Dear friends:
What happened in the last couple of weeks in India, in the world
of books, sends an alarming and chilling message to the forces of
democracy in the country.
Books by Bhagat Singh, Che Guevara, Clara Zetkin, Baburam
Bhattarai, Vaskar Nandy, Li Onesto and Anand Swarup Varma are under no
official ban. There is no juridical or executive prohibition against
their publication, distribution or readership - anywhere in the
country. But the police authorities, more often than not, operate
above the law of land. This is what happened at the Chandrapur book
fair in Maharashtra. With total impunity the local police officers
assumed the power of censorship, of arbitrarily deciding selling what
book commits a "crime". Forty-one books were seized, and the
owner of the Stall was put through three days of harsh
interrogations.
All the details of what happened to the stall of Daanish Books,
and to its owner Ms. Sunita Narayan are there in the Press Statement,
made by a large number of publshing and distributing houses, appended
below.
After three days of harrowing ordeal, Sunita was allowed to go,
but not before she was charged under Section 18 of the Unlawful
Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act of 2004. This is what the
Section states:
(Note: Section 18 of the said act reads as follows:
18. Whoever conspires or attempts to commit, or advocates, abets, advises or incites or knowingly facilitates the commission of, a terrorist act or any act preparatory to the commission of a terrorist act, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than five years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to fine.)
Sunita has also been told in the written Notice: "As and when and wherever police asks you, you will
present yourself for the purpose of investigation of the crime. If you
fail to do so appropriate action will be taken against
you."
During the course of interrogations Sunita was asked, among other
things, as to why she was selling the books of Bhagat Singh when the
country had already become independent! It is indeed odd. People all
over the country have already started the year-long commemoration of
Bhagat Singh's centenary which would culminate on his 100th birthday
on September 28, 2007. Many people receiving this note may not know
that Bhagat Singh was a revolutionary, and he was hanged by the
British colonials when he was only twenty-three. One could type his
name on google, and by going to the Wikipedia free encyclop[edia would
know more about his life, his work, and his martyrdom. This is what
Bhagat Singh wrote in his prison notebook shortly before he was
hanged: "There cannot be any peace between the oppressed and
exploited and those who ride on their backs. There cannot be any
compromise between classes; time has come to bring an end to classes.
There cannot be justice until those who create wealth control the
product of their labour".
This is why Bhagat Singh is alive among the people, while the
state would like to block him away.
Just the other day, in the Greater Vancouver area of Canada,
under the auspices of the Rationalist Society there was a huge
commemorative meeting, marking the beginning of the year-long
rememberance. About 400 people had packed the Ravi Banquet Hall.
There were songs, drama skits, and speeches. The October 20th Press
Statement from New Delhi was read out. A resolution was
unanimously adopted by the assembly to condemn the seizure of books,
the charges laid against Ms. Sunita Narayan, and to express solidarity
with her, with Daanish Books, and with the entire community of
progressive publishers in India.
Dear friends, Sunita is back home in Delhi. But the matter is not
over. Not only there is a threat hanging over her head, there are also
indications, through newspaper articles, that the police is planning
to widen its net to include publishers, authors and printers all over
the country.
We want you to be aware of all this. And we want your support and
solidarity. Charges against Sunita may have to fought in legal
courts.
You could write to Ms. Sunita Narayan directly at : "Daanish
Books" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; you could also write back
to SANSAD, and we will transmit it to her.
Many thanks for your attention.
hari sharma
for SANSAD
20 October 2006PRESS STATEMENTWe are deeply shocked and concerned at the incidents involving arbitrary confiscation of books from the Daanish Books stall at the Chandrapur Book Fair and the subsequent illegal detention, harassment and interrogation of Sunita Narayan by the Chandrapur police. Sunita Narayan is owner of Daanish Books, a reputable publishing house of progressive literature and a member of the Independent Publishers Group (IPG).On October 15, a contingent of 70 armed policemen surrounded the Daanish stall for over three hours and made a list of some 200 books which they found 'objectionable' and 'anti-national'; after the intervention of the Superintendent of Police Mr. Ravindra Kadam, they finally seized 41 titles. Later, an offence was registered against Sunita Narayan under the section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Ordinance, 2004, which was introduced as replacement to dreaded POTA and she was questioned for over 14 hours by the Chandrapur police. Along with her, Vijay Vairagade, a local social activist and his 17-year-old son were also questioned. Sunita was allowed to go after her 3-day ordeal on the condition that she will have to present herself as and when the police summons her. This was only after protests were registered at the local as well as national and international levels.It may be noted that none of the books seized by the police-among them those authored by Clara Zetkin, Bhagat Singh, Che Guevara, Baburam Bhattarai, Li Onesto, Anand Swarup Varma, Vaskar Nandy-is banned or declared offensive by any state agency. They are books that are publicly available everywhere, and which civil society in any country with secular ideals should justly be proud of. The police raid clearly smacks of arbitrariness and barbarism, and is a denial of the right to free speech and propagation of ideas. In no democratic country can the police usurp the right to decide what will be read or published by people, and the fact that the police of Chandrapur has got away with it without any censure from the political leadership in the state of Maharashtra or from the officialdom is a cause for major worry.Similarly, a few weeks back, the performance of a play dealing with the history of Mumbai mills was forcibly stopped in Nagpur and the theatre group harassed.We are also concerned with the increasing menace of vigilantism by right wing groups in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Orissa, and the tacit or open support provided to them by the state agencies. This spells danger to the free exchange of ideas and the freedom to read, write, publish, disseminate and perform.The intimidation of Sunita Kumari is unacceptable in a democratic society and must be strongly condemned, and the officials responsible for it should be held accountable and made to apologise.On behalf of Independent Publishers' Group (IPG) and Independent Publishers' Distribution Alternatives (IPDA):Daanish Books (Dhruva Narayan)LeftWord Books (Sudhanva Deshpande)Navayana (S. Anand)Samskriti (Madhumoy Sengupta)Stree-Samya (Mandira Sen)The Book Review Literary Trust (Chandra Chari and Uma Iyengar)The Little Magazine (Antara Dev Sen)Three Essays Collective (Asad Zaidi)Tulika Books (Indira Chandrasekhar)Tulika Publishers (Radhika Menon)Women Unlimited (Ritu Menon)Zubaan (Urvashi Butalia)Other Publishers:Critical Quest (Josna)Gallerie Publishers, Mumbai (Bina Sarkar Ellias)Granth Shilpi Prakashan (S.B. Rai)Madhyam International (Kavaljit Singh)Permanent Black (Rukun Advani)Prakashan Sansthan (Harishchandra Sharma)Rajkamal Prakashan and Radhakrishna Prakashan (Ashok Maheshwari)Rupa & Company (Rajan Mehra)Seagull (Naveen Kishore)Vani Prakashan (Arun Maheshwari)
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