Penguin Random Home India was initially anticipated to publish Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, in India. Throughout its editorial/ authorized assessment, Penguin says it raised considerations about components of the manuscript and prompt adjustments and/ or deletions. Whereas sources counsel the disputed materials could have needed to do with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the RSS, China’s occupation of Indian territory and so forth, Penguin has not confirmed the identical.
After Gandhi’s representatives didn’t conform to the proposed adjustments, the writer stated the discussions reached an deadlock over “a selected situation”, following which they determined to not proceed with the Indian publication. Since then, a political controversy has erupted over whether or not authorities stress performed a task. Penguin has denied any exterior stress, saying its editorial assessment was a part of the conventional publishing course of.
Ending days of hypothesis over the e-book’s destiny in India, on September 4, writer HarperCollins India introduced that it could launch Belonging on November 10. Globally, Alfred A. Knopf, a Penguin Random Home imprint within the U.S., will publish the e-book on the identical date. We ask publishers and authors, a few of whom have confronted challenges with their books up to now, to weigh in on the place authorized warning ends and censorship begins. Edited excerpts:
Saba Naqvi, journalist and creator
“It is vitally unusual that one model of the e-book is revealed by the world however right here in India, the writer says we have to fact-check? May they know higher than Sonia Gandhi? That is an autobiography and is written by an individual about their life as they see it and the way they understand the world. When a number one Indian writer points an announcement saying the deal fell via as a result of Gandhi wanted to be fact-checked, it opens up a window, when the e-book comes out, for her to be attacked by a sure ecosystem in a hysterical media and social media house. Gandhi’s biography is vital as a result of she’s lived a dramatic life with two former prime ministers, each assassinated, after which been the longest enduring president of the Congress. Her kids nonetheless lead the Congress. We needs to be her life to grasp our nation’s historical past, however proper now we’re wanting on the little controversies. Very unlucky.”
Meena Kandasamy, creator
“I’m not saying we’d like freedom of expression to degrade folks or do one thing that’s atrocious. We’re speaking about the precise to mirror on what’s happening round us. I feel that publishers needs to be sturdy sufficient, agency sufficient, and keen to struggle for the rights of writers. They need to be keen to take dangers for writers. They need to be keen to permit writers to each use creativeness and creativity and, above all, integrity to face for what they need. The minute integrity goes away from a author, how am I totally different from a machine?
I feel what makes a author a author and never an AI chatbot is that I’m keen to go to jail for my opinion. I’m keen to face arrest for my opinion. I’m keen to face by what I stated. If you would like solely polite-ese, you may simply try this sort of factor from any random LLM at this time. I typically don’t wish to say that there’s no environment, no freedom to put in writing what one desires, as a result of I’ve revealed, time and time once more, actually highly effective, actually controversial, actually sturdy works. I feel that generally you do get fortunate, and I’ve acquired fortunate when it comes to who I publish with.
I genuinely additionally imagine that one of many strangest conundrums that exists in publishing at this time is that the small presses, the unbiased homes [let’s say, a Juggernaut or a Navayana that are individually run but are independent], have a lot backbone and a lot braveness. They stand by their writers, and they’re those which can be publishing most of my radical work. The corporates are barely weak within the knees.”
Dhirendra Okay. Jha, creator of ‘Golwalkar: The Fantasy Behind the Man, The Man Behind the Machine’ (2024)
“They [Penguin] signed a two-book take care of me and revealed the primary one, Gandhi’s Murderer, in 2022. However after I submitted the manuscript for the subsequent one, a e-book on M.S. Golwalkar [after legal vetting], I used to be requested to take away all references to Nazi and Nazism, to Golwalkar’s 1939 e-book, We or Our Nationhood Outlined, they usually additionally disputed the Dwelling Ministry paperwork that I had obtained from Nationwide Archives, about an RSS camp in Pune in 1942. I additionally obtained Golwalkar’s initially revealed e-book from the Library of U.S. Congress. Lastly, I needed to withdraw my e-book and fortunately, Simon & Schuster India was able to publish it. However this was very weird. I’ve revealed a complete of 5 books on Hindutva [one co-authored]. I by no means needed to face this sort of censorship try at any stage. I don’t draw a line between freedom of expression and censorship. In case you have proof, then you need to inform the story. In case you are not telling the story, you might be doing a disservice to society. I’ve nothing in opposition to Penguin, which has revealed so many good books up to now. However with this sort of strategy, it’s troublesome to work with them.”
Saif Mahmood, worldwide lawyer and creator
“The issue with authorized assessment reads at this time is that it more and more assesses not what’s legally defensible to publish, however what’s nearly risk-free to publish. In India, anybody can file a case in opposition to anybody; the flexibility to sue says nothing about its deserves. Authorized assessment can not due to this fact be lowered to asking whether or not somebody would possibly sue. If that’s the threshold, nothing of consequence might be revealed. The actual query is whether or not the fabric is legally actionable and, if challenged, whether or not the creator and writer have a sustainable defence. Freedom of expression essentially encompasses criticism, interpretation and uncomfortable narratives. Publishers ought to defend that house, not enable the mere prospect of litigation to shrink it. The regulation doesn’t demand risk-free literature; it calls for legally defensible literature.”
