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Blasphemy in India


Hurting religious sentiments


 

Update: Hurt sentiments...

TV comedian briefly jailed for blasphemy against a cult leader


Link Here14th January 2016
Full story: Blasphemy in India...Hurting religious sentiments
A day after he was arrested and forced to spend a few hours in an Indian jail for mocking a self-styled religious sect leader, popular comedian Kiku Sharda called the experience traumatic, sad and sudden.

The comedian was arrested for mimicking Dera Sacha Sauda chief Baba Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in an episode on December 27.

Amid nationwide outrage, Sharda was also sent to custody for 14 days but released after a few hours in jail, soon after the Dera chief said he forgave him. But around 10 pm, he was detained again and then released this morning.

Thankfully I didn't spend 14 days in jail, Sharda remarked, joking, however, that he did feel more secure in jail than outside because of the crowd of Baba Ram Rahim's followers in court. There was uproar when I came. It was scary.

The comedian, booked for hurting religious sentiment, said he had faced this sort of trouble for the first time in 13 years.

The Dera Sacha Sauda, a sect that has a strong presence in Punjab and Haryana, describes itself as a social welfare and spiritual organisation with millions of followers in India and abroad. It doesn't sound a very noce group though, with police investigating claims that 400 followers were forced to undergo castrations so that they could get closer to God .

 

 

Update: Miserable Life in India...

Taslima Nasreen's writing has again been banned over fears of violent protest


Link Here20th December 2013
Full story: Blasphemy in India...Hurting religious sentiments
T he planned launch of an Indian television serial scripted by a Bangladeshi-feminist author Taslima Nasreen has been scrapped after several Muslim groups demanded that her writings be banned.

Dussahobas (Miserable Life Together) , a Bengali serial written by Taslima Nasreen, was to go on air on Thursday, but the TV channel behind the programme was forced to defer its plan after local police said the serial could stir unrest.

Syed Mohammad Noorur Rahman Barkati, an Imam of a Kolkata mosque, told Al Jazeera.

In her writings, she routinely seeks to ridicule Islam and vilify our revered Prophet Mohammed. In this serial, she might come up with something to show Islam in bad light again.

Nasreen's writing became well known after she was forced to flee Bangladesh in 1994 after her novel Lajja (Shame) was banned. She allegedly called for changes in the Quran, antagonizing sections of the country's population that prompted death threats against her.

Ishita Surana, spokesperson of Channel Aat, the Kolkata-based channel that commissioned the serial, said the serial did not have anything that hurts the religious sentiments of Muslims.

Nasreen insists her script talks only of women who became victims of dowry, forced marriage, rape, prostitution and other social evils. she explained to Indian news-agency PTI:

Unlike other TV serials which glorify women as being submissive or relegate them to the role of housewives, this serial portrays them as strong individuals...and how they keep fighting for their rights,

 

 

Update: Dancing for Joy...

Indian catholics pleased as dancing priest is censored from movie


Link Here2nd October 2012
Full story: Blasphemy in India...Hurting religious sentiments

The movie Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal has ruffled nutter feathers before its release.

Christians complained of supposedly objectionable scenes:

  • a priest dancing in a party with a person lying in a coffin with the crucifix beside him
  • the portrayal of a Catholic priest dancing with a lottery garland around his neck, with the church in the background.

However the scenes supposedly objectionable to the sentiments of Catholics have now been deleted from the film following the information & broadcasting ministry's intervention, a rights group said.

Accordingly, Catholic groups in Maharashta have withdrawn their protest and boycott of the movie. Judith Monteiro, secretary of the Association of Concerned Catholics (AOCC), said that representatives of various front-ranking groups watched the movie on opening day:

This is a victory of sorts for maintaining sensitivity while dealing with religion in the film industry. We have always been taken for granted just because we do no resort to violence. Hopefully, this will serve as a deterrent for future movie-makers.

Bishop Agnelo Gracias of the Archdoicese of Mumbai said:

I'm happy that the objectionable scenes have been deleted. Every religion should be treated with the respect it deserves. I hope the Censor Board will maintain caution in future while granting certification to movies.

However, Catholic groups are still firm on their other two demands: removal of Censor Board chief executive officer Prajakta Thakur; and nomination of a permanent Christian representative for film certification.

