Is Banning Books Justified?

Thank you Blogadda for picking this post for the Tangy Tuesday posts!

The Mumbai University recently got removed Rohinton Mistry’s book, "Such A Long Journey", from the syllabus upon facing pressure from the young cub, Aditya Thackeray of the Shiv Sena, who, sort of, made his debut with this roaring success in the political landscape in the city of Mumbai. Read about it here.

While all authors, bloggers, free-spirited readers of the modern world are up in arms against the banning of books and censorship in any form, I have some "hatke" views on this subject.

Before we get to the subject of banning books, let us examine why an author undertakes to write a book in the first place. An author would’ve been just another creature walking this planet had he no urge to tell all that is in his mind, waiting to be told, wanting to be said and itching to be devoured by hungry minds. It could be an amazing story of a person or the tale of a spirited struggle of the people of a certain era, that one encounters in life.

An author of a book may not have taken all the efforts to write, re-write, edit the matter to be narrated, if there hadn’t been such lovely creatures called ‘readers’. Lastly, the author wouldn’t have been able to get his created work to the voracious devourers of the printed word without the existence of the publishers, who don’t necessarily read the book, but certainly have all that it takes to judge whether people would shell out money to buy the book. So it is that from being just an idea in someone’s mind to the writing of a book that gets published and is available for sale at a swanky book store in the city is itself, such a long journey!

Hey, but the journey is not yet over, my dear friend! The book’s got to be launched, sold, reviewed by critics, marketed, publicised, talked about, debated, loved or hated - and does all this really mean your book sales will soar? Not really until finally, if you’re lucky enough, the book is BANNED! Yes, you read that right – banned! Or better still, burnt in public glare! How many authors can boast of writing books that have been banned? All they can really hope for is to be chosen to be awarded the coveted Booker Prize. Being banned or burnt is the ultimate success of a book!

If you don’t believe me, watch the sales figures of any book before and after a ban. The counter behaves like it’s been administered a generous dose of steroids. I just happened to ask for a copy of the latest Booker Prize winner, “The Finkler Question”, but was disappointed to find that they hadn’t even heard about it! Just a small mention somewhere in the innards of a newspaper doesn’t attract as much attention as a political rally where a book is burnt or torn with a host of TV Channels vying to get the best shot for their “breaking news” edition, does it?

You’ve certainly got it right, Dr Rajan Welukar – giving in to the demands of the goons was surely the best way you could have dealt with the situation you were facing. On one hand the agitated and offended cub has his say, and on the other the author finds more readers and laughs all the way on such a long journey to his bank! Don’t you worry about all these writers - who think they are great thinkers too – they will vent their anger, rant about losing their freedom of speech, appear on television debates, and tell the world about how the book bans are depriving the reader of a marvellous opportunity to enrich the mind. But let me tell you a secret – in their hearts they all pray and hope that some day their great works are banned and they would be the most sought after celebrities on every national TV channel and their book is flashed across as they hide their immense joy and feign to be the victim of some political vendetta. Why dont they respect your freedom - the freedom to ban books - or, more precisely, remove them from the syllabus, that is?

Dr. Welukar, you’ve done a good job – but, I would urge you to go that extra mile and change the way educational institutes function. Stop this age old practice of prescribing books for the syllabus. Students don’t like to read any book that is forced upon them, you see. Have you not seen how these youngsters doze off as soon as a prescribed text-book is opened? Don’t we see how they take immediately to books that are ‘forbidden’ instead? Let the Mumbai University bring about the much-needed change – go ahead and publish a list of banned and forbidden books instead! Make sure to include all those books that urge you to think, to change the wicked ways of this world, to make things happen in your lifetime. They challenge the way we are, they way we think and work – they ask us to change our ways! Well, some of us are sure to be offended by something or the other – they ought to be banned – each one of them. Go that extra mile, Dr. Welukar! There’s nothing better one can do to make people shut off the idiot box and settle down to read a book!