Books you can’t read 54 yrs after we became a Republic

• Dark Urge by Robert W. Taylor. Banned: Dec 29, 1955

• The Jewel in the Lotus (A Historical Survey of the Sexual Culture of the East). Banned: July 20, 1968

Sare Jahan Se Achha (And Let No One Tell
You Any Different):

By far the largest number of banned books are in this category—books critical of India, Indian foreign policy, or Kashmir

• The Face of Mother India by Katherine Mayo. Banned: January 18, 1936

• Old Soldier Sahib by Private Frank Richards (memoirs of a British soldier serving in India whose book Old Soldiers Never Die has been described as ‘‘probably the best account of the Great War as seen through the eyes of a private soldier.’’ Banned: Aug 22, 1936

• The Heart of India by Alexander Campbell. Banned: March 11, 1959

• The Evolution of the British Empire and Commonwealth from the American Revolution by Alfred Le Ray Burt. Banned: Aug 9, 1969

• A Struggle between Two Lines over the Question of How to Deal with US Imperialism by Fan Asid-Chu, Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1965. Banned: Dec 6, 1969

• Behind the Iron Curtain in Kashmir: Neutral Opinion (author not mentioned). Banned: Aug 27, 1949

• American Military Aid to Pakistan (its full implications) by Salahuddin Ahmad. Banned: July 31, 1954

• Captive Kashmir by Aziz Beg. Banned: April 19, 1958

• India Independent by Charles Bettelheim. Banned: May 15, 1976

Leave Our Gods Alone

• Hindu Heaven by Max Wylie. Banned: April 28, 1934

• The Land of the Lingam by Arthur Miles. Banned: Oct 2, 1937

• What Has Religion Done for Mankind, Watch-tower Bible and Tract Society, New York. Banned: Feb 26, 1955

• The Ramayana by Aubrey Menen. Banned: Sept 29, 1956

Let Sleeping Icons Lie

James Laine’s book on Shivaji is the latest in the line of books prohibited because they take atypical view on nationalist icons. Critical views on Nehru and offbeat takes on Gandhi’s assassination are still on the ban list.

• Nine Hours to Rama by Stanley Wolpert. Banned: Sept 1, 1962

• Nehru, A Political Biography by Michael Edwards. Banned: Dec 13, 1975

• Who Killed Gandhi by Lourenco De Sadvandor. Banned: Dec 29, 1979