Srinagar: A day after the Jammu and Kashmir government ordered the forfeiture of 25 books accused of promoting secessionist ideologies and inciting violence, the Jammu and Kashmir Police on Thursday launched valley-wide searches of bookstores to ensure compliance with the ban.
Police teams, as per the details available with the news agency KNO, visited several bookstores in Srinagar, Sopore, Ganderbal, Anantnag, Kulgam and other towns, verifying inventory and removing any listed titles that had been declared as “forfeited” under Section 98 of the Bhartiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023.
Officials said that the searches are being conducted as a preventive measure to ensure that no banned material remains in circulation or reaches the public domain. “Bookstore owners have been directed to cooperate and immediately report any stock of the listed books.”
The government on Wednesday announced the forfeiture of 25 books identified as promoting anti-national narratives, vilifying security forces and glorifying terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. The move was taken in light of intelligence inputs and investigative reports pointing to the literature’s role in radicalizing youth and promoting discord.
Books by authors such as Arundhati Roy, Piotr Balcerowicz, Hafsa Kanjwal, Christopher Snedden, Mohammad Yosuf Saraf and Essar Batool were among those banned.
Police have warned that any continued sale or possession of these banned publications would attract legal consequences.
Meanwhile, Srinagar Police in a statement said that in compliance with Order No. Home-ISA/223/2025-11(7655892) dated August 5, 2025, raids were conducted in various bookshops for search and forfeiture of banned books across the district under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
The objective of the operation was to identify, seize, and forfeit any literature that propagates or systematically disseminates false narratives, promotes secessionist ideologies, or otherwise poses a threat to the Sovereignty and Unity of India, a police spokesman said.
“These measures have been undertaken as part of a broader effort to counter subversive and anti-national content that could incite unrest or undermine National Integrity. The searches were conducted in a peaceful manner, and due legal process was followed,” police said.
Meanwhile, the authors described the ban on 25 books in Jammu and Kashmir as “regrettable” and an attempt “to warn Kashmiris against free speech”, authors and scholars reacted on Thursday to the order of the Union Territory’s Home Department to forfeit these publications for “promoting false narratives and secessionism”.
In the order issued on Wednesday, the Jammu and Kashmir government noted that certain books, including those written by famous authors like Moulana Moudadi, Arundhati Roy, A G Noorani, Victoria Schofield, Sumantra Bose and David Devadas, have played a critical role in “misguiding the youth, glorifying terrorism and inciting violence” against India.
Reacting to the order, political scientist and author Bose said that his chief objective has been “to identify pathways to peace” and rejected “any and all defamatory slurs” on his work.
“I have worked on Kashmir — among many other subjects — since 1993. Throughout, my chief objective has been to identify pathways to peace so that all violence ends and a stable future free of fear and war can be enjoyed by the people of the conflict region, of India as a whole, and the subcontinent.
“I am a committed and principled advocate of peaceful approaches and resolutions to armed conflicts, be it in Kashmir or elsewhere in the world,” Bose told PTI.
Two of his books, “Kashmir at the Crossroads: Inside a 21st-Century Conflict” and “Contested Lands”, have been banned.
Anthropologist and scholar Angana Chatterjee’s “Kashmir: A Case for Freedom”, co-authored with Tariq Ali, Hilal Bhat, Habbah Khatun, Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy, is also on the list of banned books.
Chatterjee said that “authoritarian regimes ban books to assert and mobilise their power”.
“…as they govern through suppression, fear, and violence…. Ghettoising and demonising writers blatantly censor the local knowledge and critical insight they put forward,” she told PTI.
“It attempts to place oppressed groups on notice, to warn Kashmiris against free speech, dissent, and against seeking acknowledgement and justice for the crimes of history detailed in the books that are now banned,” she said.
The books include “Al Jihadul fil Islam” by Islamic scholar and founder of Jamaat-e-Islami, Moulana Moudadi, “Independent Kashmir” by Australian author Christopher Snedden, “In Search of a Future (The Story of Kasimir)” by David Devadas, “Kashmir in Conflict (India, Pakistan and the unending War)” by Victoria Schofield, “The Kashmir Dispute (1947-2012)” by A G Noorani, and “Azadi” by Arundhati Roy.
Devadas said that the ban “is regrettable, for banning books goes against the grain of our democratic ideals, and our civilisational ethos”.
“My book strongly advocates peace, dialogue and democracy in the spirit of (then) Prime Minister Vajpayee’s peace process, which had reached fruition around the time my book was completed. I fully backed that peace process.
“The book was in consonance with the Constitution of India. It objectively brought out the truth about what had happened in Kashmir, including the roles of foreign powers and conflict entrepreneurs, without any advocacy of separatism,” the journalist-author said.
CM says he would ‘never’ ban a book
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Thursday expressed his differences with the Lieutenant Governor administration banning 25 books, saying he would “never ban a book”.
“I’ve never banned books and I never would,” Abdullah said in a post on X.
He was responding to a user who had tagged the chief minister while calling for revoking the ban.
“Get your facts right before you call me a coward you ignoramus. The ban has been imposed by the LG using the only department he officially controls – the Home Department. I’ve never banned books and I never would,” Abdullah said in his response.
According to an order issued by the Home Department, the books, including those written by famous authors like Moulana Moudadi, Arundhati Roy, A G Noorani, Victoria Schofield and David Devadas, propagate “secessionism” in J-K and need to be declared as “forfeited” in terms of Section 98 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023.
