Freedom of Expression: Secular Theocracy versus Liberal Democracy

by Sita Ram Goel

With reference to India; articles most previously published.

Genres: India

179 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Sita Ram Goel (16 October 1921 – 3 December 2003) was an Indian religious and political activist, writer and publisher in the late twentieth century. He had Marxist leanings during the 1940s, but later became an outspoken anti-communist and also wrote extensively on the damage to Indian culture and heritage wrought by expansionist Islam and missionary activities of Christianity. In his later career he emerged as a commentator on Indian politics, and adhered to Hindu nationalism.

Reviews

[Jay Mehta · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a must-read. It covers a small but significant portion of the curtailment of freedom of expression in India, referring to the Muslim veto (the "Theocracy" part of the title) implemented through street power in post-independence India.
The first half of the book refers to the banking of the contentious books of Ram Swaroop and the author by the Congress government at that time. It also talks about the event surrounding SRG's arrest for the reprint and translation of Ram Swaroop's book, 'Understanding Islam through Hadis'. It also talks about how the administration buckled under the bullying by the powerful Islamists, led by Janta Dal's Syed Shahbuddin.
I found the book to be a bit charitable to the courts (not sure if to avoid "contempt of court" cases). Interesting examples where freedom of speech was upheld even when India doesn't have a high standard for FoS (compared to, let's say, the US), including a case where Shiv Sena dodged 295A and 153A. Special pranam to the lawyer Sh. Alok Kumar, fought the cases from the defence side - did a great service in upholding the freedom of expression in the country.
The second half of the book that talked about the twelve reviews of the book, 'Why I am Not a Muslim' by Ibn Warraq, is a bit stretched - some of them could have gone to the appendix. However, the author's comparison of intolerance of Islamists of the books critical of the religion to the maturity and openness of Christians in handling books critical of Christianity is interesting. It reminded me of Speakers' Corner at Hyde Park in London, where I saw fierce debates happening on Christianity and Jesus.
The book is also a good reference on the scholarly work done on Islam.

Definitely to be read.

[Aditya Trivedi · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the book is a great read in that it exposes the truth of suppression of Hindu voices in court, the book in itself is a compilation of case notes and would thus need an inclination towards parliamentary language in order to read fluently.
It would have been better if the case notes were assimilated and written in plain English for the layman reader, with their idiosyncrasies laid bare.