How the attacks on Kunal Kamra undermine the freedoms of all Indians

Kunal Kamra is an unlikely hero. He stands slightly hunched over, mic loosely held in one hand, the other occasionally pressed into service to express disbelief but often stuffed into a trouser pocket. His most recent special, Naya Bharat, reprises the themes of his best work: ridiculing the Bharatiya Janata Party government and documenting the moral decline of Indian society.

This understandably attracts the wrong kind of attention. The thin skins of Indian politicians and their ready supply of combustible lackeys makes this inevitable. Hours after Naya Bharat went online on March 23, the performance venue in which it had been filmed was ransacked by members of the Shiv Sena faction owing allegiance to Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.

Kamra’s shows in recent times have all reflected upon the uncertain status of comedy, and therefore speech, in India. What stands out in the new show is a marked shift in tone. At the end of the set Kamra pulls out a copy of the Constitution and stakes his right to speak upon it.

When the Shinde Sena ransacked the venue in which Kamra performed, the act of vandalism was a warning to others. Journalists and legal commentators use the phrase “chilling effect” as shorthand to describe this relationship between...

Read more