Author: Coomi Kapoor
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: May 21, 2006
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/4828.html
Protests over the movie version of Da Vinci
Code have once again highlighted the tussle between religious fanaticism and
freedom of expression. It is an old issue in India. In fact, a recently released
book Enduring Legacy, about eminent Parsis of the Twentieth Century, describes
a debate on the same subject which took place in the Parsi press 150 years
ago which is remarkably similar to the recent controversy over the publication
of a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. In 1851, a Parsi
monthly magazine called Chitragyan Darpan, which regularly carried biographical
sketches of great men with the best of intentions, included the Prophet along
with an imaginary sketch in one of its issues.
Overnight there were widespread riots in Bombay.
Parsi houses and fire temples were burnt. The police and government put pressure
on Parsi leaders to make the editor apologise. Dadabhai Naoroji, who had just
brought out the new Parsi newspaper Ras Goftar, protested against the ''weak-kneed
Parsi leadership and government''. His new paper's first crusade was that
freedom of expression not be curbed by religious tyranny.
