Burnt before reading - Sardarji, Neeli Saadi and Pinjara

If this article was written for the news pages of this paper, then the story would have begun like this: Close on the heels of the Wendy Doniger controversy and the decision of Orient Blackswan to review an “unspecified number of academic works”, a leading Hindi publishing house has developed cold feet and is refusing to publish classic stories written by an author of yore. Though no one has objected to the stories, the publisher has concluded that the stories are not appropriate because they are “not in good taste in today’s environment”. The publisher has further elaborated that “in the present atmosphere of intolerance and censorship, it is our house policy not to cause any hurt to any community, be it religious or otherwise”.

But since this piece is being written for the Edit page, considerable exploration of the controversy is necessary, as is elaboration of the background and analysis of the implications. The facts are simple — 2014 is the birth centenary year of K.A. Abbas, the noted journalist, filmmaker, short-story writer and novelist. As a journalist, Abbas made his mark with Last Page in the Left-leaning tabloid Blitz, edited by Russy Karanjia. As a filmmaker, most famously he gave a break to Amitabh Bachchan in Saat Hindustani and bagged Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival with Dharti Ke Lal, made in 1946. As a scriptwriter, Abbas was credited for social content in Raj Kapoor’s films beginning with Awara and ending with Henna, which was completed by his son Randhir after the passing of Bollywood’s biggest showman. In the middle of this association spanning almost four decades, came the commercially successful Bobby.

Though never a communist, Abbas was a member of the Pro-gressive Writer’s Association in the 1940s. He delved into fiction and like other writers — Krishan Chander and Sardar Jafri — explored communal violence and ideology in his writings. Stories by Abbas were included in anthologies with those of Saadat Hasan Manto, Krishan Chander, Ismat Chughtai, Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi and Rajinder Singh Bedi. It was probably because of the cusp that Abbas chose to ride, between serious literature, journalism and Bollywood stories, that he did not acquire an iconic halo. Despite good “pedigree” — he was the great grandson of the great Urdu poet and social reformer Khwaja Altaf Husain ‘Hali’ — Abbas was virtually forgotten within a few years of his death in 1987.

The Abbas Memorial Trust, comprising members of the immediate and extended families besides others who were part of the Abbas “fan club”, decided to rectify this anomaly. On his birth centenary, they organised seminars, hosted events and planned to publish his stories. Books were planned in Urdu and Hindi while another old time writer, poet, scholar — Suresh Kohli — continued to bring out collections of Abbas’ stories, published by HarperCollins and Om Books. The collection of stories in Urdu was brought out by Urdu Academy without any problem, but the Hindi collection has now run into trouble.

It is an acrimonious scrap with Hind Pocket Books, publishers of popular and mass Hindi literature, and members of the Abbas Memorial Trust. In the centre of this contest between the warring groups are issues of freedom of speech at one level and the right of the publisher in refusing to publish a manuscript after evaluation. But in this case, the manuscript would not have been completely unknown because Abbas was published in his lifetime by the same publisher and they would have been aware of his stories. Moreover, he also had an association with the patriarch of the company, Dina Nath Malhotra, the pionerer of paperbacks.

Hind Pocket Books has refused to publish three stories — Sardarji (it was variously titled and in this case is called Meri Maut), Neeli Saadi and Pinjara. Of these Sardarji was dogged by controversy when it was published in India and Pakistan almost simultaneously immediately after Partition. Abbas referred to the controversy in his autobiography — I Am Not an Island: An Experiment in Autobiography. The story, like most Partition stories, developed characters playing important roles during that period of conflict. An old Sikh man gets killed by a mob consisting of Hindus and Sikhs because he was protecting a pro-Pakistan Muslim gentleman — Sheikh Burhanuddin. The story created a furore in both India and Pakistan. In Pakistan, several newspapers called for legal action against the publisher of the story, while in India, Abbas was taken to court. Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee also petitioned Nehru seeking punishment for Abbas. Eventually the matter was resolved, the case withdrawn.

Sardarji is considered a classic Partition story. It is part of the anthology published by Urdu Academy and is also included in the English collection of stories edited by Kohli. So why has it been rejected by Shekhar Malhotra, son of the patriarch who besides managing the company that includes the Full Circle imprint also runs the hugely popular Cafe Turtle in Delhi’s Khan Market?

The decision not to publish was taken before May 16, the day Lok Sabha results were out. But there is no gainsaying that the impending change in the political regime weighed heavily on minds of businesses — publishers specifically. Just like Orient Blackswan was not asked by Dinanath Batra to review a large shelf of its books, but did so after being served notice on one book, Malhotra, being an astute publisher, did not want controversy to barricade his office and be harassed by legal and extra-legal means. He thus chose the earliest exit route after realising that the collection includes a story with a history of controversy. He was driven by the sentiment of “why should I take a chance and for what”.

Two issues need to be deliberated deeply. First, can political groups be allowed to sit in judgement to decide which texts are permissible in a certain political climate? Second, are not publishers bound by professional ethics to ensure survival of old texts — fiction as well as non-fiction — till the time there is a “demand” for it? Despite Malhotra’s assertion that he would have not have published Sardarji and the other two stories even 20 years ago, this episode is intrinsically linked to the political transformation underway on India.

Works of many more Abbases may be stifled because of fear of rabble-rousers taking matters in their hands. This growing trend of self-censorship can halt only if the political leadership sends clear signals to supporters that intolerance is to be abhorred and democracy must remain an every day practice, not just during elections but also in intellectual and creative pursuits. Publishers, writers and translators are mere characters that flit across the stage in this surreal drama.

The writer is the author of Narendra Modi: The Man, the Times