We have highly educated people in jail—either for writing an article or for making a Facebook post that contained nothing more than historical facts and political realities. Seeing them behind bars made me feel deeply disturbed and even cost me sleepless nights. Some of them spent years under trial simply for expressing themselves through writing. Then my mind said: “Look at the ones who are ruling us.” The picture became clear, and I no longer lost sleep over it.
Six years have passed since Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its special status and downgraded to a Union Territory. It is claimed that since the abrogation, everything has become much better. But is everything really better? That is a subject for another article. The more urgent question here is: why ban books when the “separatist” ideology supposedly has no takers in Kashmir anymore? If no one believes in that ideology, the books would simply gather dust.
Instead, banning them has sent a troubling message. Why were the books deemed dangerous if the ideas they contain are supposedly irrelevant? The move has shattered the government’s own claims of normalcy. Saying “all is well” while banning books simply does not add up. This action has conveyed to people that these books contain something the authorities do not want the public to see. Words and actions clearly do not match.
Among the 25 books declared “forfeited” is A.G. Noorani’s The Kashmir Dispute: 1947–2012. Noorani was not just a writer—he was a distinguished lawyer and one of India’s finest legal minds, fully aware of the meaning of “secessionism,” which the government cited as a reason for the ban. The order also claimed the books promote a “culture of grievance and victimhood.” But what is grievance if not reality? And what is victimhood if not the lived experience of many?
The government celebrates the Supreme Court verdict upholding the abrogation of Article 370, but conveniently ignores the words of Justice Sanjay Kaul, himself a Kashmiri Pandit. In his judgment, he wrote: “The valley of Kashmir carries the historical burden and we, the people of Jammu and Kashmir, are the heart of the debate.” He further observed: “Armies are meant to fight battles against enemies, not to control law and order in the state. The entry of the army created its own ground realities in the state… men, women, and children have paid a heavy price.”
If you doubt my words, the full judgment on Article 370 is available online. Justice Kaul even recommended the creation of a Reconciliation Committee to address concerns from both sides. Sadly, that recommendation has been forgotten—just as fundamental rights have been sidelined.
Kashmir is not the only place where books have been banned. During India’s freedom struggle, the British banned Mahatma Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule in 1909. Another book, Hindu Heaven by Max Wylie, was banned in 1934 for questioning the work of American missionaries in India. A long list of banned books is available on Wikipedia, both in India and across the world. The reason is always the same: dissent is not acceptable to those in power.
Governments have always tried to ensure that only their version of events circulates, silencing all others. But that is not how democracy works. Over the past 10 years, we have seen how democracy itself has come under attack. The ruling party seems to admire China’s one-party system more than its economic model.
History tells us that when a powerful person is losing, their last refuge is raw power. When facts no longer serve them, they resort to coercion. This is what we are seeing in Kashmir today. The government’s facts are no longer enough, so it has fallen back on censorship and force.
The book ban in Kashmir may or may not serve its intended purpose, but one thing is clear: things are not what they are claimed to be. What Jammu and Kashmir needs most is reconciliation—more than rehabilitation or relief.
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*Law student and human rights activist
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