Dramatic Performances Act

Prime Minister of India recently asked why a colonial law that “allowed the arrest of people dancing in public places” had continued to exist even 75 years after independence. 

• About: The Dramatic Performances Act, 1876, gave the (then British) government powers to “prohibit public dramatic performances which are scandalous, defamatory, seditious or obscene”.

o This law was among those enacted by the British to clamp down on the budding Indian nationalist sentiment following the visit of the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, to India from October 1875 to May 1876.

o Under this, “any play, pantomime or other drama performed or about to be performed in a public place” could be banned if the government was of the “opinion” that the play was “of a scandalous or defamatory nature”, was “likely to excite feelings of disaffection to the Government established by law”, or “to deprave and corrupt persons present at the performance”.

o Other laws enacted during this period were the draconian Vernacular Press Act, 1878, and the sedition law of 1870.