The decision of the Supreme Court to lift the Maharashtra government's ban on James Laine's 2004 book, Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India, throws up some interesting points.
First and foremost should books be banned in this day and age?The newspaper Mint has a rather interesting editorial on it. (You can read it here). The basic point the edit makes is banning books in this day and age does not work.
"The reason such bans do not work is because the nature of the books business has changed. Paper isn't the only medium through which ideas or stories can now be communicated. Many of them can be communicated through digital media. And while piracy (just to clarify, this newspaper is against it) prevents the creators of content from being rewarded for their efforts, it ensures that books and movies that aren't meant to be available in a particular region are-freely," the edit says.
A good case in point is Hamish McDonald's biography of Dhirubhai Ambani The Polyester Prince. The book is banned in India, but is freely available in the pirated form at most traffic signals across metropolitan India. It can also be downloaded freely from the web.
Full report here DNA
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