“Ask the Home Ministry, because this is a security issue.”
That is what India’s Minister for Communications and Information Technology said recently when asked about the lack of transparency in the blocking of websites in India.
Now, one of the websites blocked in India is Savita Bhabhi, as also several mirror websites of the same. Savita Bhabhi, as you doubtless know, was a soft-porn web comic. All I want to ask Kapil Sibal is: How is Savita Bhabhi a threat to India’s national security? Wait, I have another question: why should I ask the Home Ministry when the orders for blocking come from your own Ministry, Mr Sibal, and the committee that decides on blocking has only one Home Ministry representative and two from your Ministry, sir?
In theory a lot of people will say that the internet can not be free of regulation, that the government must block some sites. But this is the problem in practice: the government will block a soft porn comic – only because it was talked about openly, discussed in the papers, and so on. Only because it came in the way of some bureaucrat’s antiquated sense of morality. Why, there are countless hard core Indian porn sites that are not blocked! (Oops, I shouldn’t be giving ideas.)
And when you wonder why the Government of India thinks Savita Bhabhi is too obscene for you, they will say national security!
If you don’t know about the Savita Bhabhi blocking issue, see this Huffington Post article.
From Kafila archives:
- A Curtain Call for the World’s Largest Democracy: Neerja Dasani
- The Day India Will Shut Down the Internet
- ‘How Leaving the Internet Fueled Our Revolution’
- Here’s What India’s Communications and IT Minister Thinks About Online Freedom
- Get Ready for India’s Blogger Control Act
- Crazy Internet Censorship Time in India, Again
- Of Journalist Citizens
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
The fact that governments believe they can effectively control the internet is amusing.
To be fair, you are accusing the Indians of a very touchy morality when you call SB a “soft-porn” comic. If what I’ve seen thus far is “soft”, I do not know what a “porn” version would be like..
LikeLike
It’s been a great lack in my education that I didn’t read, or shall I say see, too much of Savita Bhabhi. But I guess I call it soft because it’s graphic representation and not real porn, eh?
LikeLike
The whole idea of banning it in the first place is skewed. You have hard core porn sites which (as a woman), I can say are not pleasing (in any way) to women all over. They are meant for men and often distort and degrade the idea of woman as anything other then a piece of flesh. But you have SB, also definitely intended for men, but with a woman who is unapologetic about her sexuality and her self. She has the trappings of the so-called “Indian” woman and the contrast between the traditional idea of a demure, shy Indian woman and an open individual like Savita is maybe too hard to digest for the men in the govt who may still prefer either the obedient wife or the all-serving mistress.
SB may be a porn comic but it raises many questions which people do not want to answer.
LikeLike
Hai Ram! Which world do you live in, child? Women account for atleast 1/3rd of the population checking out Savita Bhabhi’s website. You are obviously foreign to the joys of masturbation. Or, pretending to be the proverbial pure good Indian girl- aka moden day Sita. Either way, update yourself.
LikeLike
Deepti,
So, hard core porn starring a “woman who is unapologetic about her sexuality and herself” does not “degrade the idea of woman as anything other then a piece of flesh.”
Women starring in pornographic cinema are apologetic about their sexuality?
Serious?
LikeLike
Politishq,
I did not mean that women starring in porn cinema are apologetic about their sexuality. What I was trying to say is that in porn movies (and I must admit that i have only bare minimum knowledge of those), women are often times made an object. Be that through camera angle, the focus of the camera, the intinsic violence that it sometimes portrays mostly against women. Ofcourse women are equally a part of it but it leaves a lingering distasteful aftertaste in the minds of women who watch them. Why is that? If the difference was not there, there would not be a rising trend of porn for women and porn movies made by women. If you watch these, you will notice the difference.
The whole reason I brought up the “apologising for sexuality” was in the Indian context where even now, women hide their sexuality or are apologetic about it. It may not be in very literal sense like in the past but in many subtle ways.
LikeLike
Autiji10,
But thats exactly what I am talking about…that the people who banned it are uneasy with this type of women…
LikeLike
THE WAY GOVERNMENT IS BEHAVING SEEMS LIKE “PERSONAL” IN NATURE. I think savita would be name of close family member of recommended bureaucrats or minister and most probably she would be either ‘infamous’ for her behaviour or being teased. just like ” Munni Badnam Hui” and ” sheela ki jawani” have been haunting everyday me and my friend because both Munni and sheela are name of respected and revered person of our family.i used to recall a instance of my school days. a friend’s father name was ‘Ram narayan’. but he avoid recall or express. at that time famous bollywood flick was on mouth of every commoner “Ram narayan baja bajata……..”
this SB website i visited last year when i was in university. i didn’t found much offensive. i find more offensive ‘saras salil’ magazine than SB.
LikeLike
One way in which Savita Bhabhi could possible be considered a security threat – Savita describes herself as unleashing WMDs “weapons of male destruction”. Ironically she does this in the episode “Savita Bhabhi in Shimla” where she helps the government forces overcome and capture a notorious forest based bandit.
I would also like to point out that it is to the credit of Deshmukh (The pen name of the creator) that he managed to keep churning out the comics in the dark days of the ban. It is to the credit of us fans that we found the new website he moved it to and the mirror sites which helped us get around the ban.
LikeLike
news about the babas and baies of the nehru-gandhi family are extremely obscene and disgusting and need immediate banning.
LikeLike
Great job GoI. Now SB’s following will grow exponentially. Why don’t people learn from past experiences? Banning is futile. Banned sites pop up in other domain names almost instantly. I think Mr. Sibal is secretly a fan of SB and wanted it to reach more of us.
LikeLike