Academic Scholar Targeted for Sindoor Comments - Is Censorship Spiking in the Nation?

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The Hindu headlines on Thursday (17th July) reads, “SC says academic facing probe over Sindoor posts can continue writing”. This spirals our memory back to a similar local incident, a few years ago - Perumal Murugan’s lawsuit for “One- part Woman”. As academics and writers, stories of censorship are quite known but are seldom heard of in real life. 

However, in the past two years, every average person active on social media has either heard of or encountered censorship from the ruling powers. For instance, when the Palestinian conflict initially emerged hoards of supporters rushed to social media to fight for the cause. During this time, many individuals reported being censored, their posts hidden from the algorithm or their profile itself being blocked. 

Moreover, recently, the Nobel Prize posted on their Instagram that Narges Mohammadi, the recipient of Nobel Peace Prize 2023, required protection from the Nobel community. According to the post, Ms. Mohammadi had told the Norwegian Nobel Community that she was “directly and indirectly threatened with ‘physical elimination’ by agents of the regime”. 

Such reports cause concern worldwide, making us ponder more and more over censorship and freedom of speech. This recent incident with Ashoka University professor and academic scholar, Mr. Ali Khan Mahmudabad also causes the same concern. 

Mr. Mahmudabad, as per the Hindu article was charged with two FIRs for his social media posts on the Sindoor operation. The case, proceeding since May 2025, had allocated the Special Investigation Team (SIT) consisting of three senior IPS officers to investigate the posts. 

Over the course, however, the Supreme court was seen providing Mr. Mahmudabad with protection and also denying his arrest. The recent hearing saw Supreme Court Judge, Justice Surya Kant denying the SIT’s request for summoning the professor for further investigations. 

Justice Kant stated:  

“You have already called him four times…You don’t require him, you require a dictionary, if at all.” 

These actions by the judiciary system and also granting Mr. Mahmudabad's permission to write are reassuring. The Permul Murugan case in Tamilnadu received a similar verdict, commanding the writer to continue his profession.