On Sunday, dozens of political party workers in the western Indian city of Mumbai forced their way into The Habitat and vandalised the popular venue for music, poetry recitals, and comedy gigs. They shut down a show, forced out the audience, destroyed property, and reportedly manhandled staff.
The reason: comedian Kunal Kamra had recently uploaded a video of his latest standup set performed around a month ago at The Habitat where he made a joke about Eknath Shinde, leader of his faction of the regional Shiv Sena party and deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state, calling him a “traitor”, likely a reference to him splitting his party and allying with Narendra Modi’s BJP in 2022.
Police immediately filed a case, but not against the vandals. The case was filed against Kamra, on a complaint by a Shiv Sena member named Murji Patel.
Patel’s was one of a number of police complaints filed by the party’s members, one of which named even India’s leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi, for his alleged “involvement in pre-planned criminal conspiracy and a systematic paid campaign to malign the reputation, image and goodwill” of the deputy chief minister.
Police only registered a case and arrested the Shiv Sena workers who had vandalised the venue on Monday.
This is only the latest crackdown against comedians in India, seemingly punishing them for the “crime” of telling jokes and engaging in satire, and more importantly, continuing assault on freedom of speech when it doesn’t align with the morality of dominant majoritarian groups.
The incident comes barely a month after two young comedians learned a lesson that many of those that came before them already knew – that their humour may be “edgy” to their fans, but they could only go so far in an environment where jokes are increasingly policed, and outrage dictates consequences.
“Fear of cancellation from the left is why we don’t have comics like Andrew Schultz, Jimmy Carr, Dave Chapelle, Ricky Gervais in the Indian comedy scene,” Samay Raina posted on X in 2022. “Don’t worry, I’m here to change that.”
One could argue the comedian did his best to live up to the challenge.
Carr’s sets are rife with jokes about domestic violence and rape and he once suggested a “positive” of the Holocaust was the murder of thousands of gypsies.
Chappelle and Gervais have spent much creative energy over the last few years making jokes about the trans community, and doubling down when criticised for it.
In the years after winning Comicstaan, a standup competition TV series, in 2017, Raina tried his best to emulate his heroes.
He was called out many times for making jokes about abortion and sexual violence and his YouTube show India’s Got Latent, routinely featured comedians who made misogynistic comments.
Its name, a play on popular reality TV series India’s Got Talent and format a nod to American comedy variety show Kill Tony, India’s Got Latent featured a different set of celebrity judges on every episode with Raina the only constant presence.
While it had its fair share of detractors, India’s Got Latent had a sizable fan following. Its episodes routinely garnered millions of views within hours of being put up online. Raina’s significant brand endorsements, his members-only site to access exclusive content for a monthly fee and regularly sold-out comedy shows cemented his status as a comedian whose brand was as profitable as it is popular.
It was going all so well for Raina – until it wasn’t.
In keeping with the show’s vibe and “crass humour”, podcaster Ranveer Allahbadia, a guest judge on an episode released on 8 February, asked a contestant: “Would you rather watch your parents have sex for the rest of your life, or join in once to make it stop?”
The episode went largely unnoticed outside the fan base at first, but then, in the same manner as in Kamra’s case, a clip of the interaction began its journey through the social media infamy cycle, inciting outrage over the question.
First came the internet brickbats. Journalist and lyricist Neelesh Misra echoed most of the reactions when he called out the “perverted creators” of the show for having “zero sense of responsibility” and social media platforms and the audiences that rewarded such content.
Then – in a deviation from the norm of such social media outrage simply fizzling out – police complaints were filed in Mumbai and the northeastern city of Guwahati against India’s Got Latent, Allahbadia, Raina, and everyone else who was on the panel, for allegedly promoting obscenity.
Police and politicians joined in. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said action should be taken against people who violated society’s rules; Mumbai police visited Allahbadia’s house the same week; a federal lawmaker said she would raise the matter in the parliament; and the episode was removed by YouTube on a National Human Rights Commission India member’s request.
Allahbadia apologised twice. He and his family were being harassed and receiving death threats, he reported. But even the courts, while giving him protection from arrest, did so on the condition Allahbadia surrender his passport, and refrain from participating in or airing any show until further orders.
“There is something very dirty in his mind, which has been vomited by him in this programme” Supreme Court judge Surya Kant asked during a hearing of Allahbadia’s case. “Why should the courts favour him?”
Allahbadia’s lawyer, Abhinav Chandrachud, replied that while he was “personally disgusted” by the comments and couldn’t defend them on “moral grounds”, whether it rose “to the level of criminal offense is another question”.
It is a question many are asking.
“Politicians indulge in hate speech that results in violence and death, and they’re never held accountable,” Indian comedian Daniel Fernandes tells The Independent.
“Our infrastructure is crumbling, the air is polluted, people are dying in stampedes, women are being raped and murdered, the poor are getting exponentially marginalised and the number one issue in our country is a silly question that a YouTuber asked on a reality show? Where are our priorities?”
Another comedian, Radhika Vaz, says there is never a clear line that can be drawn when it comes to the freedom of speech.
“I’m a purist when it comes to freedom of expression, and I find it a very difficult line to draw. ‘Oh, so and so is sexist. So he should be muffled. She’s a woman, so she shouldn’t be muffled. But she’s casteist. So now we have to muffle her’ – where do you draw the line?” she tells The Independent.
“Freedom of expression should be sacred. And if we want art and actual justice to flourish, I believe people should not be afraid to say things.”
