NEW DELHI // “Don’t eat it, read it, see it, feel it,” sings the Michael Jackson impersonator as she raps her way through a list of pleasures banned by India’s conservative government before belting out, “Just beep it!”
As the world’s largest democracy, India has long been proud of its tradition of artistic, cultural and religious freedoms.
But a series of bans – ranging from eating beef to watching the Fifty Shades of Grey movie – has sparked accusations of a growing climate of intolerance under Hindu nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi.
Critics say the bans show how “thin-skinned” their politicians have become in the internet age where attempts to put a lid on offending material are likely to backfire.
The spoof of Jackson’s classic “Beat It”, which was made by the Indian comedy trio Enna Da Rascalas, has gone viral since being uploaded on YouTube last week, reflecting the backlash against blacklists.
Announcing a ban earlier this month on a British-made documentary about an infamous 2012 gang-rape in Delhi, home minister Rajnath Singh said the comments by one of the rapists could fuel public anger.
Days later, a government-appointed board of censors blocked the release of the erotic movie Fifty Shades of Grey in cinemas, despite being shown a toned-down version.
And a comedy “roast” show that featured several Bollywood stars has fallen foul of the authorities after being uploaded on the internet. It is now at the centre of an obscenity investigation over some of its sexually explicit jokes.
“For this government, it seems a ban becomes the quickest way to eliminate a problem,” Shiv Visvanathan, a sociologist based in Haryana state, said.
“Bans do not tolerate disorder but without debate and disorder, you can’t have a free democracy. It is just making life complex.”
Historians point out that the centre-left Congress party which has ruled India for most of the post-independence period has its own track record of bans, particularly during the 1975 to 1977 “emergency” under Indira Gandhi.
British author Salman Rushdie’s 1988 book The Satanic Verses was also banned for allegedly insulting Islam.
But the last two decades has seen a general relaxation on the part of the watchdogs with TV channels airing shows like Sex and the City that would have once been considered too racy.
Even the Rushdie novel Midnight's Children – which is scathing about the emergency – was released in Indian cinemas in 2013, albeit without the nudity.
Shashi Tharoor, a best-selling author who is also a Congress lawmaker, says the cultural climate has definitely changed since Mr Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party came to power last May.
“Our mounting concern is that there is a climate of intolerance that has unfortunately been given free rein,” Mr Tharoor said.
“Positions which had always struck the Indian mainstream as being fringe positions have suddenly become acceptable to the powers that lead.”
The former diplomat made his name with The Great Indian Novel, a satire that came out in 1989 and is based on the epic Sanskrit poem Mahabharata.
Were it to be published today, Mr Tharoor suspects, it would be banned.
Acclaimed Tamil-language author Perumal Murugan quit writing altogether in January following protests by Hindu and caste groups who felt insulted by one of his books.
Pressure from Hindu activist groups was also instrumental in the passing of a ban on beef earlier this month in the western state of Maharashtra, which encompasses the largest city Mumbai. Cows are sacred to Hindus.
The move has been interpreted in some corners as another sign of growing intolerance in a country that is overwhelmingly Hindu but also has sizeable Muslim, Christian and Buddhist minorities.
But Pavan Verma, who has written extensively about cultural and religious history in India, said a certain amount of censorship was understandable in order to avoid causing offence in such a diverse country.
“India is a country of wide social discrepancies ... that try to coexist with each other and it’s not an easy job to keep everyone happy all the time,” said Mr Verma, a former head of the Indian council for cultural relations.
There was widespread condemnation in India of January’s murderous attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris which had printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
But when the editor of a Mumbai-based Urdu magazine reprinted one of the cartoons as a gesture of solidarity, she was arrested under laws against insulting religion.
Tanmay Bhat, one of the AIB comedy team at the centre of the obscenity row, said the wave of bans made little logical sense but did reflect a general intolerance.
“We [Indians] tend to have ... an ostrich kind of mentality,” he said last week.
“We want to put our heads into the ground and be like, ‘if I don’t like something then it’s got to go away’.”
* Agence France-Presse
The bio
Favourite book: Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
Favourite quote: “The world makes way for the man who knows where he is going.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist
Favourite Authors: Arab poet Abu At-Tayyib Al-Mutanabbi
Favourite Emirati food: Luqaimat, a deep-fried dough soaked in date syrup
Hobbies: Reading and drawing
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MATCH INFO
Inter Milan 1 (Martinez 18' pen)
Juventus 2 (Dybala 4', Higuain 80')
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index
The Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index
Mazen Abukhater, principal and actuary at global consultancy Mercer, Middle East, says the company’s Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index - which benchmarks 34 pension schemes across the globe to assess their adequacy, sustainability and integrity - included Saudi Arabia for the first time this year to offer a glimpse into the region.
The index highlighted fundamental issues for all 34 countries, such as a rapid ageing population and a low growth / low interest environment putting pressure on expected returns. It also highlighted the increasing popularity around the world of defined contribution schemes.
“Average life expectancy has been increasing by about three years every 10 years. Someone born in 1947 is expected to live until 85 whereas someone born in 2007 is expected to live to 103,” Mr Abukhater told the Mena Pensions Conference.
“Are our systems equipped to handle these kind of life expectancies in the future? If so many people retire at 60, they are going to be in retirement for 43 years – so we need to adapt our retirement age to our changing life expectancy.”
Saudi Arabia came in the middle of Mercer’s ranking with a score of 58.9. The report said the country's index could be raised by improving the minimum level of support for the poorest aged individuals and increasing the labour force participation rate at older ages as life expectancies rise.
Mr Abukhater said the challenges of an ageing population, increased life expectancy and some individuals relying solely on their government for financial support in their retirement years will put the system under strain.
“To relieve that pressure, governments need to consider whether it is time to switch to a defined contribution scheme so that individuals can supplement their own future with the help of government support,” he said.
Why it pays to compare
A comparison of sending Dh20,000 from the UAE using two different routes at the same time - the first direct from a UAE bank to a bank in Germany, and the second from the same UAE bank via an online platform to Germany - found key differences in cost and speed. The transfers were both initiated on January 30.
Route 1: bank transfer
The UAE bank charged Dh152.25 for the Dh20,000 transfer. On top of that, their exchange rate margin added a difference of around Dh415, compared with the mid-market rate.
Total cost: Dh567.25 - around 2.9 per cent of the total amount
Total received: €4,670.30
Route 2: online platform
The UAE bank’s charge for sending Dh20,000 to a UK dirham-denominated account was Dh2.10. The exchange rate margin cost was Dh60, plus a Dh12 fee.
Total cost: Dh74.10, around 0.4 per cent of the transaction
Total received: €4,756
The UAE bank transfer was far quicker – around two to three working days, while the online platform took around four to five days, but was considerably cheaper. In the online platform transfer, the funds were also exposed to currency risk during the period it took for them to arrive.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
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About Karol Nawrocki
• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.
• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.
• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.
• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.
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The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
Rating: 2.5/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
