ABSTRACT

This article explores the debates on film exhibition and censorship during the war years in India. The First World War (1914–18) was a watershed moment for the rapidly burgeoning cinema exhibition business in India. During the war, the government of India was caught by surprise at the pace with which the business had spread in the country. When the need for cinema propaganda arose in India, the government began to assess the nature of commercial networks the cinema exhibition companies had been able to build. Throughout the war years, the Government of India debated ways of intervening in the cinema business either by competing with the monopolistic cinema companies or by introducing censorship laws to control exhibition spaces and content. At the behest of the war propaganda department in London, the government of India found itself playing a reluctant arbitrator in a bitter competition between two influential cinema companies – Madan and Bandman – for the exhibition of Britain Prepared. This article further draws attention to the continuities between pre-war censorship debates and the war-year debates that led to the enactment of the first Cinematograph Act (1918) in India. By exploring the pre-war censorship debate about the exhibition of Johnson-Jeffries film, this article reviews a commonly held assumption in Indian film history that film censorship began in the country during the war years.

摘要

本文探讨了印度战争期间关于电影放映和审查制度的争论。第一次世界大战（1914-18 年）是印度电影放映业迅速发展的分水岭。战争期间，印度政府对该业务在该国的扩张速度感到惊讶。当印度出现电影宣传的需要时，政府开始评估电影放映公司能够建立的商业网络的性质。在整个战争年代，印度政府一直在争论干预电影业的方式，要么与垄断电影公司竞争，要么引入审查法来控制展览空间和内容。应伦敦战争宣传部的要求，英国准备好了。本文进一步提请人们注意战前审查制度辩论与导致印度颁布第一个电影摄影法（1918 年）的战时辩论之间的连续性。通过探讨战前关于约翰逊-杰弗里斯电影放映的审查制度争论，本文回顾了印度电影史上一个普遍持有的假设，即该国的电影审查制度始于战争年代。