Books have been in the news in India recently, for no fault of theirs. First came the attack by the Sambhaji Brigade on the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute of Pune in January 2004, ostensibly over the 'denigration' of Shivaji by a historian who was only setting out the different ways in which people have looked at that historical hero. Naturally, those whom he had thanked for having helped him were bad people who therefore became targets. Then rewards were announced, in Mumbai and in Kolkata, for blackening respectively, the faces of the writers Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen. Hordes of avid bibliophiles everywhere, incensed beyond endurance by bad books…
Finally came the World Book Fair which opened in New Delhi on 14 February 2004, organised as usual by the National Book Trust (NBT). It began, according to the report published in The Hindu the next day, "amid [the] chanting of Vedic mantras [and the] rendition of Saraswati Vandana". This is, as we know, how public events commence all over the globe, so the use of the word 'World' in relation to this book fair was entirely justified.
It was only to be expected that the speakers at all the major functions in the book fair should be associated with the Sangh Parivar, which, through the BJP-led coalition at the Centre, controls the National Book Trust. This year, though, there was a change in the usual arrangements: individual publishers who wished to hold book release functions or 'meet the author' events were required to obtain the prior permission of the fair's organisers. The Chairman of the NBT, BK Sharma, said that this was not aimed at censorship but represented sound management and was meant to prevent possible disorder. It was only 'unavoidable circumstances' which kept the organisers from allotting space for the release of Taslima Nasreen´s most-recent book Dwikhandito, at which the writer herself was to have been present. None but the organisers of such a large event can understand the immense problems involved, the great responsibility that weighs on their shoulders.
A book represents, in now unfashionable terms, 'superstructure' or 'ideology'. It may contain the truth as those who follow "religions of the book" believe their particular books to represent, or it may contain lies. With obvious exceptions, the reader is free to evaluate a book. What is important is that in every modern society, books are a symbol of the freedom of expression that is guaranteed to every member of such a society. In the Indian Constitution, this freedom is set out in Article 19 (1) (a); although specific exceptions are listed which keep it from being absolute.