Savita, every desi guy’s favorite bhabhi, has become a de-facto personification of sorts against the arbitrary censorship standards of the Indian government. [WSJ]
“I’m going to take a shower! You should also change out of those wet clothes,” she greeted a neighbor in a November episode, for example. As expected, the two end up together in the shower. The illustrations are explicit, the dialogue laughably simple: “Oh that feels so…” or “Oh I’m going to…”
Now, some random Mahila mandal in India felt so threatened by this brilliant piece of anti-feminine literary work that they “complained” to big brother and duly big brother complied.
In June, the Indian government banned her. Sachin Pilot, minister of state in the ministry of communications and technology, says the decision was driven by a complaint received from a women’s group in Maharashtra.
Here’s the irony: Pilot, the minister who instituted this ban doesn’t even remember the name of the group, proving in a sense that the ban was always in the works, just waiting for a catalyst.
The controversy has even affected the creators of this literary masterpiece.
Savita’s creators were a mystery until U.K.-based Puneet Agarwal briefly revealed himself to fight India’s censors last summer. Then, after “personal and family issues” arose with his coming forward, he gave up, according to a press release on a site dedicated to saving Savita. Mr. Agarwal did not return repeated emails seeking comment over the last few months from The Wall Street Journal.
Enterprising desi fans however have refused to let their favorite bhabhi die an ignominious death at the hands of the Indian government.
Tech-savvy fans, light years ahead of their public officials, have saved Savita from complete exile in her home country. Confessed one friend: “I just loaded the site on my phone.” And if an Internet Protocol address is from outside India, for example, the site—now renamed and repackaged under kirtu.com—works. A worldwide fan base has kept Savita and her adventures alive and continuously updated on the site.
The central and state governments of India have a long history of online meddling, which while nowhere close to the scale of the Chinese government’s, is disturbing nevertheless.
Censorship in India, however, continues. As The Wall Street Journal reported last week, Google Inc.’s New Delhi office removed material from the social networking site, Orkut, due to offensive material circulated about the late chief minister of Andhra Pradesh. “The Internet giant feared the comments could heighten tensions at a time when thousands of mourners of the popular politician were emptying into the street,” the article said.
This quote by Dhananjay Varma, editor of Techgoss, puts it all in perspective.
“We have terrorists to chase. We are a developing country. Why waste energy and resources pursuing an adult cartoon site? Somebody wanted to make an example of Savita.”
In the fight against online censorship Savita Bhabhi has become the center of attention, and something tells me, Savita, if she were real, would be turned on by it.
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