What is vulgarity: ‘Helpless’ Punjab struggles to find an answer

“Consider the song ‘lak 28 kudi da’ (the waist size of the girl is 28 inches). Some people find it objectionable but many don’t. Will you remove all the sculptures in Khujaraho declaring them as vulgar?” said Rajpal Singh the government nominated member in the council.

Defining vulgarity is the first step towards laying down a criteria for the government of what is to be banned. “Sensitivities and sensibilities vary from person to person,from men to women,from cities to rural areas,from one country to another. How does one reach a common conclusion of what is objectionable to everyone?” says S S Channy,principal secretary cultural affairs,Punjab.

The idea of having a policy in place or an authority to regulate lyrics in songs and dialogues in films was mooted by the culture minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur more than an year ago. But the government seems helpless in doing anything about it. During the course of the discussions the matter of singer Honey Singh’s arrest for use of words “balaatkari” in his songs reached the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In its July 4 order the division bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and AG Masih said,“We may notice that obscenity is a very tough issue,though it has its own parameters. It is for the State Government to examine whether it would like to set up any authority for checks and balances qua this issue. Of course,the best way is to shut off and not listen to such an offending music.”

“Shutting off the ears seems to be the only solution left. Firstly we cannot have a parallel censor board as all such powers lie with the Central Board of Film Certification. Even if we are able to ban use of certain words in Punjabi songs by getting our own anti-vulgarity committee to screen songs and films,it will not have any jurisdiction over a CD or film released in Haryana or even in Chandigarh. What will we do then? What about the internet? Who will check what is uploaded?” said Channy.

While there has been no consensus on how to define vulgarity,the government has also not been able to draw a list of words which can be banned from use. Words like ‘nasha’,’dope’,’peg’,’donaali’,’randi’,sharaab’ are frequently used in most songs and are finding acceptability among listeners. Public outrage is giving way to grudging acceptability. “There are enough laws existing which are within the purview of the state government to act upon to check propagation of songs which hurt sensibilities. Those need to be used more often,” said Rajpal Singh.

The lack of consensus on the definition of vulgarity has led the government to steer clear of the whole debate in its new culture policy being formulated with the help of the UNESCO. “The UNESCO is going to tell us what in Punjab’s culture can be preserved and not how it is to be directed in the future,” said Navjot Singh Randhawa,Director Cultural Affairs,Punjab.