We know that the mentality behind censorship and the banning of books is shortsighted and narrow-minded; but when that ignorance causes those words to completely disappear from the world, it’s just nauseating.
That’s what is happening to rare nationalist works that were banned by the British during India’s quest for independence.
Between 1885 and 1905 there was a rise of Indian Nationalism opposed to an India that had been controlled by one imperialistic regime after another since 1604.
During that time, various books and pamphlets had been written and distributed on the subject. According to literary critic and writer Deepak Mehta, the only remaining copies of these books are physically disintegrating and they are in danger of being lost to historians, scholars, and the annals of literature forever.
British rule ended in 1947, but now, more than 60 years after Independence, one would have expected these nationalistic writings-, which the British had banned as seditious to the state- to be easily available to scholars and literature lovers worldwide.
The truth, however, is that many of those works are now haphazardly buried at the National Archives in Delhi and the India Office Library at the British Museum, which charges $47 US per page to copy the 49 books and 58 rare pamphlets in its keeping.
Mehta, whose research focuses on those books that were considered dangerous by the British among an Indian populous under their rule, says that no attempts have been made to rediscover the writings.
There cannot be a price on knowledge and history because the understanding and clarity that results from it is the true prize. These works are no longer “seditious to the state” and should be freely available to academic institutions for preservation.
Here we are some 60 years later, still too stubborn to open our minds and learn from history. That isn’t just depressing, it’s pathetic.
Ideas and the written word have been suppressed for political reasons since the inception of politics and government to cloak the masses in the darkness of ignorance, thus maintaining the power of those in charge; but there comes a time when the light of freedom must push back the darkness and stand in defiance, just as Mahatma Gandhi did in those final days of British rule.
For more information on the Banned Books Awareness and Reading for Knowledge project and the complete list of titles covered, please visit the official website at http://bbark.deepforestproductions.com/
Sources: The Times of India
© 2013 R. Wolf Baldassarro/Deep Forest Productions
Hi, I was looking up banned books in British India and google has little to tell us about this subject. My PhD research focuses on Banned books under British Rule. Could you forward Deepak Mehta’s e-mail Id? I was hoping to get a list of books and where I can find them.