10 Books That Were Banned In India

For Various Reasons

by Rohit Bhattacharya

India's reputation for being a little close minded has always been a point of discussion.
Whether it's with equal rights, social issues or even literature. From being deemed too
harmful to the nation's integrity to just getting offended, books are banned in India for
all kinds of reasons. Freedom of speech is a very difficult line to tread, which is why
there's never really any reason to ban something simply for being "trashy".

Here are some of the books that are banned in India.

1. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

Banned for allegedly being insulting to the Prophet.

The book that made the word 'fatwa' popular in the literary community, Rushdie's
fourth novel is banned in India and a bunch of other countries. A large chunk of the
Muslim community feel that it contains insults to the legend of Prophet Muhammad.
Source - guim

2. The Hindus: An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger

Banned for portraying Indian Gods in a humourous

manner.
ADVERTISEMENT

This 683 page book saw a major backlash in India, facing flak from Shiksha Bachao
Aandolan Samiti and uncles and aunties alike. Though well researched, the book's
several analogies involving Indian gods spelled doom from the word go.
Source - hinduhumanrights

3. Understanding Islam through Hadis by Ram Swarup

Banned for being harsh towards Islam

Another book that faced the wrath of the Muslim community. This one by Ram
Swarup tackled the issues of political Islam, only to inflame the masses and get itself
banned and it's publisher arrested.
Source - topyaps
4. The Ramayana as told by Aubrey Menen

Banned for satirising the Ramayana.

Aubrey's reputation as a satirist couldn't help his light-hearted and jovial version of
the Indian mythological epic being banned. Conservative Hindus aren't known for
their sense of humour, and got the book banned in 1956.

Source - systatic

5. Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence by Jaswant Singh

Banned for being sympathetic towards Jinnah.

This book was banned for portraying Jinnah in an objective manner rather than as a
demonised nation breaker. It criticised the policies of Nehru and Sardar Patel, which
as we all know, will get anyone axed, fact or no.

Source - imagesamazon
6. The Price of Power by Seymour Hersh

Banned for suggesting Morarji Desai was a CIA informant.

Morarji Desai, early Indian Prime Minister and famed urine drinker, was accused of
supplying secrets to the CIA in this book. He launched a case against this "madness",
and got the book banned in India.

Source - banglalibrary

7. Lajja by Taslima Nasreen

Banned for hurting Muslim sentiments.
Another member of the Fatwa clan, this Bangladeshi author's book based on the
demolition of Babri Masjid in 1993 was banned in India. It is said to have been
offensive to Muslims and insulting to Islam.

Source - photobucket

8. An Area of Darkness by V.S. Naipaul

Banned for portraying India in an objective manner.

This story by the controversial author about his travels through India in the 60s was
banned almost immediately. The straight up social reflection and the focus on the
hardships of India is thought to be the reason it was banned, as most higher-ups are
wont to do.
Source - rookebooks

9. The Heart of India by Alexander Campbell

Banned for being "repulsive".

This book cannot be imported into India. Published in 1958, it was about India's
economic policies and politics. It was banned for being "repulsive".
Source - amazon

10. The Polyester Prince: The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani by

Hamish McDonald

Banned for tarnishing the Ambani family's image.

This unofficial biography didn't even get printed, and was banned in 1988. Most
publishers refused to put it out as the Ambanis claimed it was slanderous and
threatened legal action. There's really not much you can do in court against the richest
people in the country is there?
11 Controversial Books That Were
Pulled From Indian Shelves
Anjali Bisaria

Updated: December 06, 2017

FACEBOOK TWITTER REDDIT

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From offending society to hurting religious sentiments, several books, by

acclaimed authors were banned in India after their release. While freedom
of speech is hotly debated in this country, authors have courted
controversy simply because they had a voice. And because that voice
could reach the masses.

1. An Area of Darkness by V. S. Naipaul

The novel chronicles the Nobel laureate’s first encounter with India. A
travelogue, the book takes the readers on a journey across India as
Naipaul himself encounters various cross-sections of society. It was the
first book in the trilogy which includes India: A Wounded
Civilization and India: A Million Mutinies Now. The book was immediately
banned in India for its "negative portrayal of India and its people".
AMAZON.IN

2. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

This list would be incomplete without Rushdie’s most controversial book.
The Satanic Verses is, in part, inspired by the life of the Prophet
Muhammad. Rushdie uses magical realism and contemporary incidents to
create his characters. The book was banned in India for hate speech
directed towards a religious group. Muslims accused Rushdie of
blasphemy, issued a fatwa calling for his death, and carried out
assassination attempts on the author as well.
BOOK RIOT
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3. Rangila Rasul by Pandit Chamupati M.A.

