Indian ban on rape film is 'international suicide', says director

Leslee Udwin says India’s Daughter documentary was a ‘gift of gratitude to India’ and calls on PM Narendra Modi to allow screening

The Guardian, Staff and agencies, Saturday 7 March 2015

Leslee Udwin, the British director of the documentary India’s Daughter.
Photograph: Xinhua/Rex

The director of a documentary about the gang rape and murder of a woman in Delhi has said India committed “international suicide” by banning the film and asking for YouTube to remove all links to it.

The film, India’s Daughter, was broadcast in Britain last week on BBC4 and many YouTube users have posted a recording of the programme on the site. It is available until Wednesday night in the UK on iPlayer.

Indian police said the ban was imposed as comments in the film by one of those convicted of the crime created an atmosphere of “fear and tension”.

Leslee Udwin, the British director of the documentary, said: “My whole purpose was to give a gift of gratitude to India, to actually praise India, to single India out as a country that was exemplary in its response to this rape, as a country where one could actually see change beginning.

“The supreme irony is that they are now accusing me of having wanted to point fingers at India, defame India, and it is they who have committed international suicide by banning this film.”

The filmmaker said she was inspired to make the film in the wake of protests in India over the December 2012 rape and murder of a young physiotherapy student on a bus.

The government toughened its rape laws in response to the outcry following the fatal attack, but still on average a rape is reported every 21 minutes in India, and acid attacks, domestic violence and molestation are common.

India’s Daughter contains an interview with Mukesh Singh, one of four men sentenced to death for the rape, torture and murder of a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus.

In the film, Singh blames the victim for resisting rape. His comments made headlines in Indian newspapers and sparked outrage on social media.

Udwin said banning the film had brought India into disrepute by obstructing free speech, one of the essential elements of democracy.

The filmmaker said that if given a chance she could persuade India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, to allow the screening.

“If [Modi] spent one hour seeing this documentary, he would see his own statements since he got into power reflected in this film. The film is saying exactly what he’s saying with his Beti Bachao campaign,” said Udwin.

Launched in January, the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” (Save the Daughter, Teach the Daughter) campaign is aimed at balancing India’s child gender ratio, which skews toward boys due to sex-selective abortions, and improving gender equality through access to education.

Udwin said she was hopeful the film would eventually be shown legally in India and appealed to Modi to “be a hero globally” and stand up to his statements promoting gender equality.

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