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Soft or hard, Mumbai wants porn
By Ami Cholia and Ramya Ramamurthy
August 10, 2004
Mumbai has given a thumbs up to pornography.
A host of celebrities in India’s freedom capital yesterday enthusiastically
endorsed writer Salman Rushdie’s view that porn was vital to freedom and that a
free and civilised society should be judged by its willingness to accept
pornography.
The celebrities not only stressed that exposure to porn was “healthy” but also
agreed that repressed societies, where porn was not legalised, were far from
“normal”. Some went to the extent of calling porn, literature.
The lone dissenter was Shobha De, who said nothing would be gained by
institutionalising porn.
Here’s a sampling of opinions on the issue:
 Socialite
Pooja Bedi: Sexual repression is extremely unhealthy. It’s healthy
to be exposed to sex and pornography and to the sexual process, but it should
done at the right age and you have to be mentally ready for it. I agree that we
must be open about sexuality and be able to see porn if you want.
Porn experience: The first time I saw porn was when I was 16
or 17. We watched this film called Peligula or Sweet Lollipop.
 Actor
Aly Khan: I think pornography is literature and it should be
available to people in a free society, although it should be censored so that
children don’t have access to it. Banning it is like banning literature.
Porn experience: I buy porn almost every time I go abroad
because it’s easily available there. The last movie I bought was Irreversible,
which I guess is semi-porn.
 Actress
Negar Khan: Porn should be legal, but to what extent? Children
should not have access to it. Banning it will only make people want to see it
more — it’s everywhere anyway.
People should have a choice, but there should be a limit on where it’s
available and who can access it. Remix videos are not pornographic — they are
no less than what is shown on MTV in America. Nothing is deliberately
pornographic in them.
Porn experience: I have seen sex scenes in European movies and
they have pay per view porn in Europe, but I haven’t seen a typical porn film.
 Theatre
personality Rahul DaCunha: I agree with Salman Rushdie. Porn is
one of the most normal, natural things, but in our country sex is a dirty word.
The more natural you get about sex, the less repressed you get, especially in
India and Pakistan. It’ll make society much cleaner and much more normal if we
legalise it. It’s available anyway, so legalise it.
Porn experience: The first time I saw porn I was 12 or 13 and
I saw something abroad. It was a long time ago — as kids we saw porn and it was
a ball.
 Photographer
Atul Kasbekar: What’s porn in someone’s eyes is art in another’s.
The moral police can’t decide. Who draws the line? It’s such a grey area. I
don’t think it is possible to control porn — you will just create a black
market because people will want to see what they want to see.
We can’t pretend we are living in a safer society if we make porn legal. There
is no huge difference between sex crime rates between countries that have
banned porn and those that have legalised it.
Porn experience: Of course, I have seen porn. The first time I
saw porn I was in my teens. People who say they haven’t are lying.
 Shobhaa
De: Salman Rushdie has made a living out of being controversial,
so what he says now doesn’t surprise me.
I am against institutionalising porn — we have seen repercussions in so-called
developed countries like Sweden or Norway and I don’t think legalising porn
solves the problem.
Porn experience: When I was 20 or 22, I saw this soft porn
film in London called Emmanuelle. It was just aesthetic and made me feel
terrific. I have seen hardcore porn and I find it very revolting. It propagates
an abnormal idea of sex in young minds — especially pre-teens.
 What
Rushdie says
Porn is vital to freedom. A free and civilised society should be judged by its
willingness to accept pornography.
Pornography exists everywhere, but when it comes into societies in which it’s
difficult for young men and women to get together and do what young men and
women often like doing, it satisfies a more general need. While doing so, it
sometimes becomes a kind of standard-bearer for freedom, even civilisation.
(From his essay ‘The East is Blue,’ to be published alongside images of
American porn stars in a book called XXX:30 Porn star)
The Indian law
Under Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code, “any material which is lascivious
or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to
deprave and corrupt persons who view it,” is pornography.
And if caught purchasing, sending, publishing or creating pornography, you are
in for at least a two-year jail sentence and/or a minimum Rs 2,000 fine, says
lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani.
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