When Nehru Silenced Majrooh Sultanpuri: Kamra’s Row Brings Back 1950s Censorship

Kunal Kamra’s ongoing clash with authorities has brought a historical censorship case back into focus on March 26, 2025, reminding India of the time when the Nehru government cracked down on free speech. In 1951, celebrated poet Majrooh Sultanpuri was imprisoned for two years after reciting a poem that likened Nehru to a dictator, a move that stifled dissent and set a precedent for silencing critics—a debate that Kamra’s recent controversies have now revived.
However, this is not the first case when an artist has had to face trouble for political satire. This has been going on for decades. Something similar happened between the Nehru government and Majrooh Sultanpuri.

Majrooh Sultanpuri vs Nehru Government
Majrooh Sultanpuri was a poet of lovers. When he wrote on love, those songs became Geeta and Quran for lovers. When he questioned the government through his songs, he landed behind the bars of the prison. But it was Majrooh who never bowed down before the government. Majrooh stood firm even in front of the cell in which even the best criminals sweat. If he wanted, he could have apologized and got out of the case but he considered it against his dignity and spent two years behind the bars.

From Sultanpuri to Kamra
Majrooh Sultanpuri was a communist by ideology. Marx and Lenin had a great influence on him. He read and wrote a lot on socialism. There was always a revolutionary inside poet Majrooh Sultanpuri who was seen standing with the workers and the exploited from time to time. One day after independence, Majrooh Sultanpuri sang a song in a meeting of workers. In this song, he even called the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru a slave of the Commonwealth and a disciple of Hitler. The song was-

"With the dollar's poison settling in my mind,

India's non-violence roams around,

Wearing a Khadi skin,

These skins should not wave,

He is also Hitler's disciple,

Kill me, my friend, don't let me go,

Nehru is a slave of the Commonwealth,

Kill me, my friend, don't let him go."

Sultanpuri did not bow before the government
This song of Majrooh Sultanpuri offended the rulers. Nehru government took action and arrested Majrooh Sultanpuri and sent him to jail. Majrooh Sultanpuri was given a condition to be released from jail if he apologized. But he did not agree and remained in jail for the next two years. When the rulers were not at peace even after putting him in jail, they banned this song of Majrooh Sultanpuri.