Indian Laws: Jaipur Literary Fest and Hype Around Salman Rushdie

On the last day of the Jaipur Literary Fest and the hype around Salman Rushdie, a simple Wikipedia search about the controversy regarding The Satanic Verses can satiate ones desire to be informed about Rushdie's inability to attend Asia’s largest literary festival.

Rushdie and The Law

This write up would rather abstain from discussing Rushdie's predicament and focus on the laws that prevent books from being banned under various provisions of law. As a start, all books that are to be published in India need to be registered under the Press and Registration of Books Act, 1867.

The Part VI of the Act gives sweeping powers to the state and central governments when it comes to regulating the publication of newspapers and books. Section 21 even grants the state and central governments to exclude any books from the purview of this Act, for newspapers the state government would require the consent of the central government prior to issuing such an order.

The law enacted under the British rule attempts to curb the rebel newspapers and much of the text of the Act pertains to the publication, verification and registration of the newspapers. However, Part IV of the act explains in detail the registration of books.  Section 18(1) specifically deals with the title, language, author, publisher, edition and more details regarding the classification and place of publication and much more.

India Book Publishing - Trivia and Bans

It is interesting to note that India does not have a law that particularly denies ‘books’ from being published. The only penalty mentioned in this Act for books is Rs 100 for violations under Section 3 which states that all publications need to have the name, place of printing, name of publisher and place of printing mentioned ‘legibly’ on them.

As a food for thought, since Rushdie is the word of the day, I feel compelled to mention that his book, The Satanic Verses has not been banned under any criminal or civil offenses but under the provisions of the Customs Act of 1962.

The banning of books has not been specifically dealt with by the framers of the constitution. Earlier books have been banned by the state governments on charges of being in the exercise of the powers conferred by section-95 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, read with sections 153A and 153B of the Indian Penal Code, wherein the Government of Gujarat forfeited and prohibited the publication, display, sale and distribution and any kind of use of Jaswant Singh's book on Jinnah.

Religious Peace and Harmony

It is interesting to note that Section 153A(b) of the IPC defines offences that are prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities, and which disturbs or are likely to disturb the public tranquility.

The debate for a distinct law preventing the publication of books has been on the cards since 2010 when the Maharashtra Government proposed to formulate legislation after American author James Laine's book on Shivaji was banned by the state. The law has been in the cold vault since.

Conclusion

In an age where censorship under excuses is gagging the throat of free speech, it is interesting to note how governments are willing to supress opinions either or ulterior or for electoral motives.

Author of this post is Twesh Mishra

picture source - augustafreepress dot com