Ref Esquith, one of the most famous middle-school teachers and my inspiration, once mentioned that he would ask the students in his classroom to read books that are/ were banned. He argued that banned books contained ideas that nobody wanted to listen to but needs to be heard.
But banning a book often has the opposite effect. Just like asking one to not think about an elephant in rollerblades would inevitably lead to thinking about it. Similarly, banning the book piques the interest of the citizens to read the book.
Since then, I have been always been curious about banned books. If I heard about a book that was banned, my hand would be drawn toward the book. A couple of years ago, there were protests against Taslima Nasreen in India -- whose book, Lajja, was banned in Bangladesh. And when I read the book, it became obvious that the reason for banning was book was more to hide the ineptitude of the state rather than to hurt the religious sentiments of religion.
In India, instead of banning books, the educational boards have been removing poems and stories from their syllabus by citing frivolous reasons. In 2019, the ICSE board removed Krishna Chander's Jamun Ka Ped from its syllabus. As usual, it piqued my interest and I immediately read the short story. The story can be found here (in Hindi).
It is a short story that takes a satirical view of the lackadaisical attitude of the Indian bureaucracy. It is a story about a well-known poet who falls under a tree (Jamun ka ped) inside a government building. However, officials of different departments, instead of taking action, keep sending the file to different departments to seek clearance before finally reaching Prime Minister's office.
There was no reason to remove the story unless it mirrored the reality in some way. Arun Shourie narrates a similar incident in one of his books on bureaucrat red-tapism. Once, a file is sent to the Administrative Reforms department whether signing a file with a black pen (since the prevalent practice was a blue pen) acceptable. The AR department sends the file to Archives Department to get historical records. The file is later sent to the Military to get their opinion. Finally, after 18 months of hopping around the different departments, they conclude that black pens are acceptable. It was Jamun Ka Ped all over again.
In the last few weeks, the CBSE has decided to remove two poems by Faiz from its syllabus. Again, it gave me chance to revisit poems that I missed earlier.
The first poem is called, Aaj Bazaar Me Pa Ba Jola Chalo, loosely translated as, let us walk in the market with feet shackled with chains. The poet laments the ignominy as he walks in shackles through the market while questioning the morality of the rulers and the executioners. Nayyara Noor sung a beautiful rendition of the nazm here (and since then has become part of my playlist).
The second poem is called, Dhaka se wapsi par, or 'Return from Dhaka' was written by Faiz after he visited Bangladesh -- three years after it became independent from Pakistan. The poet describes how the relationship between Pakistan and Bangladesh changed from being cordial to strangers. He laments that the 'nights of intimacy has been replaced by unkind morning.'
The best way to ensure one reads is by legislating them not to read. Thank you, educational boards and states for banning books and verses, as I would never come across them otherwise.
