The Hindu Regime's Desperate Ban on Books: An Attempt to Erase the Islamic Struggle and Sacrifices in Occupied Kashmir

News:

In a blatant display of insecurity and hypocrisy, the so-called "democratic" Indian government, under its BJP Hindu regime, has issued an order banning 25 books that document the historical realities of its occupation of Kashmir. This move, dated August 5, 2025, comes from the Home Department of the Jammu and Kashmir administration, declaring these works "forfeited" under Section 98 of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, accusing them of propagating "false narratives", promoting secessionism, and glorifying "terrorism".

Comment:

India claims to be a democracy but remains insecure about some books which are historical events of its occupation of Kashmir. It wants to erase its history of occupation in Kashmir and the human rights violations spread across generations.

This ban exposes the fragility of the Indian state, which, while promoting a false narrative of normalcy through events like the Chinar Book Festival in Srinagar — inaugurated just days before to project an image of peace under the boots of over 800,000 military personnel — simultaneously issues orders to suppress intellectual discourse on Kashmir's plight.

Thus, on one hand, it promotes the book fair to project the false narrative of normalcy under 800,000 military boots; on the other hand, in the same week, it issues an order depicting the list of books on Kashmir to be banned. This is the low level of insecurities by the Hindu regime, which it resorts to after failing on every front and notwithstanding the intellectual arguments to justify its human rights violations, occupation, and collective memory of the Muslims to rise and speak against this occupation. It thinks that just by suppressing them, they are able to subdue the Muslims and their collective memory.

The banned books, listed in Annexure-A of the government notification, include scholarly works that chronicle the oppression, resistance, and aspirations of the Muslim people in Kashmir. Among them are titles such as Colonizing Kashmir: State-Building under Indian Occupation by Hafsa Kanjwal (Stanford University Press), which exposes the mechanisms of Indian colonialism in the region, and Kashmir's Fight for Freedom by Moh'd Yousuf Saraf (Feroze Sons Pakistan), detailing the Muslim struggle against occupation.

Other notable works include Azadi by Arundhati Roy (Penguin India Darya Gunj, New Delhi), The Kashmir Dispute 1947-2012 by A.G. Noorani (Tulika Books Chennai Tamil Nadu), Kashmir in Conflict: India, Pakistan and the Unending War by Victoria Schofield (Bloomsbury India Academic), and Resisting Occupation in Kashmir by Haley Duschinski, Mona Bhan, Ather Zia, and Cynthia Mahmood (University of Pennsylvania Press).

These books document the systematic human rights violations, forced disappearances, military brutality, and the erosion of Kashmir's Islamic identity under Indian rule.

This ban is not merely a political maneuver but a direct assault on the Ummah's collective memory and the obligation to resist kufr (disbelief) and zulm (oppression). Kashmir, a Muslim-majority land, has been under illegal occupation since 1947, and the Hindu regime, rooted in the kufr system of secular democracy, seeks to fragment the Ummah by erasing narratives of jihad, sacrifice, and the call for liberation. Books like Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora? by Essar Batool and others (Zubaan Books) highlight the atrocities committed against Muslim women, reminding us of the Prophet Muhammad's (saw) hadith: «الْمُسْلِمُونَ كَرَجُلٍ وَاحِدٍ إِنْ اشْتَكَى عَيْنُهُ اشْتَكَى كُلُّهُ وَإِنْ اشْتَكَى رَأْسُهُ اشْتَكَى كُلُّهُ»“Muslims are like one body of a person; if the eye is sore, the whole body aches, and if the head aches, the whole body aches” (Sahih Muslim).

The Hindu regime's actions stem from its failure to subdue the resilient spirit of Kashmir's Muslims. Despite the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, which stripped the region of its autonomy and flooded it with measures and policies to alter its demographic Islamic character, resistance persists.

This ban is a futile attempt to suppress the truth, but Allah (swt) promises:

[يُرِيدُونَ لِيُطْفِئُوا نُورَ اللَّهِ بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْ وَاللَّهُ مُتِمُّ نُورِهِ وَلَوْ كَرِهَ الْكَافِرُونَ]

“They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light, although the disbelievers despise it” [As-Saff: 8]. The Hindu regime's efforts to erase its history of colonial occupation of Muslim land, its human rights violations, and the sacrifices of the Mujahideen will only fuel the Ummah's resolve. Nationalism and democracy have proven to be tools of division, imposed by colonial powers to weaken Muslims.

The only solution is the reestablishment of the Khilafah (Caliphate) on the method of the Prophethood, which will unite the Muslim lands, liberate occupied territories like Kashmir, Palestine, and Uyghuristan, and implement Islam to protect the honor, lives, and intellect of the Ummah. The collective memory of the Muslims cannot be subdued by bans or boots — the ummah will rise, insha'Allah, to dismantle the occupation and establish the justice of Islam.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Mohamad Bhat – Kashmir