The #MunawarFaruqui case highlights how colonial era blasphemy laws (295-A) connect India and Pakistan in ways that no simplistic narrative of secular India vs. Islamic Pakistan adequately captures.
livelaw.in/columns/munawa…
livelaw.in/columns/munawa…
Postcolonial reforms of Pakistan's laws of course make them much harsher, but what is common in both cases is the link between religion and nationalism. It is nationalism that allows two different religious traditions, Hinduism and Islam, to create the same forms of violence.
A great summary of the history of anti-blasphemy laws in Pakistan by anthropologist Asad Ahmed: herald.dawn.com/news/1154036
In both cases, one sees not only state complicity but the fact that the law itself authorizes and encourages mob violence, which can be seen in this video:
https://twitter.com/kunalpurohit/status/1359147487802494980?s=20
It's telling that the joke for which #MunawarFaruqui was arrested was never actually told. It was simply conjured as something he might tell based on his Muslim identity and on previous jokes. Such accusations are about negating the possibility of minority self-assertion.
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