CENSORSHIP IN INDIA VIS-À-VIS FREEDOM OF SPEECH: COMPARISON OF THE EXTENT OF CENSORSHIP LAWS IN INDIA AND ABROAD

With the current outrage at the arbitrary method of censorship applied by the board of film certification in India, it was pertinent to understand and take a closer look at the methods and principles which guide the method of censorship in India, this is also an attempt to understand why censorship is a vital tool to ensure peace and unity in India. The paper also looks at the past and present of censorship, in the form of how it came to be, why it came to be and also what role it plays in society today. In order to get a bigger picture of censorship an attempt has been made to understand censorship in the United States of America, which is a champion of democracy and also in the People’s Republic of China which uses censorship to shepherd its populace in the other direction. The effects both schools have on censorship have been explored in this paper. India being a mixture of both influences has the right to expression subject to certain instances and therefore must understand that even though the right of free speech is indeed a requirement in these times and places, but why censorship as a necessary evil as well in India.