Shaheen’s friend, Rinu Srinivasan, liked, shared and commented on the post on Facebook; she was arrested as well. While the FIR was initially filed under section 295A of the IPC (“deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs”), in addition to section 66A of the IT Act, the former was later replaced by section 505(2) IPC as there was no actual mention of religious belief or religion in either of the girls’ comments. Following a largescale uproar about the girls’ arrest, the charges were dropped after about a month. Years later, the use of India’s hate speech sections to stifle political criticism continues. For example, in March 2017, a woman was arrested in Bangalore for Facebook posts she had written which allegedly put Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in a “poor light.” Among the sections she was booked under was section 153A IPC.62 In April 2017, Prashant Bhushan, a senior advocate and social activist, saw a number of cases slapped on him under section 295A, for a tweet criticising a new policy of the government of Uttar Pradesh, in which he had, among other things, described Lord Krishna as an “eve-teaser”.63 There are several, intertwined reasons that explain why these sections are frequently used in such an overly broad manner. As mentioned earlier, in free speech jurisprudence in India, a dominant strand accords primacy to public order when free speech and public order seem to clash. In addition, where hate speech in particular is concerned, a close reading of both the hate speech sections in the IPC and of Supreme Court jurisprudence around these sections makes clear that the law gives considerable credibility to the idea that there is an excess of passion and emotion among the Indian people, because of which speech in unregulated or irrational form is believed to be dangerous: as the law states clearly, the feelings of the people need to be tended to. It is therefore that, for example, hate speech jurisprudence in India is deeply concerned not merely with the content of speech but with the 62 Press Trust of India. (2017, 22 March). Bengaluru Woman Faces Police Case For Facebook Posts On Yogi Adityanath. NDTV. www. ndtv.com/bangalore-news/bengaluru-woman-booked-forobjectionable-facebook-posts-on-uttar-pradesh-chief-ministeryogi-adityan-1672010 63 Hindustan Times. (2017, 4 April). Prashant Bhushan backs down, admits Krishna tweet was ‘inappropriately phrased’. Hindustan Times. www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/prashant-bhushanbacks-down-admits-krishna-tweet-was-inappropriately-phrased/ story-iRORHk4DSKazaFrB98FkwL.html; Press Trust of India. (2017, 6 April). Fresh case against Prashant Bhushan for his tweet on Lord Krishna. Deccan Chronicle. www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/ politics/060417/fresh-case-against-prashant-bhushan-for-histweet-on-lord-krishna.html form: while speech packaged in a rational form, for example in academic research, may be seen as acceptable, the same message in an artistic format that seeks to offend, shock or disturb might not.64 The concurrent existence of these two aspects of Indian hate speech law and jurisprudence has two important consequences. The first is that the question of thresholds disappears into the background when the police receive complaints regarding hate speech. Supreme Court jurisprudence may have developed fairly high standards for the criminalisation of speech under these provisions.65 For example, in Ramji Lal Modi v. State of UP, the Supreme Court, while upholding the constitutionality of section 295A, reconfirmed that the section only penalises insults or attempts at insult of religion or religious feelings that are perpetrated with a deliberate and malicious intent as well as having a tendency to disrupt public order.66 Similarly, in Shreya Singhal v. Union of India, the Court distinguished discussion and advocacy from incitement and noted that only the latter could be limited. But once the feelings of a community are outraged, the question of whether or not the accused did so with deliberate and malicious intent, as required by section 295A IPC, frequently disappears into the background. As the cases of Prashant Bushan and Shaheen Dada mentioned above make clear, to placate the feelings of those outraged, the police come under tremendous pressure to register a case. Consequently, each time the government gives in to threats of disruption of public order, those who have been outraged find new reason to do so again in the future, as – in a typical case of the heckler’s veto – it is the author of the outrageous speech, not those who are threatening disruption, who is silenced. In other words, as Shehla Rashid Shora and Anja Kovacs have pointed out, the hate speech provisions in India’s IPC “have allowed reference to a group identity, in combination with the orchestration of an actual or potential threat of group violence, to emerge as effective means for groups to impose their worldview on others.”67 Ironically, those who are most willing to revert to violence become the “custodians” of community identity, while other voices are marginalised. These challenges are perhaps further heightened because the hate speech sections in the IPC do not take into account the unequal power relations between India’s groups, races and religions. 64 65 66 67 INDIA / 61 Narrain, S. (2016). Op. cit. For an overview, see Law Commission of India. (2017). Op. cit. AIR 1957 SC 620. Shora, S. R., & Kovacs, A. (2013). Op. cit.