Police raid Kashmir bookshops after India bans titles for ‘secessionism'

Al Jazeera

4 days ago

Police in Indian-administered Kashmir have raided bookshops after authorities earlier this week banned 25 books, saying works like those by Booker Prize-winning writer Arundhati Roy propagate 'false narratives' and 'secessionism' in the contested Muslim-majority region.
In compliance with the order, police officials on Thursday also searched roadside book vendors and other establishments dealing in printed publications in the main city of Srinagar and across multiple locations in the region to confiscate the banned literature, police said. However, officials didn't specify if they had seized any such material.
'The operation targeted materials promoting secessionist ideologies or glorifying terrorism,' police said in a social media statement. 'Public cooperation is solicited to uphold peace and integrity.'
The raids came after the government accused the writers of propagating 'false narratives' about Kashmir, 'while playing a critical role in misguiding the youth' against the Indian state.
Authorities on Thursday also seized Islamic literature from bookshops and homes after a similar directive in February.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan territory in full.
Rebel groups have fought since 1989 against the Indian rule of Kashmir, demanding independence or its merger with Pakistan.
Since 2019, Indian authorities have increasingly criminalised dissent and shown no tolerance for any narrative that questions India's sovereignty over Kashmir.
The order banning the books was issued by the region's Home Department on Tuesday – the six-year anniversary of New Delhi's imposition of direct rule – although the ban took time to be brought to wider attention.
The ban threatens people with prison time for selling or owning works by constitutional expert AG Noorani and noted academicians and historians like Sumantra Bose, Christopher Snedden and Victoria Schofield, among others.
The order declared the 25 books 'forfeit' under India's new criminal code of 2023, effectively banning the works from circulation, possession and access within the Himalayan region.
Bose, a political scientist and author whose book Kashmir at the Crossroads was among the banned works, rejected 'any and all defamatory slurs' on his work, the Press Trust of India news agency reported.
'I have worked on Kashmir – among many other subjects – since 1993,' Bose said. 'Throughout, my chief objective has been to identify pathways to peace so that all violence ends and a stable future free of fear and war can be enjoyed by the people of the conflict region, of India as a whole, and the subcontinent.
'I am a committed and principled advocate of peaceful approaches and resolutions to armed conflicts, be it in Kashmir or elsewhere in the world,' he said.
Roy's 2020 book of essays, Azadi: Freedom, Fascism, Fiction, was also included in the ban.
Roy, 63, is one of India's most famous living authors, but her writing and activism, including her trenchant criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, have made her a polarising figure.
Historian Siddiq Wahid said the edict contravenes the constitution, 'which allows for the freedoms of speech and expression'.
'The list of banned books numbers several that are authored and published by individuals and institutions whose reputations depend on supplying evidence, logic and argument towards the conclusions they draw,' Wahid told the AFP news agency. 'Does that count for anything anymore?'
Indian-administered Kashmir elected a new government in September and October, its first since it was brought under New Delhi's direct control, with voters backing opposition parties to lead its regional assembly.
However, the local government has limited powers, and the territory continues in practical terms to be governed by a New Delhi-appointed administrator.
Chief cleric and separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said the ban 'only exposes the insecurities and limited understanding of those behind such authoritarian actions'.
'Banning books by scholars and reputed historians will not erase historical facts and the repertoire of lived memories of people of Kashmir,' Farooq said on the social media platform X.
Banning books by scholars and reputed historians will not erase historical facts and the repertoire of lived memories of people of Kashmir. It only exposes the insecurities and limited understanding of those behind such authoritarian actions, and the contradiction in proudly…
— Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (@MirwaizKashmir) August 7, 2025