KOCHI:We are living in an age of restrictions on books and debates, said writer N S Madhavan.“Writers have always been ill-treated. During the rule of dynasties, the writers had to please the rulers. When literature started influencing thoughts, the rulers started imposing restrictions.
“Now, the ruling establishment is invoking irrelevant rules to ban books. The Satanic Verses was banned using the Customs law,” said N S Madhavan, while participating in a debate on the ‘Politics of Reading’ at Krithi International Book Festival at Marine Drive here on Saturday.
The governments conveniently use the allegations of ‘hurting the sentiments’ to ban books. A book can be banned by filing a case in any court in the country alleging it hurts the sentiments of a particular section of society. A case is filed in Hyderabad against a girl in Thrissur for winking, he said.
Advocate Kaleeswaram Raj, who spoke about power and freedom of expression, said a majority of the population does not like freedom of expression. It is the wrong attitude of the majority that created the biggest injustice in history, he said.