Rangila Rasul which stands for ‘Promiscuous Prophet’ is banned not only
in India but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The book was published
during the period of confrontation between the Arya Samaj and Muslims in
Punjab during the 1920s. The book’s controversial subject detailed the
marriages and sex life of the Prophet Muhammad.
GOODREADS

4. The Polyester Prince: The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani by

Hamish McDonald
This tell-all biography of Dhirubhai Ambani was met with several threats
even before the manuscript was completed by Ambani’s lawyer. The
author, unfazed, had his book published in Australia. The book, however,
didn’t see the light of day after Reliance Industries got a temporary
injunction against the book. HarperCollins, the publisher, then decided to
not publish the book.
GOODREADS

5. Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India by James Laine

Laine’s novel was met with so much criticism following its publication that it
led to a situation of public unrest in Maharashtra. The novel was
subsequently banned in the state, for many thought it carried a negative
portrayal of Shivaji and his parents. Maharashtra called Shivaji a work that
“contained material promoting social enmity.” Even after the Bombay High
Court and the Supreme Court overruled and appealed the ban,
respectively, Oxford University Press withdrew it from the market.
AMAZON

6. The Myth of the Holy Cow by Dwijendra Narayan Jha

In the book, Jha writes that the practice of eating beef can be traced back
to ancient India as documented in Vedic and Post-Vedic texts. In a nation
that literally worships the cow as a goddess, the book was hugely criticised
as it deeply hurt Indian sentiments. The Myth of the Holy Cow was banned
by the Hyderabad Civil Court and Jha even received death threats.
GOODREADS

7. Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with

India by Joseph Lelyveld
Pulitzer Prize winner Joseph Lelyvel claims that the “Father of the Nation”
had a sexual relationship with Hermann Kallenbach, a German-Jewish
bodybuilder. Lelyveld also quoted cultural historian Tridip Suhrud in the
book, who said that Gandhi and Kallenbach “were a couple”. The
Legislative Assembly of Gujarat, Gandhi's home state, voted unanimously
in 2011 to ban the book following the huge uproar it created.
BOOKS PUNCH

8. Understanding Islam through Hadis - Religious Faith or

Fanaticism? by Ram Swarup
The book is a study of the Sahih Muslim, the second-most important
collection of Hadiths. The book deeply offended the Muslim community. A
reprint of the book by Swarup’s friend, Sita Ram Goel, sold out quickly.
However, the Hindi translation of his book was banned after Swarup had it
commissioned. Goel was arrested and the Hindi and English translations
were banned.
AMAZON

9. The Ramayana as Told by Aubrey Menen

Aubrey Menen was an English writer of Irish and Indian descent. He was
primarily a satirist. The retelling of the Hindu epic was meant to be a fun
and readable version but Menen’s book hurt so many sentiments that it
eventually led to its ban.
GOODREADS

10. The Heart of India by Alexander Campbell

Alexander Campbell was Time magazine's correspondent in New Delhi in
the 1950s and his book, The Heart of India was a fictionalised version of
the Indian bureaucracy and its economic policies. The book was published
in 1958 but was banned by the Indian government in 1959 on grounds of
being “repulsive”.
AMAZON

11. Nine Hours to Rama by Stanley Wolpert

Nine Hours to Rama has its narrative set in the nine hours in the life of
Nathuram Godse where he planned to assassinate Mohandas Karamchand
Gandhi. The book was banned in 1962 because it suggested a failure in
the security system that led to Gandhi’s killing.
GOODREADS
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Nationwide[edit]
This section lists books that are banned or once faced a nationwide ban in India (including in British
India).

