Signature Wit: Aestheticisation of Oppression

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Aestheticisation of Oppression


When Jail Becomes a Badge

That comedians in India are facing FIRs and jail for speech is deeply worrying. It should disturb us. It should make us pause. What worries me even more, though, is how this has slowly started to be worn as a badge of honour — almost as a career milestone


Repression is not the problem here; romanticising repression is.

The moment legal trouble becomes “cool,” something subtle shifts. Jail stops being a moral failure of the system and starts looking like a rite of passage. FIRs turn into proof of authenticity.

Suffering becomes currency. And when that happens, injustice is no longer confronted — it is stylised.


This doesn’t weaken the state; it normalises it.


There is also a quiet privilege hidden in this trend. Only some people can afford to treat FIRs lightly — those with money, lawyers, platforms, and public sympathy. For countless others — teachers, writers, small-town artists — the same FIR can end livelihoods, not elevate profiles. When persecution is aestheticised, it sends a dangerous message to those without safety nets


Jail should not be a flex. An FIR should not be a marketing asset. Censorship should not be content.


Dissent does not need drama to be brave. And resistance does not need branding to be real. The goal should never be to look fearless in chains — it should be to make chains unacceptable in the first place.


That distinction matters... 



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