Authorities in the troubled Muslim-majority region of India have since banned 25 books from booksellers in the region, saying that works like those by Booker Prize-winning author Arundhati Roy propagate “false narratives” and “secessionism.”
Police said they conducted additional searches of roadside book vendors and other businesses in the main city of Srinagar and other locations in the area to seize the prohibited literature in accordance with the order. Officials didn’t, however, specify whether they had seized any of the above.
In a social media statement, police said that the operation targeted materials that promoted secessionist ideologies or glorified terrorism. To advance peace and integrity, “public cooperation is sought.”
The government launched the raids after the authors were accused of spreading “false narratives” about Kashmir, “while also playing a crucial role in misdirecting the youth” against the Indian state.
Following a similar directive in February, authorities on Thursday also seize Islamic literature from bookshops and homes.
Since 1947, when India and Pakistan have dissolved their country, Kashmir has been divided. Both parties fully claim the Himalayan region.
Since 1989, rebel groups have fought for Kashmir’s independence or its fusion with Pakistan.
Indian authorities have increasingly criminalized dissent and shown no tolerance for any claims that raise questions of Kashmir’s sovereignty.
The Home Department of the region issued the order banning the books on Tuesday, marking the six-year anniversary of New Delhi’s introduction of direct rule, but it took some time to get the ban across.
The ban places sanctions on people who, among other things, sell or own works by constitutional expert AG Noorani and renowned academics and historians like Sumantra Bose, Christopher Snedden, and Victoria Schofield.
The 25 books were effectively prohibited from circulation, possession, and access within the Himalayan region because of the order’s new criminal code of 2023, which declares the 25 books “forfeit.”
According to the Press Trust of India news agency, Bose, a political scientist and author whose book Kashmir at the Crossroads was one of the banned works, “any and all defamatory slurs” were being rejected on his work.
Since 1993, I have worked on Kashmir, among other subjects, including many. My top priority has always been to find peaceful ways for the people of the conflict region, India as a whole, and the subcontinent to enjoy a stable future free of fear and war.
He declared, “I am a committed and principled advocate of peaceful solutions and armed conflict resolutions, whether in Kashmir or elsewhere in the world.”
The ban also included Roy’s 2020 book of essays Azadi: Freedom, Fascism, Fiction.
Although Roy, 63, is one of India’s most well-known living authors, is notorious for her writing and activism, including her incisive criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration.
Siddiq Wahid, a historian, claimed that the edict, which “allows the freedoms of speech and expression,” is in violation of the constitution.
Many of the books listed on the list of prohibited books are those that are written and published by individuals and organizations whose reputations depend on the availability of proof, logic, and arguments for the conclusions they draw, Wahid told the AFP news agency. Does anything still be taken into account for that?
In its first election since New Delhi’s direct control of the region’s assembly, voters in India-administered Kashmir elected a new government in September and October.
However, the territory is still governed by a New Delhi-appointed administrator despite having a limited amount of authority within the local government.
The ban, according to chief cleric and separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, “only exposes the insecurities and limited understanding of those behind such authoritarian actions.”
On the social media platform X, Farooq stated that “bannning books by scholars and reputed historians will not erase historical facts and the collection of lived memories of Kashmiris.”
Historical facts and the collection of Kashmiri people’s lived memories will not be erased by the ban on books written by scholars and reputed historians. It only exposes the contradiction in proudly…
Source: Aljazeera
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