How Saudi’s blasphemy laws find a mirror in India
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Last month, a horrific piece of news shocked the world. A court in Saudi Arabia had sentenced a 27-year-old Sri Lankan man named Anojan Sivarasa to death for an allegedly derogatory comment he had made about Islam and Prophet Muhammad.
As a theocratic monarchy, the Saudi state has strict blasphemy laws that penalise any claimed insults to Islam as well as religious symbols such as prophets.
But to many in the rest of the world, the sentence was an outrage – rightly so. To punish a person for hurting religious sentiments is a medieval idea that should have little currency in 2026. In India, like in so many other countries, the case received widespread attention and strong criticism.
This global anger eventually forced the Saudis to overturn Sivarasa’s death sentence (though he is not acquitted and still remains in jail).
However, closer home, another case of punishing a person for outraging religious sentiments went largely unnoticed.
Destroying three lives
On October 28, an Indian court sentenced three...
