Policing Speech

India's long struggle with hate speech has always sat at an uneasy intersection of law, politics and social reality.

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The recent move by Karnataka to introduce a dedicated law against hate speech and hate crimes is, therefore, not merely a legal experiment; it is a test of whether the country can confront a real social menace without undermining constitutional freedoms in the process.There is no disputing the problem. Public discourse has coarsened. Identity has become an easy weapon. Social media has accelerated outrage, television has amplified it, and electoral politics has often rewarded it. The link between incendiary speech and real-world tension is no longer theoretical. In such a climate, the impulse to legislate is understandable, even necessary. A state that does nothing risks appearing complicit in the erosion of civic peace.