apply to 1 in 6 people on earth in the near future as more Indians go online, but as the country emerges as a global power they will shape future debates over freedom of expression online.
India: Digital freedom under threat? Conclusion
This paper has shown that despite its lively democracy, strong tradition of press freedom and political debates, India is in many ways struggling to find the right balance between freedom of expression online and other concerns such as security.
India: Digital freedom under threat? India’s role in global internet debates
International summits and fora over the next two years will be critical in determining the internet’s future.