FREEDOM OF SPEECH
The biggest mistake made by the producers of the play Behzti in Birmingham that included
violent and immoral behaviour in a Sikh temple was to ask leaders of
the local Sikh community to acknowledge it, under certain
circumstances, as acceptable theatre. What imaginable circumstances
could there possibly be that would enable these representatives to
stand up in front of their entire local community and say "We have
agreed on your behalf that this public performance is acceptable,
providing we can hand out leaflets and have an announcement made at the
start saying that it is fiction". To even contemplate using the
community leaders in this way is despicable. Just inviting them to
discuss it put them in an intolerable position.
The arguments now being made that we are subjected to censorship are
rubbish, as are the arguments that because we have freedom of artistic
expression that anything that can be expressed should be expressed,
provided it is well written and well performed. There is a time and a
place for everything. If Birmingham is the place and this is the time
for such a play, then I would expect the writer of this play to say
there is evidence that behaviour of this nature has taken place in an
environment of this kind. But apparently we have been told the reverse:
that there is no such evidence.
If there were such evidence then it should be aired, but why in a
theatre which is a place for commercially provided entertainment?
The violence which has resulted in the theatre management closing the
production is regrettable. It is the predictable reaction of at least a
part of a community whose culture and history is different from the
European, where limits to the freedom of speech where religion is
concerned are more strict than the European. We should bear in mind
that not so long ago our rules in this island were as strict or
stricter and the penalties were being burned alive or execution or
hanging.
I am told the play is of great quality and worth, an important
work with something to say on behalf of Sikh women. However, if the
author did not anticipate the events of the past few days then I query
how much she understands her own community and the complexity involved
in opening a constructive dialogue on the evolution of religious and
social ideas and customs. If on the other hand this was anticipated,
and accepted as a possible outcome to be used if the shock of the play
itself failed, it would be helpful if those concerned were honest did
not hide behind the absurd complaint that we in this country suffer
from censorship. The theatre has been closed because of the violent
reaction by a segment of Sikh opinion that has been greatly offended,
to a degree they find intolerable. This is not a question of right or
wrong, it is JUST A FACT.
As for the pompous prick who has accused the theatre management of
cowardice for stopping the performances, he
has a quite extraordinarily inflated sense of his own importance and
remarkably poor judgment.