Srinagar, India (AP) — Indian authorities say it has banned 25 books in Kashmir and will spread “fake stories” and “separatism” in conflict zones. Strict control of the media It has been escalating in recent years.
The ban threatens those who have prison time to sell or own these works by authors such as Booker Prize-winning novelist and activist Arundati Roy and constitutional expert Ag Noorani, as well as figures well-known to scholars and historians such as Sumantra Bose, Christopher Snedden and Victoria Schofield.
The threat of prisons
The order was issued by the local home department on Tuesday. The division is under the direct control of Lieutenant Colonel Manoj Sinha, the top manager of New Delhi, Kashmir.
Sinha has wielded considerable power in the region as a representative of national government, while being run by elected officials. Mostly powerless government It took office last year after the first local election since India We stripped up conflict areas Special status for 2019.
The order “confiscated” 25 books under India’s new criminal law of 2023, effectively banning the work from distribution, possession and access within the Himalayan region. Various elements of the code threaten the prison conditions of three, seven years, and even living for crimes related to forfeiture media, but no one has been incarcerated yet.
“The 25 books identified are known to encourage India’s separatism and dangerous sovereignty and integrity,” the Home Office said in a notice. Such a book states that it “played an important role in misreading young people, praised terrorism and instigating violence against the Indian state.”
He said the action followed “investigation and credible intelligence” about “they are often disguised as historical or political commentary” and “the systematic spread of false narratives and separatist literature.”
In compliance with the order, police officers on Thursday stormed bookstores and searched street book vendors and other facilities in multiple locations in major cities and areas of Srinagar to confiscate banned literature. However, authorities did not specify whether or not such material was seized.
File – Booker Prize-winning novelist and activist Arundhati Roy, Center, will be attending a Kashmiris gathering on August 12, 2019 to observe Eid al-Adha from his home in New Delhi, India.
The Indian press reported that “Kashmir on Crossroads” was one of the prohibited works and one of the prohibited works, reported by Bose, the author who refused “all defamation of any honour and am-damaged”.
“I have been working on Kashmir since 1993 among many other themes,” Bose said. “Throughout my main purpose was to identify the path to peace, to ensure that all violence has ended and a stable future free of fear and war can be enjoyed by people across the conflict zone, and by people on the subcontinent.
“I am a dedicated and principled defender of a peaceful approach to armed conflict and resolutions, whether in Kashmir or elsewhere in the world,” he said.
India cracked down on opposition
Nuclearly armed rivals India and Pakistan each control part of Kashmir, but both claim the entire territory.
Extremists in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s domination since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris supports the rebels’ goal of integrating their territory under Pakistan’s control or as an independent state.
India claims that Kashmir militants are Pakistan-sponsored terrorist attacks. Pakistan has denied the accusation, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces were killed in the conflict.
Since 2019, authorities have shown no tolerance for the narratives that have committed more and more crimes and questioned India’s sovereignty over Kashmir.
February, Police attacked the bookstore They then seized hundreds of books linked to major Islamic organisations in the region.
In 2011, police filed accusations against Kashmiri education authorities of a first-grade textbook that described the word “tyrant” in a sketch similar to a police officer. A year ago, police arrested a university lecturer on accusations that they had given students an English exam filled with questions that attacked crackdowns on demonstrations that challenged the region’s Indian rule.
In some cases, the accused were released after police questioning, but most of these cases remain in India’s infamous judicial system.
Books on Kashmir are on display at a bookstore in Srinagar, India on Thursday, August 7, 2025 (AP Photo/dar Yasin)
Mirwaiz Umar Farooqthe leading resistance leader in Kashmir, has condemned the ban on books.
“The ban on books by scholars and reputational historians does not erase historical facts and the repertoire of living memories of the people of Kashmir,” Mirwise said in a statement. He asked authorities that he held an ongoing book festival to showcase his literary commitment, but has since banned several books.
“It only exposes the anxiety and limited understanding of the people behind such authoritarian behavior, as well as the contradictions that proudly host the ongoing main festival,” he said.
Books prohibited rare
Books prohibited Although not common in India, authorities under Prime Minister Narendra Modi are increasing Independent media house, imprisoned journalist He then rewritten the history of school and university textbooks to promote the vision of Hindu nationalists in his governing Bharatiya Janata Party.
On the other hand, the curriculum related to Muslim Mughal ruler Those who ruled most of India between the 16th and 19th centuries were changed or removed. Last year, Indian courts ended their decades-long ban. Salman Rushdi’s “The Devil’s Poem”because there is no official order that banned books in 1988.
