Books Banned in the troubled valley of Kashmir.

Yesterday the government of india banned at least 25 books in Kashmir, out of these 25 books, 20 are HISTORY BOOKS from unbiased sources neither favouring Pakistan nor India. These books are essential for a balanced view on the conflict. However these are being banned because apparently these are the books that are causing conflict. people owning having these books have been asked to surrender them before a given time and failure in doing so will lead to persecution!!!

for those who don't know – kashmir is a region in the Himalayas claimed by three nuclear powers: india, pakistan and china. each country controls some parts of the region.

when i read fahrenheit 451 amd 1984, a part of me knew one day we will go through these book bans but i didn't know it will come soo soon.

as a kashmiri we are quite used to censorship and persecutions but this one has shook me. as an avid reader i feel extremely sad and angry. at the same time i see how it's an attempt to erase our history – to change it- to alter it and create an new narrative an new history.

Quoting Orwell here:
"From the totalitarian point of view history is something to be created rather than learned. A totalitarian state is in effect a theocracy, and its ruling caste, in order to keep its position, has to be thought of as infallible
Totalitarianism demands, in fact, the continuous alteration of the past, and in the long run probably demands a disbelief in the very existence of objective truth."

i would love for y'all to read about kashmir and our history and not let them erase us.