If there's a DLF mainstay you can count on, it's a panel on free speech and censorship. This year's session, titled ‘Cancel Culture', was moderated by award-winning author and photographer Ranbir Sidhu, and featured Indian journalist Nilanjana S Roy, Professor Sarah Churchwell, and writer/ co-founder and co-curator of Goa Arts & Literature Festival (GALF) Vivek Menezes.
The moderator opened the floor with a question pertaining to the distinction between state-sponsored censorship and the kind of censorship that arises from popular opinion. Vivek Menezes talked about the way reportage of conflict in Kashmir was handled, about the role of social media in inciting violence and stated “people seem to think that free speech means the right to be on television”. Nilanjana Roy shared her experiences of hearing about colleagues and fellow artists being gunned down, or facing endless lawsuits in an atmosphere, and how the threat of these things acts as a mechanism against free thought, but said ultimately this could be a good thing.
“When you put an opinion out there, on Twitter, you're given a mic to shout out to the world, and they can shout back at you,” she said, talking about how the pushback has made people consider the impact of their words more carefully.
Sarah Churchwell spoke about the Trump years and the way social media was used to incite violence, and contrasted it with the positive effect of movements like #MeToo, which broke the silence on sexual violence. When Ranbir Sidhu raised the example of JK Rowling getting cancelled because of her seemingly transphobic opinions, both Churchwell and Roy were quick to point out that Rowling continues to publish books and gain profits and therefore to call her “cancelled” would be an unfair caricaturization of the term. All three panelists shared stories about how the language of discourse has changed to become more inclusive and egalitarian thanks to a certain level of public censure.
The session ended with a Q&A segment, and in response to a much-applauded question about how to resist the state machinery that often uses a form of censorship in education systems, such as through book bans and regulated curricula, to stifle discourse, Churchwell answered “Vote them out”, while Roy added “Archive everything.”