Date Work Author Notes

In 1910 this short story was written by Subramania

Subramania
1910 Aaril Oru Pangu Bharati and published it himself at a price of three
Bharati
‘anas'. It was the first short story of Tamil Language [1]

In May 1924, this Urdu booklet was published

in Lahore. The booklet purportedly described Prophet
Muhammad's relationship with women. The publisher,
Raj Pal,[2] was charged under 153A of the Indian Penal
Code for hate speech by the Punjab government. The
final disposition came in May 1927.[2] The court
1924 Rangila Rasul Anonymous[1]
declared that law does not prohibit satirical writings
about the deceased and the publisher was acquitted
with a warning.[1][3] On 6 April 1929, the publisher was
murdered.[3][4] The murderer, a Muslim youth named Ilm-
ud-din, was sentenced to death and the sentenced was
carried out on 31 October 1929.[5]

It cannot be brought into India.[6] Max Wylie, the

creator The Flying Nun TV show, researched this book
while teaching in Lahore.[7] The novel questioned the
1934 Hindu Heaven Max Wylie
work of American missionaries in India.[8][9] It also dealt
with the harsh effects of the climate on the
missionaries.[10]

This collection of stories by Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed Ali,

Rashid Jahan and Mahmud-uz-Zafar was published in
1933 Angaray Various 1932. It drew protests from Muslim religious
leaders.[11] In 1933, it was banned by the British colonial
government.[9]
 It cannot be imported into India.[6] This illustrated book
The Face of Katherine
1936 was famously called "the report of a drain inspector"
Mother India Mayo
by Mahatma Gandhi.[12]

The book cannot be imported into India.[6] The book is a

Frank
1936 Old Soldier Sahib memoir of the author's time in British India as a veteran
Richards
soldier.[9]

The Land of the It cannot be imported into India.[6] The book is

1937 Arthur Miles
Lingam about Hinduism, caste and phallicism.[13]

The book cannot be imported into India.[6] The book

1940 Mysterious India Moki Singh
purportedly contained stereotypes.[14]

The Scented
This book cannot be imported into India.[15] This is a
Garden:
Bernhard book about sexual practices and marriage rites of the
1945 Anthropology of
Stern people of Middle East (Levant).[16] The book was
the Sex Life in the
allegedly sexually explicit.[14]
Levant

Pakistan-
Hameed This book, originally in Urdu, cannot be imported into
1950 Pasmanzarwa
Anwar India.[15]
Peshmanzar

This book, originally in Urdu, cannot be imported into

1950 Cease-Fire Agha Babar
India.[15]

Nusseim This book, originally in Urdu, cannot be imported into

1950 Khak Aur Khoon
Hajazi India.[15]

This book, originally in Urdu, cannot be imported into

1952 Chadramohini
India.[15]

Maulana This book, originally in Urdu, cannot be imported into

1952 Marka-e-Somnath
Muhammad India.[15]
Sadiq
 Hussain
Sahab Sadiq
Siddiqui
Sardanvi

Kaluwank This book, originally in Gujarati, cannot be imported

1954 Bhupat Singh
Ravatwank into India.[15]

What has This book cannot be imported into India.[15] This is a

1954 Religion done for book published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract
Mankind Society.[17]This book tries to refute Eastern religions.[18]

This book cannot be imported into India.[15] It was a

play[19] which was a spoof of the Ramayana.[20] It was
Aubrey
1955 Rama Retold one of the first books to be banned in independent
Menen
India.[19] The American edition was simply called The
Ramayana.[20]

Robert W.
1955 Dark Urge This book cannot be imported into India.[15]
Taylor

1958 Captive Kashmir Aziz Beg This book cannot be imported into India.[21]

This book cannot be imported into India.[21] Alexander

Campbell was Time magazine's New Delhi
Alexander
1959 The Heart of India correspondent. The book is a fictionalized and
Campbell
humorous account of Indian bureaucracy and economic
policies.[22]

This book contains the author's experiences in India

The Lotus and the Arthur and Japan. The book was highly critical of the cultures
1960
Robot Koestler of both nations.[23] The book was banned for its negative
portrayal of Gandhi.[24]

Nine Hours to Stanley This book cannot be imported into India.[21] The book
1962
Rama Wolpert and the movie based on it, both were banned in India.
The book was thought to be justifying the actions
 of Nathuram Godse who murdered Gandhi.[25] The book
also points to the lapse in security.[14][22]

1963 Nepal Toni Hagen This book cannot be imported into India.[21]

This book cannot be imported into India.[21] The original

Kurt
1963 Ayesha German title was Aischa: Mohammed's
Frischler
Lieblingfrau(Aischa: Mohammed's Favorite Wife).[26]

Bertrand The book dealt with the Sino-Indian

1963 Unarmed Victory
Russell War which India lost.[27]

An Area of Banned for its negative portrayal of India and its

1964 V. S. Naipaul
Darkness people.[22]

This book cannot be imported into India.[21] Allen

The Jewel in the Allen
1968 Edwardes was the pen-name of a scholar who wrote on
Lotus Edwardes
Middle East and Oriental erotica.

