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The Hindu
2 hours ago
- Politics
- The Hindu
The Hindu On Books newsletter: Book bans in Kashmir, talking to Isabel Allende, forgotten voices from Punjab and more
Welcome to this edition of The Hindu on Books Newsletter. Last week, the Jammu & Kashmir Home Department banned 25 books, including works by prominent writers like A.G. Noorani, Sumantra Bose, Arundhati Roy and Ayesha Jalal, for 'propagating false narrative and secessionism'. In an order, the Home Department said the identified 25 books had been found 'to excite secessionism and endangering [the] sovereignty and integrity of India.' The books declared as 'forfeited' include Independent Kashmir by Christopher Snedden; The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012 by A.G. Noorani; Azadi by Arundhati Roy; Confronting Terrorism by Stephen P. Cohen among others. Two books by Islamic scholars, Imam Hasan Al-Bana and Moulana Moudadi, are also on the list. The J&K Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, distanced himself from the move, saying he had never banned books and never would. 'The ban has been imposed by the L-G using the only department he officially controls – the Home Department,' Mr. Abdullah said, as opposition to the move grows across the country. In reviews, we read Harleen Singh's The Lost Heer, Ravikant Kisana's Meet the Savarnas, an excerpt from a new book on Hiroshima, 80 years on, and we talk to Isabel Allende about her new novel. Books of the week In Harleen Singh's epic re-telling, The Lost Heer: Women in Colonial Punjab (Penguin/Viking), there are a myriad echoes of a storied past that situates the Punjab within the larger frame of the subcontinent's history, writes Geeta Doctor. An archivist historian born in Delhi but living now in Toronto, Canada, Singh finds his focus in the lives of women in colonial Punjab. These are the women, mothers of famous sons who ruled and fought over royal fortresses and strongholds that defined the Punjab; their wives, consorts, courtesans and the daughters, who survived what Singh depicts as a stridently patriarchal society; and their hangers-on who made such lives possible. There are many references to the widows emerging from behind their veils sword in hand to exhort their subjects to resist the invader. There are also equally fascinating portrayals, writes Doctor, of the English women who arrived there either as the wives of missionaries, or of the 'memsahibs' married to 'the newly installed 'administrocacy', if one may coin a word, who arrived often from Bengal, the seat of power.' Ravikant Kisana, an academic specialising in cultural studies, uses Marilyn Loden's concept of 'glass ceiling' to describe savarna supremacy in Meet the Savarnas (Ebury Press). Loden, writes G. Sampath in his review, used it to explain how patriarchy and sexism hold women back. Kisana writes: 'Think of south Asia — India especially — as full of people sitting in a cramped and dirty basement… looking up at what is a glass ceiling for them but is, in fact, a floor above which lives a very small group of people.' The group above are the savarnas, who 'have access to all the switches in all the rooms of the house, including the basement. They switch on the lights and switch them off at will.' A glass floor that's also a glass ceiling is a powerful image, points out Sampath. 'It encapsulates the invisible barriers that kick in to prevent someone from rising above their caste-mandated station while also protecting those above from falling lower, thereby cementing the segregation of the basement dwellers from those above ground. The vantage point of caste discourse in India is typically above the glass floor, looking down.' 'Kisana, in a startling inversion, points the lens of anthropological scrutiny upwards, from below the glass floor. What emerges is a searing social commentary that unpeels, with wit and precision, layers of congenital hypocrisy, narcissistic entitlement and delusions of grandeur that have propped up a hereditary elite's fantasies about themselves,' says Sampath. When Isabel Angélica Allende Llona was around nine years old, she travelled with her grandfather to the Argentinian Patagonia, where he had sheep. 'We went by train from Santiago as far to the south as the train would go, continued by car, crossed the Andes on horseback, and on the other side, we were picked up by rangers,' she writes via email to Anushree Nande as they discuss her works, and particularly her new novel My Name is Emilia del Valle (translated by Frances Riddle, published by Bloomsbury). 'That journey is engraved in my memory. That's Chile for me, the country I long for,' says Allende. This deep longing and loss is present in every single book Allende, now 83, has written, including her bestselling debut The House of the Spirits (1982). From the moment she flew to Venezuela where she would remain for 13 years, Chile stopped being hers in the way it had till then, and everything changed forever, says Nande. 