Do you think that modern writers like Mahashweta Devi should have the freedom to rewrite stories from the Mahabharata? Give reasons for your answer.
I think that modern writers like Mahashweta Devi should have the freedom to rewrite stories from the Mahabharata. I give the following reasons for my answer:
(i) India is the largest democracy in the world. It grants several fundamental rights to its citizens. The freedom of expression is one of the most important fundamental and civil rights of the people in a liberal democratic country like India.
(ii) If India will not allow she will go somewhere else and she will write. This is an era of global network, computer and mass-media. Perceptions, outlooks, ideas cannot be chained.
(iii) If some authors like Mahashweta Devi tries to draw our attention towards certain ills of the society or socio-religious practices, we should not condemn. No doubt in every society we find different types of evils. Values are changeable.
(iv) When we look at what she has wriitten, she has not changed any content of the epic but she is adding to it. And moreover epic is not anyone's property and it has no intellectual rights owned by anyone. Only problem is the one who consider it to be sacred and should not be changed.
