Exclusive year-end essay by Nandita Das: “Art can trigger conversations, challenge prejudices… that’s why conservatives are threatened by it!”

Censorship by the state is not new in India, but it is time we question its arbitrary nature. The power of deciding what is right or wrong for an entire nation is in the hands of a handful of people. How can it be solely dependent on the subjective discretion of the few censor board members? What’s obscene to one may not be obscene to another. Or for that matter, what is regressive, provocative, violent, distasteful – who gets to be the judge?