J&K administration bans Arundhati Roy’s book, 24 other titles for ‘inciting secessionism’

The Jammu and Kashmir Home Department on Tuesday ordered a ban on 25 books, including works by author and activist Arundhati Roy and former Supreme Court lawyer and constitutional expert AG Noorani.

The department, headed by Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, claimed that the books were “forfeited” for allegedly promoting false narratives and inciting secessionism.

Among the titles that have been banned are Roy’s Azadi and Noorani’s The Kashmir Dispute 1947–2012.

Political scientist and academic Sumantra Bose’s Kashmir at the Crossroads and journalist Anuradha Bhasin’s A Dismantled State are also part of the list, in addition to Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora by Essar Batool and others, Freedom Captivity by Radhika Gupta and Between Democracy and Nation by Seema Kazi.

The international books that were banned include Kashmiri-American author Hafsa Kanjwal’s Colonizing Kashmir: State-building Under Indian occupation, Haley Duschinski’s Resisting Occupation in Kashmir, Victoria Schofield’s Kashmir in Conflict and Christopher Snedden’s Independent Kashmir.

The action was taken under the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita section that authorises the police to seize copies of the books.

The home department claimed in its order that “credible intelligence 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”.

It further claimed that such literature is “often disguised as historical or political commentary”, but has played...

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