Bloomsbury India is caught in the middle of a storm, and the publishing house’ fortunes in the country have been kicked into the grave. Social media is replete with a massive anti-Bloomsbury campaign, to the extent that it would be an understatement to call it just that, as people are now vowing to never buy or publish books with them. While many were appreciating the publishing house for taking up the job of making Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story available for the Indian public, an unprecedented anti-Bloomsbury sentiment has now taken hold over the section of Indians who refuse to fall for the lies peddles by the Left and their stooge-like liberals when it comes to the Northeast Delhi riots which took place early this year.
Authored by advocate Monika Arora and Delhi University teachers Sonali Chitalkar and Prerna Malhotra, the book brings to light the truth about the blatantly anti-Hindu riots which were organised by motivated Islamist groups and political leaders no less, who have even admitted to masterminding the violence. Bloomsbury India succumbed to pressure from external quarters, according to the authors. Ever since it came to light that the publishing house would be making the book available for Indian stands, a concerted campaign was mounted by a motivated section of people who were scared out of their wits at the prospect of the truth about the Delhi riots being outed. Subsequent to the unceremonious withdrawal by Bloomsbury India, Garuda Prakashan stepped in to publish the book.
Garuda Prakashan is an Indic publishing house which does not shy away from publishing politically-incorrect and unapologetic books. Yesterday, the publishing house opened up pre-bookings of Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story. Due to tremendous traffic to their site, the servers of Garuda crashed. This is sufficient to prove how the Left scored a huge self-goal and publicized a book to the extent that every person is now intrigued to find out what is so scary in its content that led to international pressure to stall its release. Garuda Prakashan has meanwhile promised to make the book available within 15 days.
Bloomsbury, on the other hand, is being asked some tough questions, and their inability to answer the same is denting them with insufferable blows. With each question asked, their hypocrisy lies bare for all to see. For example, Shaheen Bagh: From a Protest to a Movement is a book being published by them. The said book has faced close to no substantial opposition from the Indian Right. So, if a book on the joke of a protest called Shaheen Bagh can be published, what ‘pressure’ did Bloomsbury succumb to in order for them to end up withdrawing from publishing Monika Arora’s book on Delhi riots?
The hypocrisy of Bloomsbury has not been given a miss at all. In fact, the publishing house is bound to regret succumbing to pressure exerted by a motivated lobby, as their fortunes in India take off for a downward spiral. Imminent authors, mostly sympathetic to the Right have now decided to boycott Bloomsbury. As such, they are vowing to retract their books which are in the docks for publishing, and have also decided to pay back substantial royalties paid to them by the hypocritical publishing house.
Sanjeev Sanyal, Anand Ranganathan, Shefali Vaidya, Kanchan Gupta are among those who announced a boycott of the publishing house. Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Advisor, said that “this is obviously not a quality control problem but about censorship.” He also informed that he had raised the issue of how “a tiny cabal controls Indian publishing and constantly imposes ideological censorship”. Anand Ranganathan, meanwhile, said, “I am appalled to see Bloomsbury India, publisher of two of my books, buckle under threats by fascists and withdraw the book Delhi Riots – 2020. I stand in complete solidarity with the authors. This is an assault on Freedom of Expression and on those who cherish this freedom.”
I have have not read the book in question & have no idea if it is good or bad. However, this is obviously not a quality control problem but about censorship.
I commit to never publish a book with @BloomsburyIndia
2/n— Sanjeev Sanyal (@sanjeevsanyal) August 22, 2020
https://twitter.com/ARanganathan72/status/1297440102629556224?s=20
The 'cancelled' book must see the light of day, whatever it takes. And it will. As for @BloomsburyIndia I call upon all who value freedom, democracy and #FreeSpeech to stop patronising their business which is now modelled on appeasing bully activists. 5/n
— Kanchan Gupta (Hindu Bengali Refugee)🇮🇳 (@KanchanGupta) August 22, 2020
I have decided I will not get my book published by a publishing house that humiliates a fellow writer @advmonikaarora and does not respect the freedom of speech. I will return the advance paid to me by @BloomsburyIndia for my forthcoming book.
— Shefali Vaidya. 🇮🇳 (@ShefVaidya) August 23, 2020
The move of Bloomsbury India to trample upon the freedoms of authors is bound to bring about a tectonic change in the Indian publishing and literary scene, as more and more writers will turn to publishing houses like Garuda Prakashan to have their books hit the stands. As for Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story, it is all set to be a bestseller, courtesy the free publicity given to it by outraged liberals.