The Censorship Saga: Play on Kashmir Cancelled After Protests

The staging of Abhishek Majumdar's play Eidgah ke Jinnat was cancelled on Tuesday by the Jawahar Kala Kendra (JKK) following protests. A Hindi/Urdu version of the renowned 2012 play Djinns of Eidgah, the play was a part of the Navras Performing Arts Festival in Jaipur. Based on the Kashmir issue, the play was performed without interruption on Monday, but the second show was stopped after a group of people started shouting slogans targeting the director and the cast of the play.

The incident took place after a local newspaper report misrepresented the theme of the play, stating that the “play depicted Army men in poor light”.

Along with the cancellation of the play, the protesters also demanded that the director face sedition charges.

Written and directed by Abhishek Majumdar, the play has been performed several times in India and abroad without any censoring in the past two years. Since the play takes up a currently sensitive topic, Kashmir, it has received a lot of criticism. The situation worsened yesterday when the director was forced to leave Jaipur due to safety concerns.

Majumdar is deemed as one of the finest writers and director of the country, and has always been vocal about his views. Through his work, he brings to light the issues relevant to our society, culture and democracy. The critically acclaimed play stresses on the need for a dialogue in Kashmir. It raises certain questions which the government has failed to take a stand on. It sends a message, highlighting the need to have a dialogue on Kashmir along with the need to understand what motivates these young people to take up arms. The play neither portrays army men in bad light nor does it condone any act of terror.

Apparently, the protesters gathered to threaten the organisers and crew members at the Navaras festival had not even watched the play. The whole denouncement of the performance happened following just a misleading newspaper report.

Speaking to the Indian Cultural Forum, managing editor of Leftword and performing artist of Jana Natya Manch, Sudhanva Deshpande said, “It is extremely unfortunate that it happened in a Congress-ruled state. The administration should have protected the cast and director of the play. They should have ensured that the performance takes place and that miscreants and Hindutva forces don’t get away with the censorship."

He added, "I wish that the authorities, the administration, the police and the state government had moved in such a way that the play could have been performed. The miscreants should. be booked and there should be a case against them. This is not unexpected and it happens again and again, but it is really sad that it happened under a Congress ruled state.”

Censorship in Rajasthan

Last year, the Bollywood film Padmavat went through a series of hindrances ahead of its release. In the name of Rajput pride, even before the movie was screened, the state had witnessed violent protests. The title of the movie was changed from Padmavati to Padmavat following protests organised by the Karni Sena.

Along with demands on banning an unreleased and unseen movie, this fringe group had also threatened both the director and the actors of the film.

A similar crackdown was witnessed yesterday when an unleashed Hindutva group wreaked havoc even before the staging of the play Eidgah ke Jinnat. As Deshpande said, “They don’t know what are they protesting against and why they are still protesting. This whole thing is about censorship. The protesters have no clue about the text of the play. There were two performances that were lined up, and it’s really terrible that the second show of the play couldn’t be staged.”

Over the past four years, censorship has become a standard pattern that is being normalised by the present right-wing government. Ironically, in both the cases, the “angry” protesters had neither watched the play nor the movie and staged protests on the basis of some false assumptions.

Extending solidarity to the director and the actors, a group of artists have come up with an online petition to the Rajasthan government seeking protection of the artists' freedom of expression.