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Burning book is act of violence, say authors at Zee Jaipur Literature Festival

Intolerance for writing, which often manifests in banning books or burning them, poses the biggest threat to Indian democracy with unfortunately no "lakshman rekha" available to distinguish genuine literature from objectionable content, debated authors at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival on Wednesday.

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Jaipur: Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje lights the lamp at the inauguration of the Jaipur Literature Festival at Diggi Palace in Jaipur on Wednesday.
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Intolerance for writing, which often manifests in banning books or burning them, poses the biggest threat to Indian democracy with unfortunately no "lakshman rekha" available to distinguish genuine literature from objectionable content, debated authors at the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival on Wednesday.

One of the contexts to the debate was the recent decision by Tamil writer Perumal Murugan to renounce writing after he faced protests from various organisations over what they dubbed as objectionable content in his novel Madhurabagan.

Celebrated Tamil author CS Laxmi worried if publishers would continue to publish writers in the face of opposition. "We as authors are no longer worried whether our books will sell or not but whether we will be able to write at all. If books will be burnt over such issues, will publishers continue to publish us?" the feminist writer said.

"Whether we burn a book or we burn the author himself, it's equally an act of violence," Laxmi said participating in a panel discussion "Is the Commerce of Literature Today Killing Good Writing?".

Writer Nayantara Sehgal, a fellow panelist said it was "high time" for society to stop worrying about "what content will hurt whose sentiments." "If we were so sentimental about hurting our religious sentiments, we would still be burning our widows," the 87-year-old writer said.

The session was chaired by Bollywood lyricist Prasoon Joshi who spoke his mind about why the topic was not discussed more in the mainstream media and also whether voices that speak contrary to the issue be heard and given space? "There is nothing wrong in discussing the negativities of a particular text, but how justified is taking to the streets demanding a rollback of the book from market," Joshi asked.

Kartika VK, publisher, Harper Collins spoke about the challenges faced by the publishing industry. "As a publisher, I would stand by my writer and support the idea with which the book was published in the first place.
If a book is banned, float ebooks for free on the Internet and see who will stop you. Publishers are vulnerable because the law doesn't support us in a really big way," she said. 

Indian-born British playwright and author Farukh Dhondy referred to the terrorist attack on French satirical 'Charlie Hebdo' while denouncing attacks on publishing and media houses.

"If someone has issues with the caricature published in 'Charlie Hebdo, there is no harm in registering their protest by burning the copy of the magazine. But why attack those working at the media house. If I don't like some book, I have a right to protest, but the method of exercising my right should not be violent," he said.

Veteran journalist Mark Tully another participant in the debate pointed out that the freedom of expression was not "absolute." "There is nothing absolute. We cannot ask for an 'absolute' freedom of expression...But there has to be a line drawn between what is genuine literature or what is right to insult someone's religion, sexuality or ethnicity," Tully said.

"We cannot leave it in the hands of politicians or hooligans to decide what that line or 'lakshman rekha' should be," said the journalist who worked as a BBC correspondent in India for nearly half a century.

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