Creative Liberty And Blasphemy: A Thin Line Between The Two In Balancing Interests
- IJLLR Journal
- Mar 21
- 1 min read
Sunidhi S. Hegde, School of Law CHRIST (Deemed to be University)
ABSTRACT
The country celebrating its pluralist Constitutional ideals, is time and again faced with a tussle between the exercise of artistic freedom and the respect to the faith and beliefs of its citizens. With students being penalised in Institutions such as IIT Bombay for a play on Ramayan which offended a section of the community, and a boom of boycott culture being practiced in the film industry, there is a need to realise the extent of artistic freedom to be tolerated and determine what constitutes ‘offending’ of religious sentiments of individuals. It is not merely a question of prioritisation of these Constitutional principles but a broader question as to what is the optimum level of toleration to be expected in a country so rich in diversity, to balance the competing interests of the society. With historical divides and conflicts, along with the growing influence of Western way of thought, the country is plagued with insensitivity to faith on one side and religious extremism on the other. It then becomes a broader question of administrative law as to how to ensure fairness in balancing the conflicting ideals enshrined in the Constitution of the largest democracy. Addressing these issues and acknowledging the problems associated with these, the paper aims to redefine the permissible artistic freedom within the scope of Article 19. Through a study of legal provisions, precedents and the recent developments in the country and across the globe, the paper attempts to draw a line between artistic freedom and blasphemy.
Keywords: Artistic freedom, Constitution, blasphemy, tolerance, administrative, insensitivity