Jaya Bachchan, member of parliament from the Samajwadi Party, too questioned the growing restrictions on free speech, telling ANI on Monday: “If there’s a restriction on speaking, what will become of you? You are anyway in a bad situation. There are restrictions on you. You would be told to speak only on certain topics and not ask certain questions. Where is freedom of speech?”
While many are dumbfounded that a question, albeit provocative, could end with someone in jail, it is not exactly news to Indian comedians.
In 2015, a police complaint was filed against comedy group AIB, along with Bollywood actors Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Deepika Padukone and Alia Bhatt, for being part of or attending a comedy roast, which was allegedly “vulgar, obscene, and pornographic”.
This isn’t even Kamra’s first brush with the law. In 2020, he faced contempt charges for tweets criticising the Supreme Court. The charges were authorised by the country’s attorney general who described Kamra’s words as being in “bad taste”. In an affidavit filed before his hearing in 2021, Kamra said: “I do not believe that any high authority, including judges, would find themselves unable to discharge their duties only on account of being the subjects of satire or comedy.”
Responding similarly now as he did back then, Kamra posted a picture of himself holding a copy of the Indian constitution on Monday, with a caption that simply read: “The only way forward.”
He later released a longer statement on social media. “Our right to freedom of speech and expression is not only to be used to fawn over the powerful and rich even though today’s media would have us believe otherwise. Your inability to take a joke at the expense of a powerful public figure does not change the nature of my right. As far as I know, it is not against the law to poke fun at our leaders and the circus that is our political system.”
In 2021, comedian Munawar Faruqui spent 35 days in jail for “hurting religious sentiments”. A court denied him bail despite the fact that a Hindu mob had crashed his show and brought him to a police station even before he had started his set.
In 2024, Fernandes received threats and suffered the cancellation of several shows after a set featured a joke about the Jain community.
In February this year, Anubhav Singh Bassi’s shows in the northern city of Lucknow were cancelled after the state women’s commission asked police in a letter to ensure that “in this proposed programme and similar programmes of standup artists, neither any indecent words nor any undignified comments are made on women”.
In the past few years, as comedy has increasingly come under attack, several prominent comedians have hired lawyers that they regularly run their jokes by, The Times of India reported.
The Habitat, which incidentally hosted both Kamra’s standup show and the India’s Got Latent episode featuring Allahbadia, announced on Monday that they would be closing temporarily as they were “shocked, worried and extremely broken by the recent acts of vandalism targeting us”.
“But recent events have made us rethink about how we get blamed and targeted every time almost like we are the proxy for the performer,” they said.
“We are shutting down till we figure out the best way to provide a platform for free expression without putting ourselves and our property in jeopardy.”
As far as the India’s Got Latent controversy, over 50 people connected with the show – including judges and comedians who appeared in previous episodes – were summoned for questioning and the investigation is still underway.
India’s information and broadcasting ministry has said it’s looking at a new legal framework for “harmful” content on digital platforms due to a growing concern that “freedom of expression is being misused to showcase obscene and violent content on digital platforms”.
The Supreme Court, after its tongue lashing of Allahbadia, asked if the Indian government had any plan to regulate “obscene” content on YouTube and other social media platforms, failing which it would step in.
“But we make it clear that we want something done,” the top court said. “Something has to be done, and we will do it. We are not going to leave it like that.”
Raina, in a statement to Maharashtra police on Monday, reportedly “admitted his mistake” and apologised for the show. “I feel deep regret for what I said. It happened in the flow of the show, and I had no intention of saying it. I realise that what I said was wrong,” local media quoted him telling the police.
Fernandes and Vaz make the point that people like Raina and Allahbadia make the type of content they do because it is popular.
“It is not up to comedians to shape your morals. Every adult has the agency to choose what they want to consume. It’s a simple demand supply equation,” Fernandes says.
“If problematic material has an audience, that means we have a problematic audience. Shall we haul them in for questioning as well? And if anyone is concerned about their children having access to problematic material, do a better job as a parent.”
Vaz says: “At some level, unfortunately, we have to look at what the audience wants. If they want sexist comedy and they’re buying tickets, someone will provide it.”
Asked if he faced repercussions after his 2024 set, Fernandes says: “There was noise for a week and then it stopped. The objective of these mobs is to bully artists into apologising by threatening them and then they go away. Every time there’s outrage in Indian comedy, more people discover our work, ticket sales increase, and everyone laughs their way to the bank.”
Allahbadia and Raina may not be as lucky.
Former chief justice of India NV Ramana said in 2022: “In our criminal justice system, the process is the punishment.”
Lawyer Karuna Nundy, who represented AIB in 2015, echoed Ramana: “The life of a tasteless joke is short, that of a registered FIR is long.”
Allahbadia had requested the court to consolidate the multiple cases filed against him in various states, so he was not forced to travel all over the country every time he was summoned.
While the court said that no further case could be filed against Allahbadia for the same joke, it did not club the existing cases.
It remains to be seen if Raina’s and Allahbadia’s careers suffer, what action police will take against Kamra, and if India’s government chooses to restrict free speech in a country that ranks 159 out of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index.
As far as the future of Indian comedy is concerned, Vaz’s wish is simple. “I hope that regardless of the content and context, creative people prevail. Both good and bad art is our culture. And creators should have the freedom to create, freedom to make mistakes, and freedom to move on from them,” Vaz says.
“We will be able to evolve if the first thing that happens to someone when they make a mistake is that they go to jail.”