A Short Literature review on “ AN INVESTIGATION OF SELECTED CONTROVERSIAL AND BANNED ENGLISH FICTION”

 

 

Table:1

 

 

Name of journal	Total numbers of Articles referred	Number of relevant articles
Springer	57	3
Jstor	104	8
Oxford University Press	64	3
Nepal Journals	3	1
SAGE Journals	178	2
Google Books	118	5
Columbia University Press	4	1
Total	528	23

 

 

 

 

 

No	References/ Titles and Author names	Research Focus	Theory/Approach Used	General Findings
1	‘Wound and Loss In Naipaul’s India: A Wounded Civilization and an Area of Darkness’   Author: Babu Ram Khanal   Date: 30/06/19	➢   Condition of India in the post independent period ➢    Brutal effect of British Raj ➢   Illiteracy, ignorance and poverty. ➢   Caste system practiced in different communities	➢   Travelogue ➢   Travel Narrative ➢   Postcolonial Approach	It challenges the nationalist discourse of India's progress.Demonstration of pain and multifaceted loss of India. This article contains  Colonization, Globalization, Invaders, Intellectuals, Mimicry.
2	‘Heritage Politics of the Soul: Immigration and Identity in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses’   Author: Ashley Dawson   Date: 2007	➢   British multiculturalism ➢   Equal rights for Muslims ➢   Freedom of expression	➢   Historical and Political approach	This chapter shows the immense protest of muslim towards the book, the demonstration of religious laws that created the ban and emerged as a highly controversial work of art.
3	‘Religious Satire in Rushdie's "Satanic Verses"   Author: Hani Al-Raheb   Date: 1995	➢   Secular humanist vision ➢   religious satire ➢   Fantasy literature	➢   Magic Realism , Religious satire	This article depicts Maximum of religious satire by fantasizing people situations and historical events
4	‘Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey: A Critical Study’ Author: Santwana Haldar   Date: 2006	➢   The author has presented the sordid and sad story of the protagonist Gustad Noble who was the father of three children. ➢   Presented the stark reality of our society and politics	➢   Political satire, ➢    Migracy ➢   Diaspora approach	The novel ‘Such a Long Journey’ is a celebration of the travel undertaken by life, its richness and buoyancy as well as cheerfulness of the spirit of the people.
5	‘Deconstructing LajjA as a Marker of Indian Womanhood’   Author: Mala sinha and Vishal Chauhan   Date: 12 june 2013	➢   Womanhood in modern India ➢   Issue of Fatwa ➢   Patriarchy and religion	➢   Deconstruction	The Findings showed that natured or denatured lajjA is represented as a virtue, emotion or tool of manipulation, depending on how it plays out in a particular situation.
6	‘Language and the postcolonial city: The case of Salman Rushdie’ Author: Stuti Khanna   Date: 21 september 2011	➢   Writing about the postcolonial city of Bombay inflicts the language of Rushdie’s novels   ➢   The complex, multilayered and heterogeneous socio-economic fabric of the Third World postcolonial city	➢   Postcolonial study	The article proposes that a productive analysis of language in Rushdie can be made by replacing the unwieldy and diffuse category of Indian English with the more meaningful contextualization provided by the category of Bombay English.

 

 

 

2. Annotated Bibliography of selected works in alphabetical order:

 

 

1.    ‘Heritage Politics of the Soul: Immigration and Identity in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses’, Ashley Dawson,  2007 ,Tribhuvan University Journal, vol. 33, no. 1, June 2019, pp. 95-114,

 

 

In this article The demonstration was one of the most important protests among British Muslim whose anger at the shortcomings of British multiculturalism had been breving for most of the decade. People protesting by  Lifting banners urging for equal rights for Muslims outside of the house of parliament to burn the book and this  Extension of blasphemy law and voice support for Salman Rashdie’s  freedom of expression. This protest after the book release shows the immense protest by muslim towards the book and the demonstration of religious laws that created the ban and emerged as a highly controversial work of art.

 

 

2.    Wound and Loss In Naipaul’s India: A Wounded Civilization and an Area of Darkness,  Babu Ram Khanal, 30/06/19 ,Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain, University of Michigan Press, 2007, pp. 121–48. JSTOR

 

This article contains  elements such as Colonization, Globalization, Invaders, Mimicry. The harsh Condition of India in the post independent period challenges the nationalist discourse of India's progress. The  Demonstrations of Pain and multifaceted loss of India by referring to the Brutal effect of the British Raj. This book becomes the peace of hatred overnight by the Indians because the naked realities  are floating on the pages of a book which attacks Illiteracy, ignorance,  poverty, and the Caste system practiced in different communities

 

3.    ‘Religious Satire in Rushdie's "Satanic Verses", Hani Al-Raheb, 1995,Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. 6, no. 4 (24), 1995, pp. 330–40. JSTOR

 

 

This article depicts the crux of religious satire by fantasizing people's situations and historical events. It is also a big political satire on democracy which points out Secular humanist vision of the nation. The personification of religious characters in a satirical way made this book not only a fantasy literature but it emerged as literature of  Magic Realism .

