The essays collected in this volume explore the relationship between
political and social censorship, and, more significantly, the rise of an
insidious communal censorship that seeks to divide civil society and
intimidate all those who value the gift of free speech as they burn
books, silence dissent, destroy works of art, and intimidate the artist,
researcher, writer, film-maker, actor, and free thinker. The author
reflects on how free speech in India has been compromised by state
censorship through 'slapp' suits in court, and on issues of official
secrecy, contempt of court, and censorship by intolerance in civil
society and government. More specifically he examines the uses and
abuses of the law, the case of harassing Husain, the Danish 'Toon'
controversy, and the right to strike. The author argues, unrepentantly,
that free speech has to be preserved in the overcrowded spaces of the
media, on the streets and in the open spaces of our mind, against the
onslaught of corporatism, doubtful governance and invidious
divisiveness. Freedom of the mind and the right to self-expression and
argument can only survive if intolerance is met with tolerance, and
tolerance is not seen as weakness.
