Friday, September 12, 2008

Vasectomy Rebel

One last one from Guha:
An incidental victim of Sanjay Gandhi’s drive for family planning was the great popular singer Kishore Kumar. Other film stars and musicians agreed to perform in a programme to raise money for sterilization, but Kishore refused. As a consequence, his songs were banned from Vividh Bharati, the AIR channel that exclusively broadcast film music. The Film Censor Board was instructed to hold up the release of movies in which Kishore acted or sang. Sanjay’s men also warned record companies against selling Kishore’s songs. It was an act of petty vindictiveness keeping with the times.

—from Ramachandra Guha India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s Largest Democracy

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