Freedom of Expression in Diverse Democracies: Comparing Hate Speech Law in India and the EU
Smarika Kumar, Michael Riegner · SSRN Electronic Journal · 2019
This chapter compares free speech law in India and the EU and focuses on the regulation of hate speech, which promises particular insights into the challenges of diverse democracies. In particular, we address two challenges to democracy that arise out of diversity: How does free speech law respond to inequality among different social groups? And how does hate speech law relate to collective identity as a basis for collective self-government? On the whole, Indian free speech law struggles with a tension between racialised colonial particularity in the arena of religion-based hate speech and a liberal-democratic universalism in the sphere of casteist hate speech. The focus of EU law has evolved from nationalist hate speech to islamophobic and xenophobic speech and retains a more federal structure. We ultimately argue for an approach that focuses on the power relations of inclusion and exclusion at play in the process of construction of a “unified public sphere” through the exercise of the polity’s hate speech laws.