 

 

Update: A Church Background...

Indian catholics wound up a dancing priest in a movie


Link Here24th September 2012
Full story: Blasphemy in India...Hurting religious sentiments

The movie Kamaal Dhamaal Malamaal has ruffled nutter feathers even before its release.

A delegation of Catholics met with the Censor Board authorities to register their protest against the disrespectful portrayal of a Catholic priest and the community in the promos and advertisements . They also demanded that their requests for a permanent representative on the Censor Board in Mumbai be immediately fulfilled.

The secretary ofAssociation of Concerned Catholics (AOCC), Judith Monteiro told DNA that they've mailed the minister for Information & Broadcasting, Ambika Soni and the Censor Board chief Leela Samson conveying the community's displeasure.

Gen Secretary of Mumbai Youth Congress Agnelo Fernandes announced that the screening of the movie will not be allowed till the supposedly objectionable scenes were deleted.

The supposedly objectionable scenes include:

  • a priest dancing in a party with a person lying in a coffin with the crucifix beside him
  • the portrayal of a Catholic priest dancing with a lottery garland around his neck, with the church in the background.

Just because we don't protest like other communities, this has extended to ridiculing clergy. Do authorities react only to aggressive and violent protests? Are they pushing us towards it? asked Joe Dias, Catholic Secular Forum (CSF) general secretary.

 

6th February
2012
  

Update: Exile...

Kolkata book launch event cancelled lest religious people get offended (and get violent)

The cancellation of the release party for Taslima Nasreen's autobiography at the Kolkata Book Fair has thrown the spotlight on the destructive clout of religious fanatics in a city once known for savouring cultural pluralism.

Coupled with the Salman Rushdie controversy - when the Booker awardee had to call off his visit and then his much-anticipated video address at the Jaipur Literature Festival following security threats triggered by some Islamic groups' protest - would go down as another instance of Indian authorities and parties kowtowing before religious rabblerousers.

While the Rushdie episode saw the political parties and the government, in the words of novelist Vikram Seth, knuckling under an enforced disgrace because of power and politics , the only difference here was that publishers went ahead with the launch of the book at the fair, despite the hostile attitude of organisers.

The seventh volume of Nasreen's book Nirbasan ( Exile ), which deals with her life after exile from Kolkata in 2007 and which almost nobody had read before the release, saw religious fundamentalists protesting against the launch.

This was nothing new for the Bangladesh-born author, a doctor by profession in the early 80s, who was forced to leave her country in 1994 after there was widespread agitation against her novel Lajja ( Shame ), which a section of people saw as an assault on Islam.

Hours before the release function, the organisers telephoned the publishers, People's Book Society, asking them to cancel the programme due to logistical problems . But later it transpired that some Islamic groups had approached the authorities and the city police against the book release.

A top official of the organising body, Publishers' and Book Sellers' Guild, confirmed the development saying:

We cannot allow any such thing to happen inside the Book Fair premises which can hurt the interest of the common people coming to the fair. We cannot allow anything that may hurt the religious sentiments of any community.

Update: Cancer of Censorship

11th February 2012. See  article from  guardian.co.uk

Taslima Nasreen commented to the Times of India:

You may wonder why the authority tries to ban me or ban my book launch. They believe I am anti-Islam, and supporting me or allowing me entry to the country or the state or the city or the book fair would send a wrong message to the Muslim fanatics. They fear they would lose the Muslim vote. They do not want to take the risk of a single Muslim vote.

The author believes the appetite for censorship is growing in India , she said. With Rushdie prevented by fears of violence from attending or even speaking via video link at the Jaipur event in January, Nasrin says we are witnessing the disturbing victory of Islamic gangsters in Jaipur and Kolkata. I am wondering how to stop this growing cancer from spreading, she said. According to Nasrin, intolerance is growing

because the government does not take action against intolerant fanatics and the fanatics are forgiven for whatever violence they commit in the name of religion ... India needs to secularise the states, judiciary and educational systems. People need to learn about the principles of democracy, freedom of expression, human rights and humanism. They need to be enlightened. In the name of 'Indian secularism', irrational blind faith and the barbarity of all religions seem to be accepted and respected equally.




 

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