PUCL condemns J&K government’s ban on 25 books, calls it arbitrary and unconstitutional

By A Representative 

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has strongly condemned the Jammu and Kashmir government’s decision to forfeit 25 books on the region, describing the move as an “arbitrary and brute exercise of power” that undermines constitutional guarantees of free speech and expression.

In a statement issued on August 12, PUCL said the books—covering history, politics, personal narratives, and cultural memory—were banned under Section 98 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) on the sweeping claim that they “misguide the youth, glorify terrorism and incite violence against the Indian State.”

PUCL argued that the order, which fails to provide specific evidence against individual titles, “demonstrates the government’s utter contempt for the constitutional right of citizens to freedom of speech and expression” and reflects “a form of totalitarian thinking which is unacceptable in a constitutional democracy.”

The banned works include titles by noted writers and scholars such as Anuradha Bhasin, Sumantra Bose, Tariq Ali, A.G. Noorani, Arundhati Roy, Ather Zia, Hafsa Kanjwal, and edited volumes by academics like Sugata Bose and Ayesha Jalal. They address topics ranging from the 1991 Kunan Poshpora mass rape, to enforced disappearances, to historical debates on Kashmir’s accession to India.

“These books represent a vibrant intellectual culture of thinking and writing about Kashmir,” the PUCL statement said. “They give voice to survivors, dissenters, and historical perspectives that may be uncomfortable to the establishment but are protected speech under the Constitution.”

The organisation stressed that the mass ban would “disappear an archive of literature on Kashmir” from public libraries, archives, and even private homes, given that the forfeiture order empowers police to seize copies across India. “This will undoubtedly be a cultural impoverishment of the public sphere,” PUCL warned.

The civil liberties body also drew parallels with British colonial laws used to suppress the freedom movement, noting that Section 98 of the BNSS is a rebranded version of Section 95 of the old Criminal Procedure Code, which was deployed to ban Mahatma Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj.

PUCL further criticised the use of Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS)—a provision it says is “nothing other than the old sedition law in a new decolonial disguise”—to justify the forfeitures. The new law criminalises “encouraging feelings of separatist activity,” which PUCL argues is dangerously vague and permits “the policing of thought.”

Quoting Supreme Court jurisprudence, including Shreya Singhal v. Union of India (2015), PUCL emphasised that discussion and advocacy, even of unpopular causes, are protected speech, and only incitement to imminent violence can be legitimately curtailed. The organisation said the J&K order makes no attempt to demonstrate such incitement in any of the 25 titles.

“By clamping down on these books, the attempt is to stifle the very heart of intellectual life: to seek knowledge and form opinion by gathering thought from all sources, including contrarian ones,” PUCL said. “The government is morphing into an Orwellian thought police state.”

The PUCL has demanded that the forfeiture order be immediately withdrawn and that Section 152 of the BNS be repealed. “There may be viewpoints the government disagrees with, but a constitutional democracy is based on the fact that dissenting opinions exist and should be respected,” said PUCL General Secretary Dr. V. Suresh. “This mass banning is illegal, unconstitutional, and deeply damaging to the idea of India as a vibrant democracy.”