Introduction
Censorship laws are laws that the State makes prohibit books, newspapers, and other works to curtail politically ‘unacceptable and ‘offensive’ content that may cause controversies and public disharmony. The issue arises when such laws become oppressive to the extent that they violate citizens’ fundamental right to free speech and expression and their right to information. The above problem is described well in Ray Bradbury’s ‘Fahrenheit: 451’. The novel is a testimony to the unreasonable exercise of harsh censorship wherein books and education are banned books are ruthlessly burned and the owners are arrested by the State-firemen. This paper analyzes censorship laws and the negative impact they can have when they go unchecked, become harsh and infringe on citizens’ fundamental rights and the social fabric of the country. The paper employs an analytical and descriptive approach using Indian case laws and real scenarios.
Analysis
The problem is not that people are not being educated, instead, it is because they are educated just enough to believe what they have been taught—censorship laws circle somewhat around this concept. Censorship refers to the official prohibition or restriction of books, literature, and other works because they can incite public disorder or even be detrimental to the state’s image. Censorship can and even has taken the ugly turn of becoming arbitrary, unreasonable, and draconian. It has been leveraged to such an extent that it curtails and infringes on the fundamental right to free speech and expression (Article 19)[1] and even on the right to information. After the enactment of the Indian constitution in 1950,[2] censorship laws were often imposed, both before and after independence, in an unfair and autocratic manner. These laws were found even in the aftermath of the second world war when the USSR and USA were amidst a cold war and American Senator McCarthy and President Truman instituted a censorship scheme to prevent the Soviet Union’s communist influence from spreading to the States. Known as McCarthyism, the policy intended to destroy all communist and socialist influence on the USA by ransacking libraries, censoring books and films, and orchestrating book bonfires in Nazi Germany.
This phenomenon set the stage for Ray Bradbury’s ‘Fahrenheit 451’,[3] a book that was written during this period of harsh censorship laws, a book that revolves around such laws, and finally, a book that was, in reality and ironically, subject to oppressive laws. A legal and literary parallel can be drawn between such oppressive censorship laws and this timeless classic.
Fahrenheit 451: the temperature at which a book-paper catches fire and burns – symbolic of all those books that were seized and burned. The dystopian novel narrates the story of Guy Montag, who searches for an intellectual awakening in the background of a futuristic society that deems books harmful to society and has instituted ‘firemen’ with the sole purpose of burning and destroying books and any printed source of real information which are considered illegal commodities. Books are banned and censored in the novel by the government under the pretext that books cause inequalities, pit one community against another, cause controversies and that education is unnecessary and injurious to society. In the novel, books are considered as breeding ill, a cause of furthering a particular idea over another and a source of unrest and peace. Hence, books are banned, censored, and burned if found by reasoning that a world devoid of books and education is a more peaceful and harmonious one. The novel is an apt example of how barbaric censorship laws violate the fundamental rights of individuals and their right to information.
In the novel, possessing books, let alone reading them, is considered a crime and even a trace of books leads to them being burned and the proprietor being arrested and punished. Books are considered a source of inequality and unhappiness. They are believed to result in controversies and make one social group go up against another, thus whole stacks of books were ruthlessly burned and citizens’ right to read and information was snatched away. Such an arbitrary practice of censorship laws is similar to the state of print media and works during the emergency period in India. At this time in 1975-77, the freedom of the press took a dark turn wherein harsh “guidelines” were laid down for journalists and mainstream media was under the wrath of censorship clampdown. Big publications like Janata, Swarajya, and others were threatened and even thrown into jail. Not just that, publishers of newspapers needed permission from the Chief Press Advisor before releasing any content. Freedom of expression was curtailed and dissenters were punished. The problem stemmed from one very simplistic announcement by former PM IndiraGandhi “The President has proclaimed Emergency. There is nothing to panic about.” In Fahrenheit 451, firemen are given the role of tracing the presence of books in society and destroying them by tossing them into the fire.
Firemen are ideally protectors and guardians of society, but here they start fires instead of putting them out. This is symbolic of how even in modern days, the guardians of the law and individual rights adopt practices that are contrary to their actual role and start instituting exploitative and abusive laws and regulations. Firemen and the State demand obedience and subservience from the citizens as the presence of books will spark anti-government opinions and inter-community war. In Romesh Thappar v.State of Madras,[4]the petitioner’s newspaper ‘Crossroads’, which reviewed and criticized schemes by the government, was banned by the Madras government. However, the SC upheld Article 19[5] and added that the right of publication and distribution of the newspaper lay with the publisher which the State cannotinterfere with and a ban on entry and circulation of a newspaper cannot be imposed by the State.3 Unlike the harsh restrictions in Bradbury’s novel, this landmark case upheld the fundamental right to free speech and expression. Instances abound in the novel of people owning books and consequently being arrested by the firemen and their books being burned. In the novel, the firemen enter a certain house to burn books after learning of the same.
Firstly, this shows the value of books, because it takes something extremely precious and priceless for one to choose to sacrifice one’s life for it. Secondly, the firemen were determined to burn the woman’s books at any cost, even at the risk of brutally murdering and setting her and her entire house on fire. This depicts the atrocious censorship laws and degree of press control in society. Such oppressive laws while prevalent even in modern civilizations, have been often curtailed through legal mandates. Case in point – N Radhakrishnan v. Union of India.[6]This was a case wherein a petition to impose a ban on the book ‘Meesha’ as parts of it were obscene and derogatory to temple-going women, was dismissed and Article 19 was upheld. Unlike Fahrenheit 451, where censorship of books and the ban on education were normalised and enforced by the state, in the case mentioned above, Dipak Mishra, C.J opined “An author, while choosing a mode of expression, be it a novel, an epic or a description, has the right toexercise his liberty to the fullest unless it falls foul to any prescribed law that is constitutionally valid”. The justice added that constitutional ideals are preserved bydefending the freedom of speech and the right to information and the belief that literature symbolizes the freedom to express oneself in a multitude of ways. The Hon’ble bench justified dismissing the ban by saying “If the books are banned on such allegations, there will be no creativity.
Conclusion
Such interference by the Constitutional Courts will cause the death of art. In light of all that is mentioned above, the Court dismissed the petition holding it to be sans merit.” The novel ends with Guy attaining an intellectual awakening and being inspired to stock more books and read them when the other firemen discover his insolent act and attempt to kill him and burn his house full of books. Funnily enough, it was Mildred, Guy’s wife who told on him. Suffice it to say that the book revolves around a society that bans and burns books and forbids education due to the reasons listed above. Even in real modern societies, brutal censorship has existed and traces exist even today. However, with the enactment of a legal framework of society, such laws threaten the fundamental, basic structure doctrine of the constitution and the very social anatomy of the country.
Author(s) Name: Rhea L Vinay (School of Law Christ University)
Reference(s):
[1] INDIA CONST. art. 19
[2] INDIA CONST
[3]Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (Simon & Schuster 2012)
[4] Romesh Thappar v. State of Madras, 1950 SCC 436
[5]Supra note. 1
[6]N Radhakrishnan v. Union of India, 2018 SCC OnLine SC 1499