'Over the years, Allende would keep interrogating the themes of displacement and identity, of memory and family, as well as the potent links between the personal and the historical, through her stories.' Her new novel is set between San Francisco and Chile. Spotlight At 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, the Japanese port city of Hiroshima was struck by the world's first atomic bomb that had been built in the U.S. by the top-secret Manhattan Project. Dropped by a B-29 Superfortress, a long-range bomber, the weapon destroyed large parts of the city, and killed tens of thousands. Iain MacGregor's The Hiroshima Men (Constable/Hachette India) traces the path to the attack and its aftermath through the experiences of several key characters, including General Leslie Groves, leader of the Manhattan Project alongside Robert Oppenheimer; pioneering Army Air Force bomber pilot Colonel Paul Tibbets II; the mayor of Hiroshima, Senkichi Awaya, who died in the attack; and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist John Hersey, who exposed the devastation the bomb inflicted on a city and its people. Read an excerpt. Browser
The Print
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
Their books now banned in Kashmir, these authors will still write for ‘generation with no access to truth'
The J&K home department through a notification dated 5 August, 2025, imposed a blanket ban on 25 books written about Kashmir. This included author and activist Arundhati Roy's Azadi (2020), journalist Anuradha Bhasin's A Dismantled State (2022), constitutional expert late A.G. Noorani's The Kashmir Dispute (2013), and Australian political scientist Christopher Snedden's Independent Kashmir (2021), among others. Now, 'life has come full circle' for Kanjwal. The very censorship she wrote about has returned to haunt her. Her book is among 25 titles banned by the J&K home department at the orders of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. 'It only emboldens me to keep writing. If they're clamping down on literature, it must be saying something significant,' Kanjwal, an assistant professor of history at Lafayette College in the US, tells ThePrint over the phone. New Delhi: It was as a result of the 1953 'coup' that Sheikh Abdullah was ousted, and Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad took over as the second prime minister of Jammu and Kashmir. In her book Colonizing Kashmir: State-Building under Indian Occupation , 38-year-old Kashmiri author Hafsa Kanjwal documented how Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad's regime was marked by censorship of literature, and bans on public gatherings and political speech. The issue of the notification coincided with a book fair in Srinagar. The notification issued by the principal secretary of the home department, Chandraker Bharti said the books propagate 'secessionism'. '…it has come to the notice of the Government, that certain literature propagates false narrative and secessionism in Jammu and Kashmir… This literature would deeply impact the psyche of youth by promoting (a) culture of grievance, victimhood and terrorist heroism,' read the notification. Adding, 'Some of the means by which this literature has contributed to the radicalization of youth in J&K include distortion of historical facts, glorification of terrorists, vilification of security forces, religious radicalization, promotion of alienation, pathway to violence and terrorism etc.' Since the announcement, Jammu and Kashmir police have raided bookshops, followed by inspection of roadside book vendors and other establishments dealing in printed publications in Srinagar and across multiple locations in the Union Territory to confiscate the banned literature. Earlier this year, Srinagar district police declared it had seized '668 books' which it said 'promoted the ideology of a banned organisation'. While the police did not specify the banned organisation, National Conference MP Syed Aga Ruhullah Mehdi cited media reports to say that the police had seized literature by Abul Ala Maududi, the Islamic scholar who founded Jamaat-i-Islami. Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir, an offshoot of Jamaat-e-Islami, is banned in India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Another offshoot, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, was banned twice by the Government of India since its formation in 1948, but the Supreme Court revoked the ban on both occasions. As for the J&K home department's blanket ban on 25 books, including political commentaries and historical accounts, the move has drawn criticism not only from literati but also political and religious leaders. Kashmir's chief cleric Maulvi Omar Farooq wrote in a post on X on 7 August: 'Banning books by scholars and reputed historians will not erase historical facts and the repertoire of lived memories of people of Kashmir.' The ban, he said, 'exposes' the insecurities and limited understanding of those behind such 'authoritarian' action. Also Read: 'Abrogation of trust': 6 yrs since Article 370 repeal, civil society urges govt to restore J&K's statehood 'Blend of Orwellian and Kafkaesque' Kanjwal sees the ban as part of a broader, ongoing effort, which she says became particularly stark after 2019, to 'suppress information and silence narratives' that challenge the official discourse. According to her, the earlier crackdown on Jamaat-e-Islami literature didn't attract as much international attention, but inclusion of West-based Indian and Kashmiri authors this time around may have prompted wider outrage. Her own book, published by Stanford University Press and a recipient of the Bernard Cohn Book Prize awarded by the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), underwent rigorous academic review, she says. 