 

 

4.    Deconstructing LajjA as a Marker of Indian Womanhood, Mala sinha and Vishal Chauhan,12 June 2013, Psychology and Developing Societies, 25(1), 133–163.

 

 

This article has  depicted  such a disruptive sense of Womanhood in modern India. The  Issue of Fatwa was criticized Though portrayal of female characters as religious and patriarchy which had  subjugated in Bangladesh. Still today this work is seen as highly Patriarchal  and indirectly attacking religion on the grounds of injustice with women. The Findings showed that natured or denatured lajjA is represented as a virtue, emotion or tool of manipulation, depending on how it plays out in a particular situation.

 

 

5.    Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey: A Critical Study, Santwana Haldar, 2006, Asia Book Club, 2006.

 

Mistry’s Such a Long Journey has been regarded as a landmark in the history of Indian fiction. The novel, overtly sociopolitical, vividly depicts Bombay and the Parsi world. The present volume, first of its kind, offers a critical and insightful commentary on this complex novel.It also contains Subcontinent’s postcolonial politics, humanism forms the background of the story, He  explores  the  potentialities  of  humanism  as  a  process  of  searching  for identity through this travelog.

6.    Language and the postcolonial city: The case of Salman Rushdie Author: Stuti Khanna, 21 September 2011,The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 46(3), 397–414.

 

The article proposes a productive analysis of language in Rushdie’s satanic verses which  can be made by replacing the unwieldy and diffuse category of Indian English with the more meaningful contextualization that provides the category English Writing about the postcolonial city of Bombay .  Bombay inflicts the language of Rushdie’s novels containing the  complex, multilayered and heterogeneous socio-economic fabric depiction of Third World postcolonial city.

 

 

3. Reorganize the Order:

 

 

If we take a bird eye view of  histories and religious, political conflicts of communities  which perhaps can be seen as reasons for banning or prohibiting  in one and more books . So here we can see In the book “Hidden Histories of Pakistan: Censorship, Literature, and Secular Nationalism in Late Colonial India'' - 2021. The writer delves into how these left-leaning intellectuals drew from long-standing literary traditions of Islam or Muslim in a period of great duress and upheaval. Things which are written by somebody and overnight banned by the government complicate our understanding of the relationship between religion and secularism and raise questions for freedom of speech and democracy throughout the nation. Our trajectory is to find how our banning or prohibiting any work of art , media and films can be seen in present scenario and it is interesting t o see how historical event and political upheavals referred still controversial, by growing with the time , surrounded with new standards of living how we go back and can study the roots of from where this problematizing issues started happening.

 

The depiction of ‘ Fascism’ of  india  in this book highly disturbed the idea of human rights, so longer the demolition of ‘ Babri Masjid’ Was interwoven in this books , this event marked as black memory of Mob lyching of minorities. It is interesting to out that  What different themes, contents, ideas and graphical depictions were most frequently challenged or banned? Is there any relevance encountered to perceptible shift that specific audience tends to recoil over time?

 

‘The  demolition of Babri Masjid’ and its depiction in particular work of art for instance ,

 

1) “The Moor's Last Sigh” ( 1995) by Salman Rashdie

2)  “Lajja” ( 1999) by Taslima Nasreen

 

This creates end numbers of religious protests, The hindu muslim conflicts. This article ‘Heritage Politics of the Soul: Immigration and Identity in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses" by  Ashley Dawson following the same consequences of demolition of ‘ Babri Masjid’ community riots, religious protests, violence and  controversy  of ‘Ftawa’. The  Issue of Fatwa was criticized again Though portrayal of female characters as religious and patriarchy have subjugated in Bangladesh. In the article ‘Deconstructing LajjA as a Marker of Indian Womanhood’ by  Mala sinha and Vishal Chauhan. Still today these works are seen as how time and again such burning issues were never settled and keep being controversial by different writers, characters and time.  How far are we able to deconstruct the theories which were made and literature written on any incident affecting our research or literature review. The urge of researchers To establish an in-depth study of banned literature as: Erasing perspectives and identities.