The Evolution of
the British Empire
and
Alfred LeRoy
1969 Commonwealth This book cannot be imported into India.[28]
Burt
from the
American
Revolution

A Struggle
between two lines
over the question Hsiu-chu
1969 This book cannot be imported into India.[28]
of How to Deal Fan
with U.S.
Imperialism

Man from Greville This book cannot be imported into India.[28] Greville
1970
Moscow Wynne Wynne was a courier for the British Secret Intelligence
Service(MI6). The book is about his involvement
 with Oleg Penkovsky.[29] The book was banned for
purportedly misrepresenting Indian policies.[23]

Desmond This book cannot be imported into India.[28] The book

1975 Early Islam
Stewart purportedly contained grievous factual errors.[23]

Nehru: A Political Michael This book cannot be imported into India.[28] The book
1975
Biography Edwards purportedly contained grievous factual errors.[23]

This book cannot be imported into India.[28] It was

Charles
1976 India Independent banned for criticising the policies of the Indian
Bettelheim
government.[22]

China’s Foreign
Alan
1978 Relations Since This book cannot be imported into India.[28]
Lawrence
1949

Who killed Lourenço de This book cannot be imported into India.[28] The book
1979
Gandhi Salvador was considered inflammatory and ill-researched.[22][23]

Briefly banned for alleging Morarji Desai to be a CIA

The Price of informer.[22] The book claimed that Morarji Desai was
Power: Kissinger Seymour paid 20,000 USD per year, starting from the time
1983
and Nixon in the Hersh of Lyndon B. Johnson. Desai obtained an injunction
White House from the Bombay High Court for a temporary ban and
sued for damages worth 5 million USD in US.[30]

The book dealt with India's annexation of Sikkim. The

Smash and Grab: Delhi High Court had stopped its publication after a
Sunanda K.
1984 Annexation of political officer station in Gangtok at the time filed a
Datta-Ray
Sikkim defamation suit. The book was later allowed for
release.[31][32]

This book cannot be imported into India.[33] Import ban

was imposed after Muslim groups protested that it was
The Satanic Salman
1988 blasphemous and hurt their religious
Verses Rushdie
sentiments.[22] India was the first country to ban this
book.[23]
 Soft Target: How
Zuhair The book claims that the Indian intelligence agencies
the Indian
Kashmeri penetrated the Canadian Sikh community, Royal
Intelligence
1989 and Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canadian
Service
Brian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in order to discredit
Penetrated
McAndrew the demand for a separate Sikh state.[34]
Canada

Understanding
The book, originally published in 1982, was banned for
1991 Islam through Ram Swarup
its critique of political Islam.[27]
Hadis

Banned for purportedly mocking Islam.[22] The book has

Al Saffee, Al been allegedly written by a Christian evangelical group
2005 The True Furqan
Mahdee to proselytise Muslims.[23] The import of this book is
strictly prohibited.[35]

A Pune court ordered the copies of the books to be

Santsurya
destroyed in June 2014. The complaint Jaisingh More
Tukaram
Anand had claimed that the book was derogatory
2014 and
Yadav to Tukaram and Dnyaneshwar. The publishers
Loksakha
defended the book and the author's daughter stated
Dnyaneshwar
that they will appeal in a higher court.[36]

This book cannot be imported into India.[28] The book

2018 22's Diary Maitresse P
demeans the husband role.[23]

Statewide[edit]
This section lists books that were banned by a state government. The Section 95 of the Code of
Criminal Procedure, 1973 allows the state governments to declare any publication as forfeit.[37]

Date Work Author State(s) Notes

Satyartha Prakash was banned in some

princely states and in Sindh in 1944 and
Dayananda is still banned in Sindh.[38] In 2008 two
1944 Satyarth Prakash Sindh
Saraswati Indian Muslims, Usman Ghani and
Mohammad Khalil Khan of Sadar Bazar,
Delhi, following the fatwa of Mufti
Mukarram Ahmed, the Imam of Fatehpuri
 Masjid in Delhi, urged the Delhi High
Court to ban Satyarth
Prakash.[39] However, the court dismissed
the petition and commented "A suit by
Hindus against the Quran or by Muslims
against Gita or Satyarth Prakash claiming
relief... are in fact, meant to play mischief
in the society."[40]

