Keyword-Speech, Democracy, Community, India, Hate

ABSTRACT

Free speech is the very essence of a democratic nation like ours, where constructive criticism allows us to easily maintain the balance of power between those in power and those competing, but in recent times, hate speech has replaced free speech and is often viewed as a publicity stunt by a few scholars, slowly but steadily leading us to mayhem. The word encompasses both written and vocal communication, as well as various other types of public activity. Hate speech glorifies injustices, diminishes human worth, glorifies crime, and seeks recruitment for anti-democratic groups. Hate speech frequently exposes the minority segment of society to ridicule and condemnation and as mentioned above sows the seed of anti-democratic organizations.

                                                  “One filthy fish ruins the entire pond,”

a simple adage with profound implications. Similarly, a single slanderous speech spoken in public may destabilized a whole community. In recent years, we have seen numerous incidents in which some members of society blamed someone for delivering a hate speech against a specific community, caste, sex, or country, while the other half defended it by claiming that the person spoke out against the government or their policies, not the country or any caste, sex, or community……!!!! As a result, the topic of what constitutes hate speech is certain to arise.

INTRODUCTION

Hate speech is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “public speech that expresses hatred or encourages violence towards a person or group based on race, religion, caste, sex or sexual orientation, or place of birth.” In a nutshell, people want to go against the government or protest against any government action in their public speaking, but they end up delivering hate speech, which creates a “culture of fear.” It is against the dignity of the nation’s peace, and safeguarding the peace and dignity of the country is the responsibility of the government. People believe that going against the government or delivering anti-government speeches constitutes hate speech. No, it is not true… Being anti-government is not the same as being anti-national; there is a significant distinction between the two, yet both acts are damaging to any democracy. In recent years, the consequence of increased hate speeches has been observed in the form of increased hate crimes. However, regardless of whether a person is a Hindu, Muslim, or of any other religion, caste, or community has delivered a hate speech for any other community, such crimes arise as an initial response to these hate speeches, and this is why they are recognized as hate crimes, which are done not in usual intention or because of what a person may have done, but because of their conscious or unconscious members.

LEGAL ASPECT OF HATE SPEECH

Article 19 of the Indian constitution provides us the right to free speech and expression (1) (a) Freedom of expression means the right to freely express one’s own convictions and opinions through words of mouth, writing, printing, pictures, or any other mode; however, in recent times, the freedom to freely express one’s own prosecutions and opinions has been severely abused by a few with other like groups in society who believe they can openly abuse the fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution. The border between free speech and hate speech is pretty minimal. Whereas condemning other political party leaders in a political capacity may be protected by free speech, openly criticizing the leader in a personal capacity, invading his/her personal space, and shaming the other person by awarding disgraceful titles may result in heavy legal consequences, as the honorary Supreme Court observed in one of its 2014 decisions.

Free speech is the very essence of a democratic nation like ours, where constructive criticism allows us to easily maintain the balance of power between those in power and those competing, but in recent times, hate speech has replaced free speech and is often viewed as a publicity stunt by a few scholars, slowly but steadily leading us to mayhem. The word encompasses both written and vocal communication, as well as various other types of public activity. Hate speech glorifies injustices, diminishes human worth, glorifies crime, and seeks recruitment for anti-democratic groups. Hate speech frequently exposes the minority segment of society to ridicule and condemnation and as mentioned above sows the seed of anti-democratic organizations.

Indian laws prohibit hate speech through several sections of the Indian Penal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure, and other laws that limit freedom of speech and expression, which is guaranteed by our constitution in article 19(1)(a). The reason for this is that hate speech leads to hate crimes, which is what is happening in our country in large numbers. They deliver this speech for political purposes, with little regard for its influence on the broader public or the societal impact on people’s minds.

