Often, we get to hear about the greatness of Indian culture and that we are one of the oldest civilizations and have had such history and so on... How come we lost most of our virtues that are displayed by much younger countries and civilzations, today?
I have always wondered about this and today's headline on banning a book on Gandhi has me hopping mad. What will we achieve by banning a book except give it free, unwanted publicity? People who had not heard of it will now want to know more:-). Indian government therefore successfully will have achieved the opposite result by banning the book. This book written by a westerner, that too a Pulitzer winning author is hardly something to be bothered about. Honestly, how many of us read such authors? Had we ignored it, I could have counted the number of people reading this book with my fingers.
We have done this many times, be it movies, books, parties, etc. etc. Banning anything is always counter-productive (ofcourse I am not referring to doing drugs and other illegal activities). I wonder why India always does this knee-jerk reaction. This is actually a ploy used by many today, to market their books / movies etc., generate a negative publicity and ensure its success. But our government doesn't seem to learn from the past. I am sure we have intelligent people running this country and one need not be a brainer to understand psychology. So, why then do we ban books, movies?? Are we, as a society highly intolerant to different viewpoints? But ours is supposedly a "pluralistic, inclusive society". Or do our Babus feel compelled to take action? Never mind if its stupid and may boomerang?
We have done this many times, be it movies, books, parties, etc. etc. Banning anything is always counter-productive (ofcourse I am not referring to doing drugs and other illegal activities). I wonder why India always does this knee-jerk reaction. This is actually a ploy used by many today, to market their books / movies etc., generate a negative publicity and ensure its success. But our government doesn't seem to learn from the past. I am sure we have intelligent people running this country and one need not be a brainer to understand psychology. So, why then do we ban books, movies?? Are we, as a society highly intolerant to different viewpoints? But ours is supposedly a "pluralistic, inclusive society". Or do our Babus feel compelled to take action? Never mind if its stupid and may boomerang?
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