The Hindi version of the book, Sachchi

Ramayana, was banned by the state
government and all copies were seized in
December 1969. The publisher
challenged the decision in the Allahabad
High Court. The court nullified the ban
and asked the government to return all
copies to the publisher. The state
Periyar E.
Ramayana: A Uttar government challenged the High Court in
1969 V.
True Reading Pradesh the Supreme Court. On 16 September
Ramasamy
1976, Supreme Court declared the ban to
be illegal. However, the government
ignored the court decisions and managed
to stop sales of the book, until 1995. In
1995, after the political party Bahujan
Samaj Party (BSP) came to power, the
book was widely published for the
Periyar mela held in September 1995.[41]

Banned by Parkash Singh Badal-led

Punjab government in 2001 for allegedly
insulting the Sikh faith. The state arrested
the people who were found in possession
of the book, and confiscated its
Followers
copies.[42] In November 2008, the
2001 Bhavsagar Granth of Baba Punjab
Supreme Court of India overturned the
Bhaniara
ban, stating that the Punjab government
was allowed to issue a fresh ban, if
needed.[43] The Punjab Government then
banned the book on 15 December
2008.[44]

The CPI(M) government banned the book

Taslima West
2003 Dwikhandito on 28 November 2003 fearing that book
Nasrin Bengal
could incite communal discord.[45] In
November 2003, the Calcutta High
 Court put out an injunction against
publication after a poet, Syed Hasmat
Jalal, filed an 11 crore INR defamation
suit.[46] On 22 September 2005, the court
lifted the ban.[47]

On January 2004, a mob alleging

disparaging remarks made
about Shivaji attacked Bhandarkar
Oriental Research Institute where Laine
had researched the book. Several rare
manuscripts were destroyed in the
Shivaji: Hindu process.[48] On 14 January, the state
James
2004 King in Islamic Maharashtra government run by the Congress Party
Laine
India under Sushil Kumar Shinde banned the
book.[49] In 2007, the Bombay High
Court revoked the ban.[50] The state
government challenged the decision in
the Supreme Court. Supreme Court
upheld the previous decision and lifted the
ban in 2010.[51]

The Epic of
Shivaji: A The book was banned for allegedly
Translation and James containing derogatory references on
2006 Maharashtra
Study of Kavindra Laine grounds that it could cause a law and
Paramananda’s order problem.[52]
Sivabharata

The book was banned by the government

The Da Vinci
2006 Dan Brown Nagaland for allegedly containing blasphemous
Code
remarks about Jesus.[53]

The book was released in 2003. It was

banned by the Congress government in
2007 ground that it contained derogatory
Islam: A Concept
R. V. remarks about Islam and Prophet
2007 of Political World Maharashtra
Bhasin Mohammad.[54] In 2010, Bombay High
Invasion
Court upheld the ban.[55] The decision was
challenged in the Supreme Court but it
rejected the appeal.[54]
 Banned in Gujarat but overturned.[22] The
book was on banned on 19 August
2009,[56] for containing defamatory
Jinnah: India,
Jaswant references to Sardar Vallabhbhai
2009 Partition, Gujarat
Singh Patel.[57] Jaswant Singh was also expelled
Independence
from his political party, BJP, for writing
this book.[58] On 4 September, the Gujarat
High Court revoked the ban.[56] [59]

The biographical book suggested that

Gandhi was a bisexual.[60] It is banned in
the state of Gujarat(where Gandhi was
born) on 31 March 2011.[61] The Union
Great Soul: Law Minister Veerappa Moily hinted that
Mahatma Gandhi Joseph the Centre may also ban the book.
2011 Gujarat
and His Struggle Lelyveld Gandhi's grandsons, Tushar
With India Gandhi,[62] Rajmohan
Gandhi[63] and Gopalkrishna
Gandhi,[64] expressed opposition to the
ban proposal. On 4 April, Moily ruled out
the ban.[65]

The Tamil Nadu government banned

this Tamil book on 30 May 2013 on
grounds that it may cause violence and
Meendezhum
promote discord among communities. The
Pandiyar Varalaru K. Senthil
2013 Tamil Nadu book allegedly claims the Dalit community
(Resurgence of Mallar
called Pallar, were among the rulers of
Pandiyan History)
the Pandya kingdom. The author has
appealed in the Madras High
Court against the ban.[66][67]

Other challenged books[edit]

This section lists books that have been legally challenged to impose a ban or to exclude from a
syllabus. Some books listed here are unavailable or were unavailable for some time in India or parts
of it, due to pending court decisions or voluntary withdrawal by the publishers.

