How India's blocking of a film exposing real-life police abuses backfired
The Indian government blocked the release of a film titled 'Satluj,' which documents the life of activist Jaswant Singh Khalra and his investigation into extra-judicial killings by police. The ban has sparked public defiance and renewed interest in the historical tensions between the Sikh community and the state.
Why it matters
It highlights the ongoing struggle between state censorship and freedom of expression regarding sensitive historical and political events in India.
AMRITSAR, India — On a muggy monsoon evening, farmers in the northern Indian village of Bandala finished tending to their rice and sugarcane crop and flocked to the local Sikh temple. They settled in plastic chairs, women to the front, men to the back, as volunteers served strawberry juice in plastic cups and kids bustled around, happy to have an excuse to stay up late.
They were gathered for an unlikely event: the screening of a film that was never granted a theatrical release certificate by Indian censors, and pulled from a streaming platform a day after its release online. The Indian government has not revealed their reasons for the blocking. India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting did not reply to NPR's interview requests.
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