Nip, snick, cut! Decoding film censorship in India 1920-1928

ABSTRACT

The debate on film censorship in colonial India is rife with assertions that censorship was introduced to empty Indian films of their nationalist content. But the examination of the Bengal Board of Film Register shows that for the period between 1920 and 1928, indigenously produced films counted for much less than American films, and film censorship during the silent era was more focused on female sexuality rather than nationalism and politics. Most of the cuts affected in films exhibited in Bengal Presidency were sexual rather than explicitly political in nature. And by the end of the 1920s, the discourse of film censorship in India would metastasize around the moral need to protect the white woman.

KEYWORDS:

• Censorship
• white woman
• India
• silent cinema
• Hollywood

Acknowledgments

I want to thank the National Film Archive of India, Pune for the Research Fellowship in 2020 and Professor Amit Tyagi for his suggestions for the project. I am grateful for the insightful comments from the two anonymous reviewers for this submission.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Refers to the Indian nationalists’ programme of Swadeshi or self-reliance as a response to oppose Lord Curzon’s decision to divide the province of Bengal in 1905.

2. One of the founding members of the Indian National Congress and the president of the Congress in 1901.

3. See the filmography of the Indian Silent Cinema from 1912 – 1934.

4. See Bengal Board of Film Register, Entry No. 1143.

5. See Bengal Board of Film Register, Entry No. 1448.

6. See Bengal Board of Film Register. Entry No.3942.

7. See Bengal Board of Film Register. Entry No. 4366.

8. See Bengal Board of Film Register. Entry No.5822.

9. See Bengal Board of Film Register, Entry No. 6824.

10. See Bengal Board of Film Register, Entry No. 9164.

11. The representative were Rao Sahib Chunilal G. Munim, Mr. Rustiom C. N. Bharucha, Mr. N. Desai and Mr. N. N. Engineer.

12. ‘Moral/Sexual,’ if they pertained to indecorous intertitles, drug habits, drunken scenes, exhibition of under-clothing, nude figures, vulgarity, indecorous dancing, prolonged love scenes, bathing scenes, sexually suggestive intertitles or scenes, nudity, and or allusion to illicit sex/relationship, undermined morality, hinted at extra-marital relationships, rape, prostitution, birth-control, lowered the sanctity of marriage.

13. ‘Political,’ if they pertained to events of Ireland, the IRA, Sinn Fein, the Sultan of Turkey, relations of capital to labour, unflattering or disrespectful portrayal of Europeans, scenes/intertitles that disparaged public characters and institutions, advocated people’s revolution; presented adverse representations of the Imperial bureaucracy or the British Army or other nationalities, the white race or the British monarchy and its Allies; insinuated about white slave traffic; made oblique references to national struggle elsewhere which might suggest parallels with colonial India’s own predicament.

14. ‘Religious,’ if they pertained to blasphemous representations, materialization of religious figures, irreverent treatment of sacred subjects, and carried the risk of offending religious sensibilities of the empire’s subjects.

15. ‘Violent,’ if they featured scenes of torture, confinements, profuse bleeding, horrors of warfare, gruesome murders, death and execution, blood and bloodletting and or could teach methods of violence and crime.

16. ‘Unknown,’ where the cuts and excision did not fit in any of the labels mentioned above.

17. The Rowlatt Act was passed in February 1919 and allowed certain political cases to be tried without juries and permitted imprisonment of suspects without trial.

18. On Easter Monday, April 24, 1916, Irish nationalists proclaimed the establishment of the Irish Republic and, along with some 1,600 followers, staged a rebellion against the British government in Ireland.

19. Pathe Gazette 664–65, Pathe Gazette 700–701, Topical Budget 474, Pathe Gazette 706–707, Pathe Gazette 660–661, Pathe Gazette No. 706–707, Pathe Gazette 712–713, Topical Budget 479, Pathe Gazette 716–717.

20. Secretary of State of the German Imperial Naval Office from 1897–1916.

21. German general and statesman who later became President of Germany from 1925–1934.

22. See Entry No. 9771., Bengal Board of Film Register.

23. See Entry No. 03., The Bengal Board Film Register.

24. Indian Muslim activist, a leading figure of the Khilafat Movement who became President of the Indian National Congress Party in 1923.

25. See Entry No. 5822., The Bengal Board of Film Register.

26. See Entry No. 5836 & No. 5838., The Bengal Board of Film Register.

27. See Entry No. 5808. The Bengal Board of Film Register.

28. See Entry No. 8423. The Bengal Board of Film Register.

29. See Entry No. 8222. The Bengal Board of Film Register.

30. See Entry No. 7811. The Bengal Board of Film Register.

31. See Entry No. 8270. The Bengal Board of Film Register.

32. See Entry No. 8526. The Bengal Board of Film Register.

33. See Entry No. 7315. The Bengal Board of Film Register.

34. See Entry No. 5952. The Bengal Board of Film Register.

35. See Entry No. 9211. The Bengal Board of Film Register.

36. See Entry No. 9314., The Bengal Board of Film Register.

37. See Entry No. 7271., The Bengal Board of Film Register.

38. See Entry No. 7897., The Bengal Board of Film Register.

39. See Entry No. 7898., The Bengal Board of Film Register.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Film Archive of India, Pune.