 

 

If we see The satanic verses by salman rashide we come to know that what actually the controversial writing or burning piece of art looks like,  There is no novel more irreverent than Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988). This article ‘Religious Satire in Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" by  Hani Al-Raheb is filled with Secular humanist vision  where religious satire and  Magic Realism made this Fantasy literature. Whether it is the issue of fatwa, religious satire or postcolonial subjugation of people, place and community. The postcolonial elements can be seen in all works of art in the 19th century: the article  by Stuti Khanna  ‘Language and the postcolonial city: The case of Salman Rushdie’ provided  the category of Bombay English Writing about the postcolonial city. Postcoloniality can be considered a bit of an old term so the time has passed,but as far as the recent research works have concerned with the theory , well study it gives ideas to see various perspectives below….

 

Postcolonialism in V.S.Naipaul’s ‘An Area Of Darkness’ challenges the nationalist discourse of India's progress in this article  ‘Wound and Loss In Naipaul’s India: A Wounded Civilization and an Area of Darkness’ by  Babu Ram Khanal, The Demonstration of pain,  Colonization, Globalization, multifaceted loss of India and Condition of India in the post independent period. In a subsequent manner ‘Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey: A Critical Study’ by  Santwana Haldar contains Subcontinent’s postcolonial politics, humanism forms the background of the story, He  explores  the  potentialities  of  humanism  as  a  process  of  searching  for identity through this travelog. Through this postcolonial perspective he tries to grow awareness of culture overlap and hybridity. Since we practiced law and justice we find that everything has two totally different sides of thinking , whether to ban or not any book , we can go through the legal outcomes and respective governments who made regulations to balance everything.

 

Here we find how long it  has started to revolt against literary censorship from the days of the British Raj to the present shows that even as the courts have increasingly stood for free expression, the mob demands the suppression of material antithetical to its views. “The Democratisation of Censorship” this kind of book  Booksin the Indian Public" by MINI CHANDRAN in 2010 coming up with a legal perspective of freedom of speech and expression and then gradually the revolt literature emerged in a way long today….  e time of democracy. Researchers direction to study the process of how early banned books are viewed more favorably today.

 

 

 

 

 

4. Write Introductory lines and Concluding lines. These lines shall be written to Hook Paragraphs:

 

 

For  too long  decades after rising with  the thought of , ‘ Freedom of speech, freedom of expression,  freedom of life and religion was a wayward pre-independence idea which we developed and by following it so strongly we started prohibiting things one and the other way . So firstly   During the 1960s, following the Sino-Indian war, Chinese books and magazines were banned. After protests by Muslims and a petition by Syed Shahabuddin to the Rajiv Gandhi government, The Satanic Verses was banned in 1988, with India becoming the first country to ban the book. Salamn Rashdie observes that even the religion is somewhat problematic for not only the followers who follow and spread  it wrongly but to those also who actually has to suffer by following so called notions which is no longer helpful or fruitful to anybody, So far following religion is a choice of oneself or can be personal choice but still, salman’s remarks are on those topics which whom called “ belief” is still considered eyeopener writings for islamic themselfs.

 

The development in  the Art of Storytelling potentially  increased by the time and successfully dig out the real images of us, The novel, “Such A Long Journey”, takes

place in the context of the war between India and Pakistan that came out in the year of

1971. The presentation of harsh realities on indianness, religions the unfavorable two sides of pakistan and india cultural,religion and political upheavals portrays the actual image of the way things are. Such a long journey emerged as a travel book, and trapped in a controversial elementary book. The literature written upon sheer aspects such as social lifestyle of people, Unstable economy, civilization, traditions, controversial religion take place into novel, the context of war between India and Pakistan played a vital role in making things controversial. Criticism of self and the literature which spreaded  antiness usually gets banned and we usually are not habituated to read such literature which contain the negative face of self and mirror of society. Thus reading such literature where  we are criticized by someone who has gone to the roots and criticized with capacity of truth and reality should be given a chance to be read fairly among people.

 

Further it is observed that The way we were born with identity and then  fought for  it too, unknowingly we misjudge the people who look like us but live as minorities. As the way we consider all as human but we subjugate some of them by thinking that suppressing someone is a legal right of us, no that's not like ….The write grown up in a muslim family and found her identity is getting hidden behind the so called norms of ‘ burkha’ pointed out in ‘ lajja’  and from this burkha she came to know about revolt and became a strong believer of ‘ freedom to life and speech’ somewhat any symbol from religion can be a system or tradition which one suppose follow by their own choice , but the ritual of religion can not be a identity of someone, perhaps the core idea of  controversial beings and things contains the word “NO” to accept which was given to them as identity. 

