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Savouring forbidden fruit
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It is human tendency to try and explore things that have been kept at bay
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Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma
Urge to break from mundane The search for books under ban is a universal trend
A book worth banning is worth reading. This is almost a norm religiously followed by book-lovers across the globe. Disturbing footages of Taslima Nasreen being persecuted and chased out of Kolkata are fresh in the public mind. The incident brings int
o sharp focus all literary greats who have been either banned or bullied around for one reason or the other. Sasi Sutrala, a member of Bookwormz Club could not stop himself from procuring the writer’s banned book ‘Lajja’ which triggered a series of troubles for her by religious fundamentalist.
The forbidden fruit has always been tempting and sweeter and so has been the case with banned books down the ages. Books were banned as far back as 450 B.C. when Anaxagoras’ writings were deemed derogatory were burnt publicly. More recently in 2003, the Harry Potter series were also burnt down in Michigan.
Bitter pill
In the manual for Intellectual Freedom, it is defined as-“(Intellectual freedom) can exist only where two essential conditions are met: first, that all individuals have the right to hold any belief on any subject and to convey their ideas in any form they deem appropriate; second, the society make an equal commitment to the right of unrestricted access to information and ideas regardless of the communication medium used, the content of the work, and the viewpoints of both the author and receiver of the information.” Most of the criticism against banned books has been held against ‘sexually explicit’ material, ‘offensive language’ and ‘controversial statements’ on issues.
Truth is always bitter but there is also this fact that we need to swallow the bitter pill to be cured. “Gossip is fodder to the masses and curiosity surely kills the cat. The moment word is out about a banned book, the sale of that book shoots up within no time,” points out Janaki, a voracious reader herself. Banning a book is like withholding progressive truth. Readers are intelligent enough to judge what is right and what is wrong, she feels.
“Reading is a hobby and not always for gaining knowledge. But laying the hand on a banned book is a pleasure,” smiles Renuka, a booklover. Classics in English literature like Canterbury Tales by Chaucer or Lady Chatterley’s Lover have been included on the banned list. A couple of the strangest books condemned in children’s classics were Little Red Riding Hood and Black Beauty.
Raising curiosity
Even Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were meted out the same treatment. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown shook many a country as it broke age-old conventions and courted controversy across the world.
Talk of banned books and not to mention Salman Rushdie’s fourth novel The Satanic Verses (1988) is almost impossible. Faced with death threats and a fatwa, which called for him to be killed, the writer spent nearly a decade largely underground, appearing in public only sporadically. The content was declared as blasphemous and the book was banned in many countries.
Supriya, a teenager, and a die-hard Potter fan, vociferously protests against the call for a ban on the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. “The Potter mania is spread worldwide and it is ridiculous to seek its ban because it depicts witchcraft which goes against Christianity. If fiction is taken for reality, then the censors need to rethink what they know is right or wrong,” she laments.
HARJEET KAUR ALLAGH
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Metro Plus
Bangalore
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