Chiki Sarkar, Writer, Juggernaut Books
“I don’t perceive if Penguin India is speaking a few authorized learn or a fact-check. ‘Truth-check’ is a bit mystifying as a result of each time they are saying it, it kind of implies that she [Sonia Gandhi] was saying one thing unsuitable they usually have been correcting her. On the whole, publishers don’t query the bigger arguments of the creator, they solely fact-check issues resembling dates, names, locations, and so forth. The edits largely occur round what’s lacking, what wants higher rationalization. For instance, we’re engaged on a former Supreme Courtroom decide’s e-book, and he states that one in all his issues was the extraordinary backlog of circumstances in our courts. Usually, it’s not my job to say, ‘Why are you saying that? They weren’t backlogged.’ The creator can have much more provocative viewpoints, however the precept stays. My job is to say, ‘Are you able to describe extra of this occasion?’ or ‘You have got made this controversial assertion, however you haven’t justified your self.’ I don’t usually push an creator on their philosophical viewpoint.”
Anuradha Bhasin, Managing Editor, ‘Kashmir Occasions’
“Over-sensitivity to books, I believed that was reserved for Kashmir. I feel it’s absurd. It’s going to create a tradition the place folks shall be petrified of writing. Publishers are already petrified of publishing something that’s deemed to be controversial. And folks shall be scared to even learn books or hold books. Final yr, when 25 books have been banned in Kashmir, folks began destroying all of the books they’d, not simply those that have been banned. So, this units a really unsuitable precedent and it provides rise to a sort of tradition the place we forbid or discourage studying. The publishers want to stay their neck out. Penguin is saying there is no such thing as a stress, however there’s self-censorship. And that’s as a result of a sure political stress exists. It might not be direct, however it’s there.”
Priyanka Pathak-Narain, creator of ‘Godman to Tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev’ (2017)
“With my e-book on Baba Ramdev, I used to be reporting on the intersection of spirituality, enterprise and politics. So, for me, the truth that my publishers have been doing a severe authorized learn, that the manuscript was being subjected to a severe authorized assessment, I felt protected due to it. That is one thing each writer needs to be doing, particularly for non-fiction books that influence public figures. This isn’t simply within the curiosity of the general public determine being written about. It’s within the curiosity of the reporter, it’s within the bigger public curiosity that you’re attempting to serve via the work itself. However I feel there’s a very large distinction between a lawyer turning round and flagging one thing saying, ‘Are you able to substantiate this?’ versus saying ‘That is going to trigger authorized hassle’. That turns into one thing that’s not about informing your editors or publishers, however turns into a choice in itself.”
Mukund Padmanabhan, professor of philosophy, Krea College
“Publishers have a proper to ask for adjustments in a manuscript if some a part of it plainly violates a regulation or falls squarely inside any of the affordable restrictions on free speech contained in Article 19(2). The mere concern of litigation mustn’t lead them to demand alterations or withdraw from publishing it. If there’s an unwritten rule, it’s that publishers ought to stand strongly for freedom of expression and never be intimidated by social, political or different extraneous pressures — the truth is, by something that falls wanting a transparent authorized or constitutional transgression.”
Kanishka Gupta, Founder, Author’s Facet
“A literary agent’s job is just not merely to behave as a yes-man to the author or to unquestioningly defend every part within the manuscript. If we imagine that adjustments being requested by an editor, a writer or their authorized counsel are detrimental to the e-book, compromise its integrity or undermine what the creator is attempting to say, then in fact we must always push again. However a superb agent also needs to be capable to inform an creator when sure suggestions should be taken significantly, significantly when these adjustments are within the creator’s personal curiosity and will defend them from pointless authorized publicity or different hurt. Typically, the answer is surprisingly easy. It could contain rephrasing a sentence, eradicating or altering a qualifier, or discovering one other manner of constructing basically the identical level with out compromising what the creator desires to say.”
Narayani Basu, creator of ‘A Man For All Seasons: The Lifetime of Okay.M. Panikkar’ (2025)
“4 strains from my first e-book, a 400-page biography of V.P. Menon [V.P. Menon: The Unsung Architect of Modern India; Simon and Schuster India, 2020] grew to become controversial in the course of the COVID lockdown. In one in all Menon’s final interviews, recorded and saved within the personal archives of H.V. Hodson at SOAS, London, he had stated that the primary draft of the cupboard record didn’t have Sardar Patel’s identify on it, and he [Menon] had gone to talk to Mountbatten to rectify this. Now, these are based mostly on Menon’s recordings but it surely created an immense controversy, which for a debut creator was alarming. I’m Menon’s great- granddaughter however I’m additionally a skilled historian and if this was his expertise, it’s my job to place it down. The controversy I confronted was positively not clean. However did I’ve my agent and writer’s backing? Sure, I did. Did they ask me to delete or alter any textual content? No, they didn’t.”
Rachita Taneja, Founding father of Sanitary Panels, and creator of ‘Touching Grass: A E book of Comics’ (2026)
“I feel there must be a mutual good-faith understanding between the writer and the creator. The writer mustn’t fee somebody to put in writing a e-book realizing what they will write. In case you are giving somebody a contract and that the story goes to be about one thing assumed to be controversial, the writer can not pull the rug out from beneath the creator and say, ‘No, I’ve modified my thoughts as a result of I’m fearful concerning the potential dangers.’ I feel authors have each proper to push again in opposition to the writer’s calls for that aren’t affordable. So, if the writer can not justify why they’re censoring the creator, then the creator has each proper to stroll away. And they need to stroll away. I feel it’s vital that tales are advised as meant by the creator, and never as dictated by firms which can be on this for revenue technology.”
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