On Freedom of Speech

Some time ago, I was thinking about anti-Hindi vomit of Raj Thakeray, and others like him. My first reaction to such people is that they should be banned. Then I thought of this comment by Evelyn Beatrice Hall,"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." Frankly, these people do have the right to vent out their feelings, even though I firmly believe that these feelings are artificially generated.

Then my thoughts turned to another issue - that of Mr. M.F.Hussain's paintings. Does Mr. Hussain have the right to paint nude portraits of other people's goddesses? And are these people justified in resorting to hooliganism to stop the paintings from being exhibited?

Tricky issue, but I will start my analysis with an analogy. Suppose Mr. Hussain had painted, not a Goddess, but a human girl. Let's say he had painted one of his friends' daughter in the nude, without her permission, but also without using her as a live model. That is to say, suppose he had imagined her in his mind this way and painted her, and given the painting the name of that girl. I hope I am making the situation amply clear.

So, in this case, would he have been justified in painting such a thing? Also, how should his friend have reacted upon knowing that such a picture of his daughter has been painted?

Freedom of speech is an important right guaranteed to us by our Constitution, and it is our duty to defend this right, for ourselves and for others. But this right should be exercised with the utmost responsibility. One should be empathetic while making such public statements. While Mr. Hussain has every right to paint what he painted, but as a human being and a fellow Indian, he should have refrained from doing such a thing. Similarly, the anger of the protesters is understandable and justified, but they also should have refrained from hooliganism to gain their end. Finally, the Thackerays of India should stop stoking the mob mentality and, even now, try to become the responsible leaders that India needs and deserves.

Freedom of Speech as a right is useless without responsible and mature citizens.