It seems as if stand-up comics are going to be a rare breed in India soon, the way affordable petrol and impartial journalists already are. Cracking a joke has always been an act fraught with all kinds of danger in a country that lost its sense of humour some years ago, but we now live in a time where thinking about a joke can lead to imprisonment as well. How did we end up like this? How did things go so horribly wrong?

A part of me recognises why comedians are so threatening to some of our countrymen. People afraid of jokes recognise the unique power of humour. They have a sense of how it can be used to express dissatisfaction and anger, to deflate the powerful egos of men with deep insecurities, and to get an audience to accept that an emperor has no clothes. We are all being encouraged and coerced into finding everything offensive these days, because to accept that someone is offending us gives some people an opportunity to justify bringing that person under control. A joke in today’s India is more than just a means to make us laugh; it is a sign that dissent cannot and will not be tolerated by people who have failed to accomplish anything of importance on any front.