Date Work Author Notes

Pandit Lekh
1892 Risala-i-Jihad Pandit Lekh Ram's Risala-i-Jihad was challendged
Ram
and a ban was attempted.[68] Risala-i-Jihad ya'ri
 Din-i-Muhammad ki Bunyad (A Treatise on waging
holy war, or the foundation of the Muhammadan
Religion) caused a considerable outcry, when it
was published in 1892. Until his murder by a
Muslim five years later, Lekh Ram continued to stir
up animosity by his vituperative writings."[69]

On July 20, 1984, H.K. Chakraborty wrote to the

Secretary, Department of Home Government of
West Bengal, demanding the ban of the Quran.
Chakraborty thereafter with Chandmal Chopra
wrote to the Department of Home Government
of West Bengal on March 16, 1985.[70] Chopra then
filed a writ Petition at the High Court. Chandmal
Chopra tried to obtain an order banning the Koran,
by filing a Writ Petition at the Calcutta High Court
on 29 March 1985. The petition claimed that
Sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal
Code, and Section 95 of the Criminal Procedure
Code were often used by Muslims to ban or
proscribe publications critical of Islam, and stated
that "so far it had been the privilege of the Peoples
of the Book to ban and burn the sacred literature
of the Pagans."[70]Chandmal Chopra thought that
the Koran "on grounds of religion promotes
disharmony, feeling of enmity, hatred and ill-will
1985 Quran Religious text between different religious communities and incite
people to commit violence and disturb public
tranquility..." The Telegraph of May 9, 1985
reported that the Union Government would make
itself a party in the case, and the Union law
minister Ashoke Sen and the attorney-general of
the Government of India were going to take action
against the case.[71] Muslim lawyers after a
meeting condemned the case. According to The
Telegraphof May 10, the Chief Minister of West
Bengal called the petition "a despicable act". Other
politicians in the Lok Sabha at New Delhi, and the
Minister of State for Law condemned the
Petition.[72] Pakistan’s minister of state for religious
and minority affairs claimed that the petition was
the ‘worst example of religious intolerance’, and he
urged the Indian government to ‘follow the
example of Pakistan’ in ensuring freedom of
religion.[73] The petition was however dismissed in
May 1985. The Attorney-General of the
Government of India and the Advocate-General of
 West Bengal appeared in the case and argued
against Chopra's petition. On June 18, 1985
Chandmal Chopra filed a review petition, which
was dismissed on June 21.[70][74][75]

Ram Swarup's Hindu View of Christianity and

Islam was challenged by Syed Shahabuddin (who
previously successfully managed to get the
Hindu View of
Satanic Verses banned). Indian authorities were to
1993 Christianity and Ram Swarup
impose a ban on the book, Syed Shahabuddin
Islam
asked that the government have the book
examined "from the point of view of banning it
under the law of the land."[76][77][78]

The book contained a character

resembling Balasaheb Thackeray, the leader of
the right-wing party Shiv Sena. The book faced
protests from the party. The book also contained a
dog named, Jawaharlal, named after India's first
Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Prime
Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao unofficially banned
The Moor's Last Salman the book. In September 1995, the local
1995
Sigh Rushdie publishers Rupa & Co. were asked to stop selling
the book while it was being reviewed. Rupa & Co.
decided to approach the Supreme Court of India in
response.[79] The court the declared the ban
unconstitutional in February 1996.[80] However,
book sellers were reluctant to stock the book
in Maharashtra, the home of Shiv Sena, due to the
fear of vandalism.[81]

A lawyer named Sabu Thomas from Kerala filed

The God of Small
1997 Arundhati Roy an obscenity case against the author, claiming that
Things
Chapter 21 contains obscene scenes.[82]

