A victory for creative freedom is always to be welcomed. But the fact that the freedom was restrained for some time is reason to mourn too. The Calcutta high court has declared the West Bengal government?s ban on Ms Taslima Nasreen?s book, Dwikhandita, invalid and has instructed it to release all copies of the book that had been confiscated. Perhaps the judgment can be read more as a criticism of the government?s attitude to the people of the state rather than just a textual assessment. The court has found fears that the book might cause a communal conflagration or hurt the sentiments of the minority community without substance. But beyond this assessment, it has questioned the disrespect to readers implied by the ban. The government seems to think that it is ruling immature, unthinking children, who are unable to distinguish between reason and unreason.

Ruling on the precise percentage of subversive possibilities in literature, or any work of art, is a job that sits uneasily on a legal institution. Subversion lies at the core of all art. It is the reader or viewer or listener who will decide which is art and which propaganda, which art is good and which bad. It is not part of the government?s role to dictate preferences and understandings. Despotic regimes have always been harsh to the artist, for he is by definition freedom-loving, clear-seeing and critical. But banning and exiling are for despots, it is less clear why books should be banned by a progressive, elected government. Culture does not fall within the purview of governance, whatever reason may be given for the existence of government departments to look after it. Although political leaders in West Bengal seem to believe that politics hones their creativity ? they are playwrights, poets and painters ? it is best when politics and culture remain far apart. As long as governments have a finger in the pie of cultural matters in the form of patronage, funding and award-giving, they will also have a say in what goes and what does not. It is not difficult to understand this persistent interest of politicians: it is not only the subversive but also the ideological power of art that is to be feared. Art teaches people to think. Nothing could be more dangerous to politicians whether in a dictatorship or in a democracy. It is up to the people ? and the artists ? to keep politics and art apart.