Taking a leaf out of Caligula's book

Burning pages in the age of the Information Superhighway is an exercise in futility, argues Santhosh Mathew

- Santhosh Mathew

In an age when the world's knowledge is a click away, banning books is like trying to dam a river with your bare hands - futile, messy, and bound to fail. And yet, on August 5, as the Chinar Book Festival in Srinagar - backed by the Union Culture Ministry - was meant to celebrate the written word, the Jammu and Kashmir administration under Lieutenant-Governor Manoj Sinha decided to pull 25 titles from shelves.

These works, by noted authors like A.G. Noorani, Sumantra Bose, Arundhati Roy, and Victoria Schofield, were declared dangerous under Section 98 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, accused of "promoting false narratives" and "secessionism." The order warned of prison terms ranging from three years to life for possessing or distributing the books. Among the banned were Noorani's The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012 and Roy's Azadi, with the home department claiming they "distort history, glorify terrorists, vilify security forces, and foster grievance, victimhood, and terrorist heroism."

Police fanned out to Srinagar's bookstores, though so far, there are no confirmed reports of seizures. What is striking is that most of these titles have been in circulation for years - published by respected houses like Penguin and Routledge. Their presence was neither new nor secret. Which makes one wonder: why now?

The timing is suspicious. August 5 marked the sixth anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370. Since 2019, Jammu and Kashmir has been governed as a Union territory, with the L-G's powers enhanced under the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019. Amendments to the Transaction of Business Rules in July 2024 gave Manoj Sinha sweeping authority over police, public order, the Anti-Corruption Bureau, and prosecution sanctions - powers that bypass Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, even though his National Conference won the November 2024 elections. Abdullah, who has opposed the ban, points out that he has never banned a book and never will.