'My right to write cannot be crushed'

A resident looks at the damage following clashes between people supporting and opposing the CAA, in New Delhi on February 26. Pic/Getty Images

Global publishing giant Bloomsbury has been in the eye of the storm all week, first, for publishing the controversial book, Delhi Riots 2020: An Untold Story, and later, withdrawing from the same without allegedly intimating the book's authors of its decision.

A section of individuals initially questioned Bloomsbury's decision to publish the book, arguing that the February 2020 violence in North East Delhi was a "pogrom" and not a "riot." The issue quickly snowballed when the book's authors Monika Arora, Prerna Malhotra and Sonali Chitalkar, organised an online book launch, where the guest list included BJP's Kapil Mishra infamous for chanting "Desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maro saalo ko", Vivek Agnihotri, author of Urban Naxals, and Nupur J Sharma, editor of the Right-wing portal OpIndia.com. Several people, including journalist Nidhi Razdan, actor Swara Bhaskar, RTI activist Saket Gokhale, and noted Bloomsbury author and historian William Dalrymple took to social media to express their displeasure.

Monika Arora and Sonali Chitalkar

The publishing house immediately took cognisance of the issue, and on the day of the launch, issued a statement announcing that they had dropped the book entirely. They even claimed that they were unaware of the launch that had "participation by parties of whom the publishers would not have approved". Speaking to mid-day, the authors, who managed to find themselves a new publisher - Gaurda Prakashan - almost immediately, said that they would not cower in fear because of "some jokers" on Twitter, who were preventing them from telling the "truth".

A relationship turned sour

Co-author Arora, who is also the convenor of Group of Intellectuals and Academicians (GIA), said that back in February, she, along with a few other women, lawyers, doctors and professors, had visited ground zero in North East Delhi. "We wanted to find out the cause of the riot - who were the victims, and who perpetrated it. All we wanted to do was talk to the riot-hit people. Religion never came to our mind. From our earlier fact-finding missions, we knew that ground zero bolta hai," she said.

"It was during our research that we found that it [the riots] was a pre-planned conspiracy and a naxal strategy." The first few chapters of the book, said Arora, also reveals "how the urban warfare model is being implemented in schools and colleges to instigate students over fees [and other issues], and turn them against the government".

According to Arora, she and the other authors sent Bloomsbury their first draft as early as May. "They legally analysed it and re-sent the final draft, before signing a contract. It was such a beautiful relationship. They even published 100 copies to distribute among select people this month." On the day of the book launch, however, Arora said she received a call from Bloomsbury informing her of "some jokers" tweeting and telling them to withdraw the book, and that they were facing "international pressure" too. "This was the last communication we had," she said.

A few hours later, Bloomsbury India issued a statement, announcing their withdrawal: "Bloomsbury India strongly supports freedom of speech but also has a deep sense of responsibility towards society."

The sudden turn of events, said Arora, put the authors in bad light. "Bloomsbury India has committed a breach of trust and contract and they have damaged the reputation of the authors. They withdrew without even intimating us. It was on the No. 1 bestseller position on Amazon and they removed the book from there, too."

Co-author Chitalkar said that she doesn't have anything against Bloomsbury India. "Initially, they stood by us. The thing is that we are dealing with microcapillaries of power in the UK that pressurised the publishers to drop the book." She further added that when Bloombsury earlier published a book on Shaheen Bagh, no one raised their voice against it. "It is definitely not the right wing attacking any freedom of expression. It's complete nonsense that the right wing is fascist or suppressive."

Many on social media had said that it was "insensitive" of the authors to invite Mishra, whose sloganeering had fanned flames of hatred.

Arora claimed that Mishra had never said anything provocative. "He just said, 'desh ke gaddaron ko'." When asked if everyone who was asking for the CAA to be repealed at the time was a "gaddar", she said, "I did not say that. As a writer, I have a right to tell the world what I want. My right to write cannot be crushed." Chitalkar echoed her co-author's sentiments. "He [Mishra] has been made a national scapegoat. He was blamed for everything and is still being blamed for everything."

When contacted, Bloomsbury India refused to comment beyond the official statement. The publishing house maintained that they weren't aware about the launch. The logo, which the authors had used on the e-invite was also an old one lifted from the web, a source said.

Book will be a reality

Ankur Pathak, co-founder and COO of Garuda Prakashan, said that he decided to publish the book at such short notice, because of the "huge wave of support" he received on Twitter. "We proposed to publish the book [after Bloomsbury withdrew] on social media, and a lot of people favoured us." The authors signed a deal with Garuda the next day. As of Friday, around 20,000 copies were pre-ordered on Garuda's website.

When asked if the book's title was a cause of concern, Mathur said: "The previous publisher did not back off because of the title or the book's contents." On whether Garuda and the authors were on the same page in terms of ideology, he said: "The publishing world doesn't work based on ideology. I'm not saying there isn't an ideological match. But we publish books, which are relevant and authentic."

'Glad we took a stand'

Transparency activist and investigator Saket Gokhale, who tweeted on August 22, saying the so-called "fact-finding report" that the three authors had conducted at ground zero in February was "communal" in nature, said he is glad the publishers had acted responsibly. "Bloomsbury has strict ethical guidelines when it comes to hate speech and fake news. There have been riots because of fake news. The big question here is how something filled with communal disinformation slipped through the cracks of a global publishing house." That the book is being published now, hasn't come as a surprise to him. "They [the authors] have the backing of a political party. I am glad that we took a stand and that the publisher was gallant enough to review their process."

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