The SGTB Khalsa College's street play society, Ankur, received a letter from the Delhi University Students’ Union on March 17 saying it had sought a ban on one of the group's most popular plays because it was "anti-Hindu".
The union is dominated by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, which is affiliated to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The letter from Ashutosh Mathur, the union's joint secretary and ABVP member, called the play a “fake drama on Hindus and Hinduism”. It appealed to the college principal to ban it and take action against the street play society, adding that it would “protest on high-level against it (sic)".
The letter set off a series of consultations among college students across the capital and among college officials about how best to deal with the threat.
“Our play Welcome to the Machine is a study of religious intolerance and how forces assert their dominance by means of cultural, institutional and educational structures,” said Guneet Singh, director of the play and president of Ankur. “There are 21 people involved in the play and none of us is scared of these threats.”
The society announced on its Facebook page that it would perform the play "soon".
Singh said that the play had been performed more than 36 times over the past two months across colleges and popular city spaces such as Connaught Place and had won appreciation from a wide cross-section of people.
“The problem is that our play names names,” he said. “It names leaders who propagated action-reaction theories. It names the foot-soldiers of the machinery of hate, who coax women to become baby-making factories, who instigate people to rape dead Muslim women, who are hell-bent on colouring history with their own agenda, who shout love-jihad and stifle our freedoms to express.”
Attack on freedom of speech
Singh said that not just the play but freedom of speech was under attack. “If it is us today, it will be someone else tomorrow,” he said. “We are not going to stop performing but we need to direct some action against these notices, which instill fear in society.”
Ever since the issue came to light, the street play society has received wide support from student activists who are planning to stage protests against the notice, and the play might even be performed there.
“This threat to ban is a threat to the entire community of artistes who engage with their work politically, and it also highlights the ban-culture doing the rounds in our country,” he said, adding that the makers of the play have been careful about the content and the subject. “We are responsible students who understand how sensitive the issue of religion is in our country. To wrench out certain words from wider political contexts without any understanding is a sign of ignorance.”
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The union is dominated by the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, which is affiliated to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The letter from Ashutosh Mathur, the union's joint secretary and ABVP member, called the play a “fake drama on Hindus and Hinduism”. It appealed to the college principal to ban it and take action against the street play society, adding that it would “protest on high-level against it (sic)".
The letter set off a series of consultations among college students across the capital and among college officials about how best to deal with the threat.
“Our play Welcome to the Machine is a study of religious intolerance and how forces assert their dominance by means of cultural, institutional and educational structures,” said Guneet Singh, director of the play and president of Ankur. “There are 21 people involved in the play and none of us is scared of these threats.”
The society announced on its Facebook page that it would perform the play "soon".
Singh said that the play had been performed more than 36 times over the past two months across colleges and popular city spaces such as Connaught Place and had won appreciation from a wide cross-section of people.
“The problem is that our play names names,” he said. “It names leaders who propagated action-reaction theories. It names the foot-soldiers of the machinery of hate, who coax women to become baby-making factories, who instigate people to rape dead Muslim women, who are hell-bent on colouring history with their own agenda, who shout love-jihad and stifle our freedoms to express.”
Attack on freedom of speech
Singh said that not just the play but freedom of speech was under attack. “If it is us today, it will be someone else tomorrow,” he said. “We are not going to stop performing but we need to direct some action against these notices, which instill fear in society.”
Ever since the issue came to light, the street play society has received wide support from student activists who are planning to stage protests against the notice, and the play might even be performed there.
“This threat to ban is a threat to the entire community of artistes who engage with their work politically, and it also highlights the ban-culture doing the rounds in our country,” he said, adding that the makers of the play have been careful about the content and the subject. “We are responsible students who understand how sensitive the issue of religion is in our country. To wrench out certain words from wider political contexts without any understanding is a sign of ignorance.”
