Picture this: You are sharing your room with someone who snores. Here’s a solution: BAN them from snoring. One of my colleagues talks very loudly, it’s annoying. The solution: BAN him from talking too loudly. Having a lot of sugar products can cause diabetes, but people are just refusing to cut down their sugar intake. The solution: BAN sugar.

We are living in a country where if you think that banning is the solution and if you have the power then you probably can!

In recent times in India we’ve often been told (or rather, instructed) on what to say and what not to say; whom to have sex with and whom not to; whom to marry and  what to eat, what not to drink smoke or chew; what kind of movies not  to watch; what not to read; how to dress and when to go out.

I don’t eat red meat. Does that mean I should impose my views on others? A lot of people have talked about sentiments related with the eating of beef—in so far as it hurts the sentiments of those whose religion forbids it.

But what about the sentiments and preference of those who actually consume it?

I was recently watching the newly released Fast & Furious 7 in the cinema which purposefully had the cuss words censored. What purpose does censoring serve ? It doesn’t stop me being aware of abusive language.

Telling us what books we should read, what movies we should watch isn’t the government’s job. And what good is it anyway?  Banning the AIB Roast, the documentary ‘India’s Daughter’, the movie ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ or books like ‘The Satanic Verses’ or Madhorubhagan hasn’t stopped anybody watching these movies or books (Piracy, zindabad!).

The main problem with bans and regulation is that it presupposes predictability in human behaviour. But human beings aren’t pawns on a chess board. They have got their own minds and capacity to think for themselves, their own dreams and desires.

A well known espouser of individual freedom, the economist F. A Hayek, once said:

To act on the belief that we possess the knowledge and the power which enable us to shape the processes of society entirely to our liking, knowledge which in fact we do not possess, is likely to make us do much harm.

Free markets, spontaneous order and voluntary exchange lead to a society where each individual is able to exercise their minds and make their own choices. What we need are simple rules and equations and not government intervention after government intervention.

In fact Adolf Hitler said:

The best way to take control over a people and control them utterly is to take a little of their freedom a little at a time, to erode rights by a thousand tiny and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.

So, in light of the resurgence in bans being implemented all over the place, where is India headed ? And in which direction would you ideally want it to be heading ?

The choice is yours.....or would you rather have me decide for you ?

(Sadaf Hussain Works at the Centre for Civil Society, India’s leading liberal think tank, ranked 50 worldwide by the annual study conducted by the Think Tanks and Civil Society Program at the University of Pennsylvania. Read more about them here.)