Written by London Swaminathan

Post No. 14,790

Date uploaded in London –  23 July 2025

Contact – swami_48@yahoo.com

Pictures are taken from various sources for spreading knowledge.

this is a non- commercial blog. Thanks for your great pictures.

tamilandvedas.com, swamiindology.blogspot.com

xxxx  

I thought Tamil Nadu Government run by Anti Hindu DMK party is bad because it arrests people who support Hinduism every day. I read  two excellent articles published in the London Standard dated 17 July 2025.  British Government run by Labour party is worse than the DMK government in India. People can’t speak freely about the Immigration and Refugees in Britain.

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Here are some bullet points from the first lengthy article:

When it comes to the question of free speech, the Greeks said it best. Parrhesia or uninhibited speech means to speak freely and frankly. Euripides, the dramatist depicts Athens as a place where free males can speak freely on public affairs. in his play The  Phoenician Women, he says,” This is slavery; not to speak one’s thought.”

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Show me the Book, and then Publish- British King

Henry VIII imposed restrictions on printing in 1538, whereby books had to be approved in advance of publication by the Privy Council to suppress dissent against his own ideological project, the English Reformation.

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Give me liberty to Speak- John Milton

John Milton’s Areopagitica, published in1644, argued against that control and some of his arguments haven’t been improved on since.

His defence of authors should give us pause: As good almost kill a man as kill a good book. Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature, God’s image; but he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself.”

“Give me liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties.”

These battles seemed to have been won when the Human Rights Act of 1998 incorporated article 10 of the European convention on Human Rights into U K Law, guaranteeing freedom of expression.

But this article has not in fact been useful as we thought. During times of war, governments naturally censor the press and the press meets it halfway. During the Covid pandemic, the government of the day went out of its way to suppress dissident views on ways of dealing with it.

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£20,000 Fine for standing with a placard!

There is, in fact, one area, where free speech is very much not allowable, that is on abortion and within 150 metres of an abortion clinic. There are punitive legal restrictions on anyone even standing silently within this area. Recently one woman was arrested and fined £20,000 for holding a placard saying, “Here to talk if you want” near a clinic. How is it intimidatory or threatening? And if it is simply a silent protest, why should it be banned at all?

Earlier this year we found that the police are making more than 30 arrests a day over offensive posts on social media and other forums, which are in effect, the modern equivalent of a pub discussion.

(before this para, the author discussed, Ban on Salman Rushdie’s book The Satanic Verses, Hate Speech, Islamophobia etc.)

In face of all this, you know what we need? A return to the enlightened and liberal values of the fifth century before Christ. Bring back the Athenian concept of parrhesia or uninhibited speech. Right now, we are running away from it.

Melanie McDonagh, The London Standard, July 17, 2025.

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MY COMMENTS

Melanie McDonagh, perhaps, don’t know what happened in ancient India. Just because a washerman doubted Sita Devi’s integrity, Rama sent her to the forest. So much freedom of speech was there in Rama Rajya. And so much value given to public opinion. Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion, was followed.

Kannagi, wife of wrongly accused and executed husband Kovalan, entered Pandyan King’s assembly and presented her case. No one prevented her. Her forceful challenge to the Tamil king shows that even a woman can speak freely. In ancient Greece, women had no such right. Stories of Satyavan Savitri, and the boy Nachiketas show that even God can be challenged.

Earlier a cow whose calf was run over by the king’s son during  rash driving, came to the assembly and rang the distress calling bell. After knowing the incident, the Tamil king ran over his son with his chariot to deliver justice to the cow. The king Manu Neethi Chozan’s statue in Madras High Court now. Even animals had the right to “speak” 2000 years ago in India. This Distress Calling Bell was installed at the gates of palaces in India according to Mahabharat.

There are many more such anecdotes in Tamil Thiru Vilayadal Puranam and other Hindu scriptures.  People had the right to talk under the Banyan Tree in the village in ancient India. Probably Greeks followed Hindus.

–Subham—

Tags: Freedom of speech, Britain, India, John Milton, Henry VIII, abortion, everyday arrests, Manu Neethi Choza, Kannagi