India that is Bhārat has always been a place which has celebrated diverse views and opinions, we have had a history of celebrating Vāda as a form of learning.
For us humans it is hard to imagine life of a country as our understanding of time is with a very narrow lens. But then, to better understand the journey of freedom of speech in our country I propose to divide the phases of freedom of speech into three periods,
• Ancient Bhārat
• Colonial period
• Republic in 1950
Ancient Bhārat symbolizes the epitome of freedom of speech where the public were free to speak up without the fear of repercussions. An example from Rāmāyaṇa which demonstrates this freedom is the Sītā Agniparīkṣā. The public of Ayodhyā were free to question the chastity of their own queen (Sītā) and the King of Ayodhyā (Rāma) had to abide by the prajādharma and Sītā did prove her chastity by undergoing agniparīkṣā. With the benefit of hindsight, we might disagree with the event as hard to digest the fact that such an incident even took place and put this in the category of hate speech. It was the reality of those time as the Rāmarājya allowed the prajā this extreme level of freedom without fear.
In contrast, the colonial period be it middle eastern or western exudes extreme level of suppression where every opposition to the ruler fell into the category of sedition (hate speech) and suppressed. There have been multiple instances where the public rose against the tyranny of the colonial rulers for which extreme levels of punishments sentenced by the courts. One such example is when Veer Savarkar sentenced to Andaman Jail (Kālāpāni) for two consecutive life imprisonments, totaling fifty years on the charges of sedition which included primarily authoring books and articles against the British Government. Few of his works banned from publication by the then British government were Biography of Giuseppe Mazzini (Italian Nationalist leader), The Indian War of Independence 1857, etc.
In the present times, we see the freedom of speech hovering between these two extremes like a pendulum. We had times when the State has been extremely suppressive on the Freedom of speech by going to the extent of banning books or music and in instances declaring Emergency. On the other hand, we have seen times where public has come out on streets to express their protests like the Maratha Andolan (Maharashtra) in 2017, Jan Lokpal Andolan in Delhi in 2011. Though we did not see the solution to the outrage, except a few instances of use of water cannon or batons the Governments were receptive and allowed such protests on the streets.
Usually, we see that freedom of speech changes basis the convenience of the ruler / Government but that may not always align with the Constitution of India. The quote from the movie Spiderman “With great power comes great responsibility” relates back to the text in the Constitution which grants freedom of speech but with reasonable restrictions. Usually, we all are aware of freedom of speech as one of the fundamental rights in the constitution, however, very few realize that this right is restricted. There are occasions where to express our opinion we inadvertently restrict someone else’s right to express, and which gets in the category of hate speech.
A clear interpretation of the Article 19 of the Constitution of India is a responsibility of each citizen that way we will be able to express our thoughts and opinions without restricting rights of our fellow citizens.
Closing narration in the 1962 Amazing Fantasy #15 – Spider-Man. Script by Stan Lee and used in the Marvel movie by the name Spider-Man attributed to Uncle Ben as advice to the young Peter Parker (Spider-Man).
https://gazetteers.maharashtra.gov.in/cultural.maharashtra.gov.in/english/gazetteer/VOL-II/REVOLUTIONARY_III.pdf
Constitution of India Article 19(1)(a) read with Article 19(2).
