The Futility of Banning Books

ON August 5, as the Chinar Book Festival backed by the central culture ministry unfolded in Srinagar, the Jammu and Kashmir administration under Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha banned 25 books, branding them as promoters of "false narratives" and "secessionism".

- CP SURENDRAN

Works by A G Noorani, Sumantra Bose, Arundhati Roy, and Victoria Schofield—texts on Kashmir's history and human rights—were targeted under Section 98 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, with penalties for possession or distribution ranging from three years to life. How ingenious is it for a government to run a grand festival and simultaneously cancel books?

The J&K home department justified the ban as a necessary purge of "secessionist literature". The order claims these books—such as Noorani's The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012 and Roy's Azadi—radicalise youth by "distorting historical facts, glorifying terrorists, vilifying security forces, and fostering grievance, victimhood, and terrorist heroism". Police raids on Srinagar bookstores followed, although no confirmed seizures have been reported.

The books, many of which were published years ago by the likes of Penguin and Routledge, raise a question: why now, when their presence has long been acknowledged?

Since 2019, the central government has funded literary festivals in Kashmir. These events profess to celebrate ideas, yet the ban and measures like this set back the progress that the Indian State claims it is making in Kashmir.