Offend, Shock, or Disturb (OIP)

Description

Offend, Shock, or Disturb is a comprehensive examination of free speech under the Indian Constitution. It explores Indian free speech jurisprudence from a doctrinal, comparative, and philosophical perspective.
Taking as its point of departure the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of speech and expression—Articles 19(1)(a) and 19(2) of the Constitution of India—the book discusses, clause by clause, the development of law from colonial times to present-day controversies.
Issues relating to public order, sedition, obscenity and pornography, hate speech, film and online censorship, privacy and defamation, the contempt of court, the nature of speech and the relationship between free speech and economic structure, and the inter-relationships between them have been comprehensively examined.
As free speech campaigns gain intensity by the day, the book presents the myriad understandings and limitations of the free speech law, and suggests possible pathways for the future.

About the Editor
Gautam Bhatia is a practicing lawyer in Delhi, and visiting faculty, West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, India.

Table of contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Table of Cases
Note on the Text
Introduction

Part One: Background

1. Understanding Free Speech
2. Common Concepts Note: The Changing Faces of the Free Speech Clause

Part Two: Subversive Speech

3. Public Order 45
4. Sedition 83
Part Three: Free Speech and Cultural Regulation
5. Obscenity and Pornography
6. Hate Speech
7. Film and Internet Censorship

Part Four: Other Restrictions

8. Defamation, Privacy, and Injunctions
9. Contempt of Court

Part Five: The ‘Freedom of Speech and Expression’

10. The Meaning of ‘Speech and Expression’
11. The Meaning of ‘Freedom’: Free Speech and Economic Structure

Part Six: New Horizons

12. Surveillance, Net Neutrality, Shield Laws, and Copyright

Conclusion
Postscript
Bibliography
Index
About the Author