The following is a guest post by Tariq Ahmad, a Legal Analyst in the Global Legal Research Center of the Law Library of Congress.
British colonial era laws continue to have relevancy in the legal systems of India and Pakistan. Ironically, a sedition law used by the British colonial government to suppress nationalist dissent in the subcontinent during the 19th and early 20th centuries is being applied today to curtail what some critics feel are reasonable criticisms of the government. In addition, the United Kingdom abolished its own sedition law in 2010.
Recently, the controversial case of cartoonist Aseem Trivedi has sparked a heated debate in India about restrictions on free speech and expression. Trivedi was arrested by Mumbai