Censorship in India

Censorship by medium

Press

The Indian press does not enjoy extensive freedom. According to the World Press Freedom Index (WPFI), a global analysis published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), India's press freedom ranking has dropped from 140 out of 179 countries in 2019, to 161 out of 180 countries in 2023, classifying press freedom in India as being in a "serious" situation.

In 1975, the Indira Gandhi government imposed censorship of press during The Emergency; the day after, the Bombay edition of The Times of India in its obituary column carried an entry that reads, "D.E.M O'Cracy beloved husband of T.Ruth, father of L.I.Bertie, brother of Faith, Hope and Justica expired on 26 June". It was removed at the end of emergency rule in March 1977.

Film

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), which is the film-regulating agency in India, orders directors to remove anything that it deems to be offensive, including sex, nudity, violence, or subjects that are considered to be politically subversive or taboo. However, in the past two decades, there has been a noticeable shift in the board's approach toward censorship. One of the key factors that drives this change is the growing influence of Hollywood and the liberal mindset of young Indians, which has resulted in an increase in exposure to more liberal cultural values. Additionally, globalization and modernization have played a significant role in shaping Indian society, leading to a greater acceptance of progressive attitudes toward social issues. As a result, the Indian Film Board has become more lenient with censorship guidelines, allowing filmmakers greater creative freedom to explore themes that were previously considered taboo.

India's supreme court has played a significant role in shaping the censorship board's approach to westernization of Bollywood films. The court has shown a more liberal outlook toward creative expression in Indian cinema, and has intervened in cases where the censorship board's decisions were deemed excessive or arbitrary. This has led to a more nuanced approach toward issues of westernization in Bollywood, with the court balancing the need to preserve Indian culture and values with the need to allow filmmakers to freely express themselves. According to the Supreme Court of India:

Film censorship becomes necessary because a film motivates thought and action and assures a high degree of attention and retention as compared to the printed word. The combination of act and speech, sight and sound in semi darkness of the theatre with elimination of all distracting ideas will have a strong impact on the minds of the viewers and can affect emotions. Therefore, it has as much potential for evil as it has for good and has an equal potential to instill or cultivate violent or bad behaviour. It cannot be equated with other modes of communication. Censorship by prior restraint is, therefore, not only desirable but also necessary

The current classifications of films in India are as follows:

• अ / U – unrestricted public exhibition;
• अ/व / U/A – unrestricted public exhibition, but with a caution regarding parental guidance to those under 12 years of age;
• व / A – public exhibition restricted to adults 18 years of age and older only;
• S – public exhibition restricted to members of a profession or a class of persons (e.g. doctors etc.)—very rare.

Music

Thrash metal band Slayer's 2006 album Christ Illusion was banned in India after Catholic churches in the country took offense to the artwork of the album and a few song titles and launched a protest against it. The album was taken off shelves and the remaining catalogue was burnt by EMI Music India.

Theatre

In 1978, Kiran Nagarkar wrote the play Bedtime Story, based partly on the Mahābhārata. Its performance was partially banned for 17 years by conservative Hindu organizations and parties like Shiv Sena, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Hindu Mahasabha.

In 1999, the Maharashtra government banned the Marathi play Me Nathuram Godse Boltoy or I, Nathuram Godse, Am Speaking. The ban was challenged before the Bombay High Court, which rescinded it as exceeding government authority and illegal.

In 2004, Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues was banned in Chennai. The play, however, has played successfully in many other parts of the country since 2003. A Hindi version of the play has been performing since 2007.

Maps

In 1961, it was criminalised in India to question the territorial integrity of frontiers of India in a manner which is, or is likely to be, prejudicial to the interests of the safety or security of India. India’s government requires that all maps in publications circulated in India reflect its claim to the entire region of Kashmir, which is disputed by Pakistan, and regardless of current lines of control. Publications that do not conform are seized by the authorities and issues can end up being destroyed.