 

If we are concerned about the literate class, academicians and children that one should provide such banned and sensitive contents to read or to study or not that is an emerging question towards us, several things may affect people in different ways and some things that all should come to know this is the trajectory that we are looking for. On what ground people will be allowed to read, write, press and speak on various topics. These consequences will always keep in trend but so far democracy is concerned, human rights are concerned there is always legal procedures for everything. At this point we can say by following legal regulations from censorship people are free to write, read and free to express. 

 

 

5. Write concluding Paragraph of “Review of related Literature:

 

So far written literature is an integral part of human literal life. Books ban will remain a perpetual quest of thought  from  intellectuals to illiterate people ,perhaps books should not be banned  due to the fact that they mold us the way a powerful breeze turned the branch of a tree in a certain direction. Although some books have different and unpopular opinions, it doesn’t mean that they have less of a right to be read or some zeitgeist kind of books are banned due to covering the more burning issues of current society . All books should have an equal opportunity to be cherished. Books help us grow and learn and should be available to everyone. Without books we wouldn’t be able to learn some of the valuable lessons that we have learned. Always remember to give every book a fair chance.

 

 

6.Write “Introduction”

 

If we take a look at historical flashback of literature development, book banning has a long history. It has been a common practice throughout the world and continues to be so at the present time in India. There may be multiple backlashes and diversity of reasons but the problem boils down to one thing – book ban.

The purpose of the study is to understand and present the problems, issues, viewpoints and their impact that ultimately contribute to book ban. Research addresses: what does book banning actually entail? How book banning works by taxing specific issues and problems in this complex environment, why this current surge against and metastasizes? Why do people engage in redaction, relocation, restriction and removal? Short and long-term effects of banning books, scope and implications of recent wave of book challenges and bans, significant crusades and push backs against book bans.An endeavor is directed toward a goal to get an in-depth idea of what book banning is and how it affects society. Study is intended to tread a fine line between dichotomy of acceptance and non-acceptance of a controversial book whilst book banning mirrors trends on continuum of time.

 

 

Literature Review of “ AN INVESTIGATION OF SELECTED CONTROVERSIAL AND BANNED ENGLISH FICTION”

 

Literature widely consists of the world as a whole on a single page of any book or digitally it can be a single tab .We are surrounded by literature as well as culture, society and religion. Sometimes to make balance between these institutions our rational significance of written literature has to suffer from revolt, hatred, violence and cruelty more than we think of. This paper deals with Banned and controversial literature which was written on burning topics and then banned by the government. Luckily some of that work , books was successfully published , banned and then removed afterwards, but for some it takes time or may be no longer available to  us. One should think about what we can read? Can we access and see what was actually banned ? How long is the ban valid or appropriate on any book?

 

Researcher’s urge to seek information about Investigating ‘to ban or not to ban’? How do the educational, social, political, economic and religious impacts of book bans help understand the ripple effects on students? Because these prohibitions are affecting students well enough in their study, the confronting issue of censorship and to understand the effect of how book ban narrows the world view for students. In this digital world many ebooks got banned on various academic sites so. to explore the response of literature restrictions in the current wave of the Internet age. Considering some past examples can be useful to study this topic in more relent way,

 

Here we will see the list of selected books which are banned or controversial , by this table we will find the banned work of art and the probable reasons being its banning.

 

 

 

NO.	Author	Book	Controversy	Reason for ban
1.	V.S.Naipaul	“An Area Of Darkness” ( 1964”	Pessimistic image of poverty, corruption and culture	Negative portrayal of Indian and its people
2.	Salaman Rashdie	“Satanic Verses” ( 1988)	Fatwa, Tempering with religious characters	Violence, Blasphemy, Religious Intolerance and satire
3.	Rohinton Mistary	“Such A Long Journey” ( 1991)	Book withdrawal from the university syllabus	Abusive language
4.	Taslima Nasreen	“Lajja” ( 1999)	Fatwa , Demolition of Babri Masjid	The hindu-muslim conflicts, offending muslim sentiments
5.	Salman Rashdie	“The Moor's Last Sigh” ( 1995)	Terrorism, Demolition of Babri Masjid	The photo of Jawaharlal Nehru

 

 

 

This Hindu-Muslim conflict can be seen in Salamn  Rushdie's book "Satanic Verses" 1988 in the article ‘Religious Satire in Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" by  Hani Al-Raheb id filled with Secular humanist vision  where religious satire and  Magic Realism made this Fantasy literature.This article depicts Maximum of religious satire by fantasizing people situations and historical events discussed. In 2007  Ashley Dawson Demonstrated  one of the most important protests in the season of discontent among British Muslim whose anger at the shortcomings of British multiculturalism had been brewing for most of the decade. In this article ‘Heritage Politics of the Soul: Immigration and Identity in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses’  The Lofting banners calling for equal rights for Muslims demonstrators outside of the house of parliament to burn the book and this  Extension of blasphemy law and voice support for Salman Rashdie’s  freedom of expression. 

