Section 292 IPC- treating artists as criminals in our country!

So last week I shared a post talking about the draconian law that is Section 377 of the IPC. While I was going through the IPC (Yes, I’m a nerd), I came across another provision that took me by surprise- Section 292.

The section (obviously construed in the British era) is so vague that they can be used by any conservative group to land an artist and/or his publishers in prison. Sample this phrase for example that says that an artist is liable to be punished if his work- “appeals to the prurient interest” of another person. W-H-A-T?

So basically what the law is saying is that if I come up with a creative work that somehow in some twisted way gets a person turned on, I should go to jail? What the actual F? 

Artists can be sent to jail if someone else gets turned on by their work!

Okay, so for a moment let us consider that the law is perfectly justified. But then who decides what the standard of “obscene” is? What is erotic for one person may not be so for the other. For all I care, a person could be staring at a blank canvas and still find it erotic. So what IS the yardstick and who sets it? The orthodox factions of every religion who are quick to take offence to everything? The moral police?

Isn’t that how Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses got banned? Or Wendy Doniger’s ‘The Hindus’? Or a fatwa got issued against Tasleema Nasreen? How can we curtail a person’s creativity, his freedom of speech through such a vague and ambiguous law? 

Every year this law is used, or rather misused to prohibit certain works of art to enter the public domain and we see no outcry about it. Hundreds of movies, books, sculptures etc never see the light of the day because of this provision. Writers have tough time finding publishers for works which might “offend” certain people. Shouldn’t we be worried that artists have to censor themselves to suit ‘public morals’? Isn’t the point of art to make others think? What is the point of all work of the artists if it will go down the predictable route? Have we become so unaccommodating of others' opinions that we won’t let it enter the public sphere if it doesn’t go down well with us?

Writers have a tough time finding publishers if they have something "offensive" in their content.

Remember M.F. Hussain? The guy who had to leave his own country because he depicted Mother India in an “obscene” form? But seriously, what is obscene? We all came into this world naked and will go back the same way. Is this our only definition of ‘obscene’? We come from the land of the Kama Sutra yet when it came to a play on the same- while it was on the billboards all over France and was a sellout, the makers could not even fathom a minuscule possibility of previewing the same in India. How did we get here?

Everyday our shows our beeped, subtitles changed to suit this law. But seriously do you really think we don’t know what the characters mean when they they’re going to have “Gender”? Seriously?! If this is how you can stop  people from getting ‘corrupt’, all Indians would have stopped smoking after watching those nauseous ads featuring Mukesh before the start of every damn movie. 

A celebrity roast is a common practice abroad but in India when AIB tried to pull off the same, it was taken off thanks to this law!

Isn’t it time to repeal this provision? Or atleast amend it and make it a civil offence for a start?