The Writer, the Reader and the State

This book offers a comprehensive account of the censorship of literature in India since Independence and the recent trends in literature banning

The author recalls the literary censorship of books in India, both in English and in regional languages, and the impact of Emergency on banned books.  The book highlights recent trends and current challenges to free literary expression in the country and attempts to locate it in the tradition of Indian literary history.

Mini Chandran is Professor of English literature in the Humanities and Social Sciences Department, IIT Kanpur. She writes occasionally for The Indian Express. A practising translator, she translates from Malayalam to English and back, and has published translations of fiction and non-fiction titles, besides academic papers in national and international journals. Her translations include A Revolutionary Life, biography of Lakshmi Sahgal (from English to Malayalam) and Autumnal Memories, biography of prominent Malayalam critic Joseph Mundassery (from Malayalam to English). She has also co-edited Textual Travels: Theory and Practice of Translation in India. Besides literary censorship, her other areas of research interest are translation studies, Indian literature and Indian aesthetics.