In 2009, the Indian Government blocked the much-loved Savita Bhabi website created by the pseudonymous Deshmukh, Dexter and Mad. The Savita Bhabi, 'sister-in-law Savita', website carries a daily cartoon strip about the "Sexual Adventures of the Hot Indian Bhabi" who is described as a "regular Indian woman who just can't get enough sex". In June 2009, the Government of India instructed internet service providers to block the site under Section 67 of the Information Technology (IT) Act which prohibits the publication and transmission of "any material which is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest" or whose effect could "corrupt and deprave", and also under certain amended provisions that were included after the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. These provisions allow for the censoring of material deemed threatening to the "the sovereignty or integrity of India, defence and security of the state".
In an age of proliferating hardcore cyber-porn, why did the government target a cartoon strip as a 'moral and national threat'? N Vijayaditya, the Controller of Certifying Authorities – the agency entrusted under the IT Act to block websites – stated that the office had acted on "several complaints" made against the site. The demise (not really, since you can access the site through proxy servers) of India's best loved bhabi was mourned by thousands of online admirers.
Headlines reported the "Assassination of Savita Bhabi" and the "Death of India's First Porn Star". A Bombay-based rock band dedicated a special song to Savita Bhabi, while blogs and networking sites launched 'Save Savita Bhabi' campaigns. On the other hand, Savita Bhabi's detractors allege that the site denigrated Indian women, insulted 'Indian family values' and threatened 'Indian culture'. Those familiar with censorship debates in India will know that over the last two decades these allegations have recurred with predictable regularity around sexual speech and more particularly around transgressive images of women's bodies and sexualities. So what precisely is transgressive about Savita Bhabi?
Savita is an attractive middle class housewife whose dull, workaholic husband is rarely home. Consequently, she has ample time and space for torrid sexual encounters with, among others, a door-to-door lingerie salesman, local teens playing cricket, a former lover visiting from abroad, a potential boss, his secretary, a famous film star (with an uncanny resemblance to Amitabh Bachchan), a newly employed servant, the husband of her husband's office colleague and a terrorist. As is evident from this brief summary, Savita Bhabi embodies, for the moral purists, the outer reaches of sexual transgression. She is married but not monogamous. She has sex for fun and not for procreation or love, and in choosing lovers, she does not discriminate on the grounds of class, caste, gender, occupation, age or status. And having had the most outrageous escapades, she gets away with it all!