India’s sinister attempt to censor Oppenheimer

Anurag Thakur, India’s information and broadcasting minister, is hopping mad about a sex scene in Christopher Nolan’s new blockbuster film Oppenheimer. The offending segment shows Cillian Murphy, who plays the American physicist Robert Oppenheimer, reciting a famous line from the sacred Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita while making love. ‘I am become death, destroyer of worlds,’ he declares, the same words he reportedly used after the first atomic bomb was detonated in 1945.

The angry minister, turned film critic, wants the scene cut from the movie because he deems it disrespectful to Hindus and their faith. The Gita is revered among Hindus and its teachings are passed down through the generations, largely through word of mouth.

Thakur is far from alone in his censorship demands. Hashtags such as #BoycottOppenheimer and #RespectHinduCulture quickly began trending on social media.