Cancel a Birmingham play and arrest democracy

The decision of one group of Sikhs to lobby for changes to a play written and performed by members of their own community in their town is one thing. Their refusal to rule out violence and consequently force its closure is quite another. This censorship of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s black comedy Behzti should not be allowed to stand.

The cheering thing about the debate that preceded the opening of Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti’s black comedy Behzti at Birmingham Rep theatre, was that it was held at all. Both sides – theatre and Sikh community – met to make their points before the show opened.Significant concessions were made by the theatre. A statement from the local Sikh community would be distributed at the venue; peaceful public protest would not be opposed; the programme would include positive messages about the Sikh faith. But throughout it was understood that the play could not be censored, let alone banned. Until the weekend’s violent events and the change to the Sikh community's agenda that followed.Under pressure from their own mob, Birmingham’s Sikhs abandoned negotiation. Refusing to guarantee that there would be no more attacks on the theatre, they stood back and let the men of violence take over. The staff of the Birmingham Rep, in the middle of a season packed with children’s shows, felt they had to pull the play on public safety grounds. “We are determined not to go down the road of censorship,” said theatre executive director Stuart Rogers, but when one stands in the foyer with 800 women and children and sees stones being thrown and police officers injured, then security and safety issues come to the fore. They have to.”For any person involved in the theatre or freedom of expression, censorship is the line that cannot be crossed. Hanif Kureishi, the author and playwright best known for the 1985 film My Beautiful Launderette, put it well when he compared the destruction of a theatre to the destruction of a temple.“Without our culture, we are nothing,” he said. “Our culture is as crucial to the liberal community as temples are to the religious community." And in this explanation as to why theatre is essential lies a message to the Sikh community of Birmingham.The theatre has been challenging belief, faith and principle for hundreds of years. From Euripides to Shakespeare to Sean O’Casey and through to Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, theatre has challenged the men that run organised religion on earth to earn the loyalty and respect of its congregations.Those who presume to speak for morality, faith, principle – for God, even – had better be sure they get their words and their lives straight.In the Sikh faith, surely one the most open, democratic and community focused of all Britain’s major faiths, that responsibility is understood. Sikhs believe religion should be practiced by living in the world and coping with life's everyday problems; they don't retreat from the world, they participate.That explains the attempt to debate. Some believed that the answer was to relocate the key action of the play from a Gurudwara, a Sikh religious centre, to an ordinary community centre. Others argue that the kind of scenes portrayed in the play, including rape and murder, would never take place in a Gurudwara anyway.But Gurudwaras – a Punjabi word meaning ‘gateway to the Guru’ - are open places. They are focal points for community support activities as well as preaching. Any experienced Sikh, man or woman, may lead prayers there. But, as a result, the proper management of this kind of open public space is left to ordinary men and women.What if those men and women are not up to the task? This is the question Gurpreet addresses.In the foreword to the play’s published programme, she praises Sikhism. But she adds: “Clearly the fallibility of human nature means that simple Sikh principles of equality, compassion and modesty are sometimes discarded in favour of outward appearance, wealth and the quest for power. I feel that distortion in practice must be confronted and our great ideals must be restored.“I believe that drama should be provocative and relevant. I wrote Behzti because I passionately oppose injustice and hypocrisy.” She has recieved threats from members of Brirmigham's Sikh community and is now in hiding.“The name of the play is important here,” said Asian media commentator Sunny Hundal. “The central premise is that there are people in the Asian community who are more afraid of dishonour - behzti - than actually confronting injustice."Ironically that is exactly what is being played out here. People are objecting to the play not because of its content (that's merely a distraction, confirmed by the new demands that the play shut down entirely under all circumstances), but because it raises issues they'd rather not discuss. Especially in front of white people, in a major venue, and at such a ‘sensitive’ time.”What is going on here is not about Birmingham theatres – though the management of the Birmingham Rep theatre deserve praise for their solid stand in defence of free expression for as long it was possible – it’s about a debate within the Sikh community itself. Says Stuart Rogers: "The play is written by a Sikh, it has an all-Asian cast. Some of the members of the cast are Sikhs.”Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti has something to say to her own community and the wider world that that community lives within. She deserves a hearing.