The legal definition of genocide is unspecific about the precise way in which genocide is committed, only stating that it is ‘destruction with the intent to destroy a racial, religious, ethnic or national group’. The Genocide Convention of 1948 states, ‘at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity’. A great loss, and at what cost? What we lose to the genocide of ideas is probably as great a loss for humanity as lives; as there is a loss of culture, loss of thoughts, loss of individual opinions, loss of individuality. This form of ‘cleansing’ happens everywhere, in every form, from households to schools to workplaces, where we are thought to think in a certain way, act a certain way, moulded to be one in the crowd, and pulled down when our ideas are not the same as the socially accepted ones. The destruction of ideas kills dreams and destroys visions. Genocide of ideas in its literal sense is the destruction of a person’s identity while keeping the shell of the person. How many times has it happened to each of us that we thought of something out of the box but it was torn down? What if that happened to every other theory that was proposed and ridiculed so it never saw the light of day, every other suggested invention whose blueprint was never made because it was too fictional? The Harry Potter franchise, which was dismissed as silly by numerous editors today is a global brand worth an estimated US$15 billion, and the last four Harry Potter books have consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history! The series, totalling 4,195 pages, has been translated, in whole or in part, into 65 languages. What if the author had let her ideas get killed? The wizarding world would never have existed for so many of us. Freedom of speech is the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds including those that may be deeply offensive, by any means. There is a thin line between free speech and defamation. Defamation is the communication of a false statement that harms the reputation of another. When in written form it is often called 'libel'. Defamation has always acted as a limit on both the freedom of speech as well as the freedom of the press. Dozens claim that the defamation law unfairly imposes "unreasonable" restrictions on free speech. The Indian Supreme Court, however, has upheld the constitutional validity of criminal defamation, stating that the right to free speech cannot mean that one citizen can defame the other. Genocide of ideas and free speech join roads in more ways than you might think. From the slaughter of individuality and uniqueness of a person on account of dogma demanding it, as it won’t be accepted by the society; to the taboo around various words, topics, concepts that force people in their shells and kill their ability to think differently; to think for themselves on the basis of what they believe rather than based on what other people think. The control and supervision are killing visions! We aren’t just losing the right to speak our mind but the ability to think on our own.