Laurie Taylor explores two different accounts of power and liberty.
FINGERPRINTING
In his book Imprint of the Raj, DrÌý examines fingerprinting, a fundamental of British life which was originally imported, fully formed from British India in the late 19th century.
Fingerprinting is a classic tool of the criminal justice system, past, present and future.Ìý But such a close association between fingerprinting and crime was far from inevitable indeed this personal identification technique was originally developed in India as an administrative tool.
Laurie hears from Chandak Sengoopta about what got lost in the translation.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Laurie Taylor puts the first freedom, freedom of speech to the test when he meets two lifelong students of this much analysed ‘right’, Professor Robert Hargreaves, Veteran journalist, broadcaster and author of The First Freedom : A History of Free Speech and Professor Brian Winston, Dean of Media and Humanities at , journalist, documentary film-maker and writer.
They’ll be discussing the whys and wherefores of something perennially valued more by those who don’t have it than by those who do.
Additional Information:
Imprint of the Raj: How Fingerprinting was born in Colonial India
by Chandak Sengoopta
MacMillan ISBN 0 333 98916 3
The First Freedom: A History of Free Speech
by Robert Hargreaves
Sutton Publishing ISBN 0750929235
Â鶹Éç Radio 4 Today Programme Saturday 5th April
Home Secretary, David Blunkett, reflects on a week in America and his decision to have Abu Hamza removed from Britain
Quotation from 19th Century MP Charles Bradlaugh:
"Without free speech no search for truth is possible... no discovery of truth is useful... Better a thousand fold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race."
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