'Nothing that was written in my book or the other books that have been banned was factually incorrect or exaggerated.' Days after the ban, Kanjwal like several other authors whose books have been banned, is still contemplating the possible reasons behind the ban. She says it is clear that the aim was to 'suppress information about Kashmir,' but she believes the move has backfired, drawing more attention to the very works it aimed to 'suppress'. Works by Kashmiri authors often offer alternative narratives, she points out, adding that the ban on mostly scholarly texts today could extend to poetry and fiction tomorrow. Currently, Kanjwal is working on a people's history of Kashmir aimed at younger readers, driven by the urgency to preserve and share Kashmiri narratives in a 'climate of erasure'. She says growing censorship affirms the importance of writing about Kashmir, 'especially for a generation growing up without access to political discourse or historical truth.' The banned literature also includes works by noted scholars and writers such as Seema Kazi's Between Democracy & Nation (2009), Ather Zia's Resisting Disappearance (2019), and Essar Batool's Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora (2016), all of which foreground Kashmiri lived experiences, especially of women. Also banned are Al Jihad fil Islam by late Abul Ala Maududi and Mujahid ki Azan by Egyptian cleric late Hassan al-Banna, as well as scholarly works on international politics and law by Piotr Balcerowicz and Sumantra Bose. The banned titles include those published by both Indian and foreign publishers, from academic presses like Stanford University Press and Cambridge University Press to Penguin, HarperCollins, Routledge, and Zubaan. Veteran journalist and author Anuradha Bhasin, whose book A Dismantled State is among those banned, calls the move 'absolutely bizarre,' though not surprising. 'It is part of a pattern,' she tells ThePrint over the phone, pointing to a growing intolerance for independent thought, historical nuance, and rational voices, particularly on Kashmir. Bhasin argues that the banned works, many published by reputable academic houses, are rigorously vetted and based on deep research. 'These are books that bring out the truth … nuanced, well-researched, and grounded in reality,' she says, rejecting the J&K home department's claim that such literature glorifies terrorism or spreads false narratives. Speaking of her own book, Bhasin says it was a product of over a year of journalistic reporting, interviews, and legal vetting. She sees the ban not only as an 'attack' on literature but as part of a broader ecosystem of erasure, 'from manipulated school textbooks to a complete silencing of media, civil society, and now, scholarship.' 'You're going to produce a generation of youngsters who will have no knowledge, who will be reduced to non-thinking persons,' she says. For Bhasin, the ban is particularly disheartening because the targeted books are foundational for academic engagement with Kashmir. 'These are the books that professors recommend. Now, what are university students going to read?' Political scientist Sumantra Bose, author of Kashmir at the Crossroads, tells ThePrint his goal was to identify 'pathways to peace' and a future free of 'fear and war' in Jammu and Kashmir. Dismissing defamatory slurs on his work, Bose calls the ban a 'tragi-comic farce,' citing the police seizing books even at a state-sponsored festival. 'This is a surreal dystopia … a real-life blend of the Orwellian and the Kafkaesque,' he says, adding that such bans are crude, futile in the digital age, and only draw global attention. Calling it 'criminalisation of scholars,' Bose notes both his banned books stem from years of field research in conflict zones. Drawing a parallel, he recalls how the British banned his granduncle Subhas Chandra Bose's book The Indian Struggle in 1935. 'Ninety years later, I follow in the footsteps of a legendary freedom fighter,' he says. Ather Zia, anthropologist and author of Resisting Disappearance and co-editor of Resisting Occupation, another book that has been banned, says the move is not merely about silencing authors but about 'criminalising history, memory, lived realities, and truth-telling.' She, too, calls it part of a broader effort to suppress Kashmiri narratives that challenge the official discourse, particularly those grounded in Critical Kashmir Studies, a well-established academic sub-discipline shaped by Kashmiri scholars over the last two decades. Alongside her own works, she cites Colonizing Kashmir by Hafsa Kanjwal as among the globally taught, peer-reviewed books being targeted. Despite the crackdown, Zia says Kashmiris 'will continue to write, remember, and resist.' ThePrint also reached Christopher Snedden and Essar Batool for a response but both declined to comment. 