List of some Indian laws on hate speech:-

Ss. 124A  OF INDIAN PENAL CODE

This section is the most used or we can say in demand section for this topic hate speech as hate speech may have gone in another direction which led to charges of sedition on that person or in another way person complaining may take this speech to a greater extent of this charge and put false allegation on person delivering this controversial speech, we should know what this section basically says:-

Whoever, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs, or by visible representation, or otherwise, brings or attempts to bring into hatred or contempt, or excites or attempts to excite disaffection towards, the Government established by law in  India, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine established by law in India, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, to which fine may be added, or with imprisonment which may extend to three years, to which fine may be added, or with fine. (indian kanoon, n.d.)

Ss. 153 AN INDIAN PENAL CODE

This part is typically used in situations of religious speeches or community speeches made by religious or community leaders in order to garner the support of these people, as stated in the section.

Whoever

(a) by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, promotes or attempts to promote, on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever, disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities, or 

(b) Commits any act which is prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities, and which disturbs or is likely to disturb the public tranquility, shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both. (indian kanoon, n.d.)

Ss. 295A OF  INDIAN PENAL CODE

Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of citizens of India, by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both. (indian kanoon, n.d.)

SECTION 95 CRPC

The Code of Criminal Procedure gives the government the right to declare certain publications “forfeited” if the “publication appears to the State Government to contain any matter the publication of which is punishable under Section 124A or Section 153A or Section 153B or Section 292 or Section 293 or Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code” (sheikh, 2014)

In the last 2-3 years we have come across many headings of politicians, students delivering hate speeches or being blamed for delivering such speeches some incidents and their results of these happenings are like

 SHARJEEL IMAM– Shaheen Bagh protest leader Sharjeel gave a speech in which it was said to separate Assam and North east states from India. Media and people who changed meaning and motto of whole speech were responsible for this change. This doesn’t mean he didn’t deliver a hate speech that was hate speech but wasn’t of that intensity and meaning.

• ANURAG THAKUR HATE SPEECH TO HATE CRIME– Union minister Anurag Thakur’s call to ‘shoot the traitors’ before Delhi assembly polls is believed to have started a particularly violent tradition of hate speeches. A gunman shot protestor in front of police stating “Ye Lo Azadi” just after this speech by thakur.

CONCLUSION AFTER ANALYSING:

In most of the hate speech cases in our country the person delivering hate speech does not get any strict action taken against him generally he is in prison for some time in rare cases and then is roaming out freely or on bail due to lack of proper strict penal laws. We should bring quick laws into account so that they are punished as early as possible irrespective of their identities as it brings great impact on social environment of nation by such speeches and by such people not punished.

In a nation like ours it’s quite a cakewalk to arouse people emotionally and lead their emotions into creating social and political upheaval. If the target of such speeches happens to be a minority section of society this mostly ends up into religious riots and a rift between the people of society which often has huge impacts on the nation socially, economically and politically. We live in the era where social media is heavily used as a medium of circulating information and these hate speeches often get circulated among the masses under the ambit of social happenings around the world but very few people go about tracing the credibility of these speeches.

In a nation where there are highly educated people or extremely uneducated people and this is where the role of media comes into play. Media has a crucial role to play in the circulation of such savage content. There are high chances of an uneducated individual getting moved by such infuriating telecast. Even if a percent of society is moved the purpose of creating instability is served as they would now further pollute the pond. Compared to instances of hate speech internationally we would see that only in  democratic nation like ours and various other Asian nations there is enough freedom in the name of human rights. India has strict laws against hate speech and there have been various instances that have justified the fact no one stands above law. It’s high time for the youth to awaken from the long sleep of lack of awareness and tired into the dawn of awareness where we are emotionally and socially intelligent.

Kindly check this full article

Hate Crimes: Their Nature and Various Laws That Govern Them: https://legalonus.com/hate-crimes-their-nature-and-various-laws-that-govern-them/

References

indian kanoon. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1641007/

indian kanoon. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://indiankanoon.org/doc/345634/

indian kanoon. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1803184/

sheikh, s. (2014). Supreme Court Erred Again: Mistaken on Hate Speech as Free Speech. lawlex.org.