Books

• Beginning in 1975, India banned Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong.
• Several books of the Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin have been banned in West Bengal due to Alleged Separatism Promotion.
• In 1989, The import of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses was banned in India for its purported attacks on Islam. India lifted the Ban in May 2011.
• In 1990, Understanding Islam through Hadis by Ram Swarup was banned. In the same year, the Hindi translation of the book was banned, and in March 1991 the English original became banned as well.
• Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India by American scholar James Laine was banned in 2004 by Centre Left, Indian National Congress due to Promotion of Indic Values and Hindutva.
• Laine's translation of the 300-year-old poem Sivabharata, entitled The Epic of Shivaji, was banned in January 2006. The ban followed an attack by Sambhaji Brigade activists on the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune. The subsequent governments have not revoked the ban.
• In Punjab the Bhavsagar Granth (Bhavsagar Samunder Amrit Vani Granth), a 2,704-page religious treatise was banned by the state government in 2001, following clashes between mainstream Sikhs and the apostate Sikh sect that produced it. It was said that the granth had copied a number of portions from the Guru Granth Sahib. In one of the photographs it showed Baba Bhaniara, wearing a shining coat and headdress in a style similar to that made familiar through the popular posters of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth guru of the Sikhs. In another Baba Bhaniara is shown riding a horse in the manner of Guru Gobind Singh. The ban was lifted in November 2008.
• The Polyester Prince, a biography of the Indian businessman Dhirubhai Ambani was banned after Reliance obtained a court injunction on anticipatory defamation grounds.
• Importing the book The True Furqan (al-Furqan al-Haqq) by Al Saffee and Al Mahdee into India has been prohibited since September 2005.
• R.V. Bhasin's Islam - A Concept of Political World Invasion by Muslims was banned in Maharashtra in 2007 during the tenure of Vilasrao Deshmukh (ex Chief Minister, Maharashtra) on grounds that it promotes communal disharmony between Hindus and Muslims.

Internet

Freedom House's Freedom on the Net 2015 report gives India a Freedom on the Net Status of "Partly Free" with a rating of 40 (scale from 0 to 100, lower is better). Its Obstacles to Access was rated 12 (0-25 scale), Limits on Content was rated 10 (0-35 scale) and Violations of User Rights was rated 18 (0-40 scale). India was ranked 29th out of the 65 countries included in the 2015 report.

The Freedom on the Net 2012 report says:

• India's overall Internet Freedom Status is "Partly Free", unchanged from 2009.
• India has a score of 39 on a scale from 0 (most free) to 100 (least free), which places India 20 out of the 47 countries worldwide that were included in the 2012 report. India ranked 14 out of 37 countries in the 2011 report.
• India ranks third out of the eleven countries in Asia included in the 2012 report.
• Prior to 2008, censorship of internet content by the Indian government was relatively rare and sporadic.
• Following the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, which killed 171 people, the Indian Parliament passed amendments to the Information Technology Act (ITA) that expanded the government's censorship and monitoring capabilities.
• While there is no sustained government policy or strategy to block access to internet content on a large scale, measures for removing certain content from the internet, sometimes for fear that they could incite attacks, have become more common.
• Pressure on private companies to remove information that is perceived to endanger public order or national security has increased since late 2009, with the implementation of the amended ITA. Companies are required to have designated employees to receive government blocking requests, and assigns up to seven years' imprisonment private service providers—including ISPs, search engines, and cybercafes—that do not comply with the government's blocking requests.
• Internet users have sporadically faced prosecution for online postings, and private companies hosting the content are obliged by law to hand over user information to the authorities.
• In 2009, India's supreme court ruled that bloggers and moderators can face libel suits and even criminal prosecution for comments posted on their websites.
• Prior judicial approval for communications interception is not required and both central and state governments have the power to issue directives on interception, monitoring, and decryption. All licensed ISPs are obliged by law to sign an agreement that allows Indian government authorities to access user data.

India is classified as engaged in "selective" internet filtering in the conflict/security and internet tools areas, and as showing "no evidence" of filtering in the political and social areas by the OpenNet Initiative in May 2007. ONI states that:

As a stable democracy with strong protections for press freedom, India’s experiments with [internet] filtering have been brought into the fold of public discourse. The selective censorship of [websites] and blogs since 2003, made even more disjointed by the non-uniform responses of [internet] service providers (ISPs), has inspired a clamour of opposition. Clearly government regulation and implementation of filtering are still evolving. … Amidst widespread speculation in the media and blogosphere about the state of filtering in India, the sites actually blocked indicate that while the filtering system in place yields inconsistent results, it nevertheless continues to be aligned with and driven by government efforts. Government attempts at filtering have not been entirely effective, as blocked content has quickly migrated to other [websites] and users have found ways to circumvent filtering. The government has also been criticised for a poor understanding of the technical feasibility of censorship and for haphazardly choosing which [websites] to block. The amended IT Act, absolving intermediaries from being responsible for third-party created content, could signal stronger government monitoring in the future.

A "Transparency Report" from Google indicates that the Government of India initiated 67 content removal requests between July and December 2010.

After the beginning of the 2020-2021 China-India skirmishes, India banned TikTok.