'An exercise in not forgetting' The ban by the administration has cast a chilling shadow over the region's growing literary landscape, especially for young, emerging authors. Bhasin tells ThePrint that soon after the ban was announced, a young writer reached out to her, unsure of how to proceed in the current climate. Bhasin encouraged them to keep writing, but with caution. 'My advice would be to continue working, but to do it silently and wait for the opportune moment to write,' she says. In the years following the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, as space for independent journalism in Jammu and Kashmir rapidly shrank under state pressure, many Kashmiris turned to literature as a safer medium of expression. Fiction, memoir, poetry, and personal narrative became tools to explore grief, memory, and resistance. Writers like Mehak Jamal, Sadaf Wani, Zahid Rafiq, Farah Bashir, and Javed Arshi emerged as part of a new wave of Kashmiri voices that began gaining prominence in the post-abrogation period. Their works did not always take overt political positions, but subtly mapped the psychological, social, and cultural consequences of conflict. Jamal, whose book Loal Kashmir: Love and Longing in a Torn Land became available to readers in January this year, tells ThePrint that there has been a slow clampdown on legacy media and other important voices in Kashmir over the past few years. 'That this censorship is getting extended to books from/on the region is shocking but not surprising,' she says, adding that most of the works getting banned are non-fiction academic, historic, journalistic books on the political situation in Kashmir. 'When there is an erasure of such important documentation, it becomes even more imperative for more Kashmiris to tell their stories through various means of literature, media and other forms of storytelling—however small or big. This in itself becomes an exercise in not forgetting,' she says, adding that the decision has left her disheartened. But at the same time, Jamal does not want to stop writing. 'I wouldn't shy away from writing another book when the time comes, or from telling our stories in any way I can. I will always want to speak truth to power.' Kashmiri award-winning author Mirza Waheed says the authors on the list include some of the world's finest historians and thinkers who have written on Kashmir. Bans on books are the worst kind of censorship as they 'attack' knowledge and its transmission from one mind to another, he tells ThePrint. 'A political culture that permits such a thing cannot survive for long,' he says, 'because books, thoughts and words are like spring water, they always find a way to flow on.' (Edited by Amrtansh Arora) Also Read: Restoring J&K's statehood won't be enough. Kashmiris need to be treated like other Indians
The Print
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Print
J-K govt bans 25 books for propagating ‘false narrative and secessionism'
It said available evidence based on investigations and credible intelligence 'unflinchingly indicate' that a significant driver behind youth participation in violence and terrorism has been the 'systematic dissemination of false narratives and secessionist literature by its persistent internal circulation, often disguised as historical or political commentary'. 'It has come to the notice of the Government, that certain literature propagates false narrative and secessionism in the Jammu and Kashmir,' an order issued by the Home Department said. Srinagar, Aug 6 (PTI) The Jammu and Kashmir government Wednesday declared the publication of 25 books, including those written by famous authors like Moulana Moudadi, Arundhati Roy, A G Noorani, Victoria Schofield and David Devadas, as forfeited for 'promoting false narratives and glorifying terrorism'. It plays a critical role in 'misguiding the youth, glorifying terrorism and inciting violence' against India, the order said. It said this literature would deeply impact the psyche of youth by 'promoting culture of grievance, victim hood and terrorist heroism'. 'Some of the means by which this literature has contributed to the radicalization of youth in J&K include distortion of historical facts, glorification of terrorists, vilification of security forces, religious radicalization, promotion of alienation, pathway to violence and terrorism etc,' it added. In this context, 25 books have been identified that propagate 'false narrative and secessionism' in J&K and need to be declared as 'forfeited' in terms of Section 98 of Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023, the order said. The identified 25 books have been found to 'excite secessionism and endangering sovereignty and integrity of India', thereby, attracting the provisions of sections 152, 196 and 197 of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, it said. 'Therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 98 of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, the government of Jammu and Kashmir hereby declares publication of 25 books and their copies or other documents to be forfeited to the Government,' the order said. The books include 'Al Jihadul fil Islam' by Islamic scholar and founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, Moulana Moudadi, 'Independent Kashmir' by Australian author Christopher Snedden, 'In Search of a Future (The Story of Kasimir)' by David Devadas, 'Kashmir in Conflict (India, Pakistan and the unending War)' by Victoria Schofield, 'The Kashmir Dispute (1947-2012)' by A G Noorani, and 'Azadi' by Arundhati Roy. PTI SSB KVK KVK This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