This unofficial biography of Dhirubhai

The Polyester
Hamish Ambani never went to print because Harper
1998 Prince: The Rise of
McDonald Collins anticipated legal action from the Ambani
Dhirubhai Ambani
family.[22][83]
 The 10-volume history book project was halted by
Sumit Sarkar the Indian Council of Historical Research in early
2000 Towards Freedom and 2000, allegedly because it showed Hindu
K. N. Panikkar Mahasabha in a badlight. The project was revived
in 2004.[84]

A preview of the book was posted on a website

initially which triggered the controversy.[85][86] A
spokesperson for the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad[85] stated that the book was an attempt to
insult Hindus. The book allegedly said that beef
Holy Cow: Beef in was eaten by ancient Indians. The author received
Dwijendra
2001 Indian Dietary anonymous threat calls and had to be provided a
Narayan Jha
Traditions police escort.[86][87] A civil court in Andhra Pradesh
put a temporary stay order on the book until
verdict.[87] Pushpesh Pant[85] supported the book by
stating that the evidence exists in historical and
mythological texts. The book is also known as The
Myth of the Holy Cow.[86]

The book is a dramatized account of the Bhopal

disaster. In 2002, Swaraj Puri filed a defamation
Dominique suit against the authors worth 10 million USD.
Five Past Midnight Lapierre Puri, who was the police commissioner of Bhopal
2002
in Bhopal and during the disaster is mentioned in the
Javier Moro book.[88][89] In 2009, the court put an order to halt
publication of the book.[88][89] But, the Madhya
Pradesh High Court revoked the order later.[90]

On 5 November 2004, the Odisha High Court put

a stay order on the release of the book, after a
The Lives of Sri
2008 Peter Heehs petition was filed.[91] The petitioner alleged that the
Aurobindo
book is blasphemous in nature and defamatory
regarding Sri Aurobindo's character.[91][92]

The book was originally published in October

2010[93] in Spanish. The book is a fictional[93] novel
allegedly based on Sonia Gandhi. Moro claimed
The Red Sari (El
2010 Javier Moro that Congress lawyers and
Sari Rojo)
spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi had written to his
publishers demanding them to withdraw the book
from shops.[93][94] Abhishek Singhvi claimed that the
book violated a person's privacy for monetary
 gain.[95] The book was finally released in India in
January 2015.[96]

On 4 October 2010, this 1990 Booker nominated

book was removed from the Bachelor of Arts
(English) syllabus of the Mumbai University, after
Bharatiya Vidyarthi Sena, the student-wing of
Such A Long the Shiv Sena protested. The book allegedly
2010 Rohinton Mistry
Journey contained anti-Shiv Sena passages and remarks
derogatory to Maharastrians.[97][98] The protests
were led by Aditya Thackeray.[97] Mistry later
expressed his dismay in an open letter to the
university.[97]

The author of the Kannada novel was arrested on

29 August 2013, after several Hindu organisations
accused the book of containing objectionable
material against the god Ganesha. The author was
2013 Dhundi Yogesh Master
charged under Section 295 A and 298 of
the Indian Penal Code.[99] The complaint was filed
by Sri Ram Sene leader Pramod Muthalik, and
others.[100]

Sahara India Pariwar moved Calcutta High Court

in December 2013 seeking a stay and filed a Rs.
200 crore defamation suit against the author. In
Sahara: The Untold Tamal
2014 January 2014, a stay order was issued by the
Story Bandyopadhyay
court. In April, both the parties reached an out of
court settlement following which the book was
published with a disclaimer given by Sahara.[101][102]

The publisher, Bloomsbury India, agreed to

withdraw all copies of the book, after
The Descent of Air Jitendra
2014 former Aviation Minister Praful Patel filed a
India Bhargava
defamation suit in a Mumbai court. The publisher
also issued a public apology.[103][104]

The writer asked publishers to withdraw all his

Madhorubhagan Perumal books from the market and announced that he
2015
(One Part Woman) Murugan was giving up writing on 13 January
2015.[105] The BJP, RSS and other Hindu groups
had protested his book, and demanded its ban
 and his arrest. They had alleged that he had
portrayed the Kailasanathar temple
in Tiruchengode and its women devotees in bad
light. The English translation of the book is known
as One Part Woman.[106]

A complaint was filed against the author in June

2015 in a Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu court alleging
2015 Korkai Joe D'Cruz
the novel had portrayed fishermen, Christianity,
priests and nuns in bad light.[107]

See also[edit]
 List of films banned in India
 Censorship in India

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