 

Apart from this there are Postcolonial depictions that can be referred to as controversial somehow as  we can see in  V.S.Naipaul’s ‘An Area Of Darkness’ 1964 really It challenges the nationalist discourse of India's progress in this article  ‘Wound and Loss In Naipaul’s India: A Wounded Civilization and an Area of Darkness’ by  Babu Ram Khanal in  30/06/19. The Demonstration of pain,  Colonization, Globalization, Invaders,Mimicry and multifaceted loss of India and Condition of India in the post independent period, Brutal effect of British Raj,Illiteracy, ignorance and poverty, Caste system practiced in different communities.

 

Rohinton Mistry’s Such A Long Journey -1991 has been regarded as a landmark in the history of Indian fiction. The first edition of this article ‘Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey: A Critical Study’ by  Santwana Haldar offers a critical and insightful commentary on this complex novel. It also contains Subcontinent’s postcolonial politics, humanism forms the background of the story, He  explores  the  potentialities  of  humanism  as  a  process  of  searching  for identity through this travelog. The element of postcolonial literature perhaps  can be seen in all works of art in the 19th century: the article  by Stuti Khanna  ‘Language and the postcolonial city: The case of Salman Rushdie’ provided  the category of Bombay English Writing about the postcolonial city.  Bombay inflicts the language of Rushdie’s novels containing the  complex, multilayered and heterogeneous socio-economic fabric depiction of Third World postcolonial city.

 

The theory of deconstruction widely used used in literature to multiply work in to various aspects here ‘Deconstructing LajjA as a Marker of Indian Womanhood’ by  Mala sinha and Vishal Chauhan’s Findings showed that natured or denatured lajja is represented as a virtue, emotion or tool of manipulation, depending on how it plays out in a particular situation. It depicts  such a disruptive sense of Womanhood in modern India. The  Issue of Fatwa was criticized Though portrayal of female characters as religious and patriarchy have subjugated in Bangladesh. Still today this work is seen as highly Patriarchal  and indirectly attacking religion on the grounds of injustice with women.

 

Here the conclusion says some generalized view point on any of book which is banned or prohibited , there is  certain generalized characteristics behind it which  can be seen as certain objectionable graphical depictions, religious fundamentalism, postcolonial  topics, perceived notion of obscenity in women’s characters, social discrimination, profanity in literature, slyly mocking and purported spoofs, libelous and derogatory writings  cause frequent book bans. The book banning has significant impacts on our five major social institutions. Rapid growth of information technology has brought about the radical change in the notion of book banning.An attempt is made to reinforce and review the study of books versus book bans by building a conceptual framework that reflects the ideology of how books influence our lives and what ground Literary standards of morality are challenged over the times.

 

 

References:

 

Khanal, B. R. “Wound and Loss In Naipaul’s India: A Wounded Civilization and an Area of Darkness”. Tribhuvan University Journal, vol. 33, no. 1, June 2019, pp. 95-114, doi:10.3126/tuj.v33i1.28686.

 

Dawson, Ashley. “Heritage Politics of the Soul: Immigration and Identity in Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses.” Mongrel Nation: Diasporic Culture and the Making of Postcolonial Britain, University of Michigan Press, 2007, pp. 121–48. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv3znzng.9

 

Al-Raheb, Hani. “Religious Satire in Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses.’” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, vol. 6, no. 4 (24), 1995, pp. 330–40. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43310219

Haldar, Santwana. Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey: A Critical Study. Asia Book Club, 2006.

Sinha, M., & Chauhan, V. (2013). Deconstructing LajjA as a Marker of Indian Womanhood. Psychology and Developing Societies, 25(1), 133–163. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971333613477314

 

Khanna, S. (2011). Language and the postcolonial city: The case of Salman Rushdie. The Journal of Commonwealth Literature, 46(3), 397–414. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021989411409815

WAHEED, SARAH FATIMA. Hidden Histories of Pakistan: Censorship, Literature, and Secular Nationalism in Late... Colonial India. CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, 2022.

CHANDRAN, MINI. “The Democratisation of Censorship: Books and the Indian Public.” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 45, no. 40, 2010, pp. 27–31. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25742141. Accessed 7 May 2023.