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Business Standard
5 days ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
J-K govt bans 25 books for propagating false narrative, secessionism
The Jammu and Kashmir government Wednesday declared the publication of 25 books, including those written by famous authors like Moulana Moudadi, Arundhati Roy, A G Noorani, Victoria Schofield and David Devadas, as forfeited for "promoting false narratives and glorifying terrorism". "It has come to the notice of the Government, that certain literature propagates false narrative and secessionism in the Jammu and Kashmir," an order issued by the Home Department said. It said available evidence based on investigations and credible intelligence "unflinchingly indicate" that a significant driver behind youth participation in violence and terrorism has been the "systematic dissemination of false narratives and secessionist literature by its persistent internal circulation, often disguised as historical or political commentary". It plays a critical role in "misguiding the youth, glorifying terrorism and inciting violence" against India, the order said. It said this literature would deeply impact the psyche of youth by "promoting culture of grievance, victim hood and terrorist heroism". "Some of the means by which this literature has contributed to the radicalization of youth in J&K include distortion of historical facts, glorification of terrorists, vilification of security forces, religious radicalization, promotion of alienation, pathway to violence and terrorism etc," it added. In this context, 25 books have been identified that propagate "false narrative and secessionism" in J&K and need to be declared as "forfeited" in terms of Section 98 of Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023, the order said. The identified 25 books have been found to "excite secessionism and endangering sovereignty and integrity of India", thereby, attracting the provisions of sections 152, 196 and 197 of Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, it said. "Therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by section 98 of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, the government of Jammu and Kashmir hereby declares publication of 25 books and their copies or other documents to be forfeited to the Government," the order said. The books include 'Al Jihadul fil Islam' by Islamic scholar and founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, Moulana Moudadi, 'Independent Kashmir' by Australian author Christopher Snedden, 'In Search of a Future (The Story of Kasimir)' by David Devadas, 'Kashmir in Conflict (India, Pakistan and the unending War)' by Victoria Schofield, 'The Kashmir Dispute (1947-2012)' by A G Noorani, and 'Azadi' by Arundhati Roy.
Time of India
6 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
J&K bans circulation of 25 'secessionist', 'radical' books
SRINAGAR: Booker winner Arundhati Roy's Azadi is among 25 books banned from circulation in J&K by the home department, citing "systematic dissemination of false narratives and secessionist literature" endangering India's sovereignty and integrity. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The order declaring these books as "forfeited" – implying all copies owned by individuals and organisations in Kashmir cease to be their property – was issued Tuesday under Section 98 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. The provision empowers the administration to declare certain publications "forfeited" and issue search warrants for those. The home department reports to lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha. The list of books that can't be owned, sold and circulated within J&K includes Kashmir:The Case for Freedom by Tariq Ali, Pankaj Mishra and others, Christopher Snedden's Independent Kashmir, and Imam Hassan al-Banna's Mujajid Ki Azan. Banna was the Egyptian founder of Muslim Brotherhood. "Available evidence based on investigations and credible intelligence unflinchingly indicate that a significant driver behind youth participation in violence and terrorism has been persistent internal circulation of narratives, often disguised as historical or political commentary, while playing a critical role in misguiding the youth, glorifying terrorism and inciting violence against the Indian State," the notification states. According to the home department, dissemination of such literature could "deeply impact the psyche of youth" by promoting "a culture of grievance, victimhood and terrorist heroism". "Some of the means by which this literature has contributed to the radicalisation of youth in J&K include distortion of historical facts, glorification of terrorists, vilification of security forces, religious radicalisation, promotion of alienation, and pathways to violence and terrorism," it says. Copies of the notification, signed by the principal secretary to the govt, have been sent to the DGP and all additional chief secretaries.
