Booker winner Geetanjali Shree has event cancelled amid complaint that book ‘hurts Hindu feelings’

The ‘Tomb of Sand’ author is said to be ‘deeply hurt by the turn of events’ and believes her novel is being used as part of a broader political controversy, as Sravasti Dasgupta reports

An event hosting International Booker Prize winner Geetanjali Shree in the northern Indian city of Agra has been cancelled after a police complaint was filed claiming that her award-winning book Tomb of Sand had “hurt Hindu sentiments”.

The book, set during the partition of India in 1947, was written in Hindi with the title Ret Samadhi and was translated into English by Daisy Rockwell. In May it won the International Booker Prize, becoming the first Hindi novel and the first from south Asia to win the prestigious award.

The prize is given each year to an outstanding translated work of fiction.

An event featuring the author was organised by the Rangleela Social and Cultural Trust and the Agra Theatre Club, and was scheduled to take place on Saturday. But a day before the event, organisers announced in a statement that it had been postponed after a police complaint was filed against Ms Shree elsewhere in the state of Uttar Pradesh.

The complaint, which was filed by a resident of the Hathras district, Sandeep Pathak, held that the book included objectionable depictions of the Hindu gods Shiva and Parvati.

In a tweet tagging the state’s chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who belongs to prime minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Mr Pathak referred to the book as an “indecent pornographic novel” and demanded to know why an FIR (a first information report – an initial chargesheet that is generally the first step in a police investigation in India) was not being filed against the author.

Speaking to The Independent, Ram Bharat Upadhyay, a spokesperson for the event, said that the decision to cancel had been taken by the author herself.

“On Thursday, we read local reports that a complaint had been filed by Sandeep Pathak, who said that the book included objectionable comments on Hindu gods Shiva and Parvati,” he said. “On Wednesday, [Ms Shree] attended an event in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, where some groups created an uproar and objected to her presence,” he added.

Mr Upadhyay said that when the organisers informed Ms Shree about the police complaint on Thursday, she decided that the time was not right to hold the event.

“[Ms Shree] said that it would be best to cancel the event as some people are attempting to vitiate the atmosphere using her book. She told us that she had decided that the best thing to do was to cancel,” he said.

In a statement announcing the cancellation of the event, the organisers quoted Ms Shree as saying: “My novel is forcefully being dragged into a political controversy. The references made in the novel are an integral part of Indian mythology. Those who have objections should challenge the Hindu mythological texts in court.”

She added: “I am deeply hurt by the turn of events and have decided to stay away from social events for some time.”

While no formal FIR has been filed against Ms Shree as yet, it was reported on scroll.in that police had said a complaint would be filed after they had examined the contents of the book.

The award-winning author is the latest figure in the arts world to be criticised by Hindus over the depiction of Hindu gods and goddesses.

Earlier in July, a Toronto museum apologised for featuring content by filmmaker Leena Manimekalai, whose documentary Kaali depicted the Hindu goddess of that name smoking a cigarette.

Complaints had also been lodged against the filmmaker in several Indian states, including the capital Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

In January, comedian Munawar Faruqui was arrested and charged for “hurting religious sentiments” after a group of right-wing Hindus gatecrashed his show in Madhya Pradesh and confronted him over jokes he had allegedly made about Hindu deities.

In March last year, Amazon’s streaming service Prime Video had to issue an unconditional apology for scenes in the fictional drama series Tandav, which allegedly offended Hindus. The word Tandav translates as “dance of fury” – a cosmic dance associated with deities, especially the Hindu god Shiva.

Organisers of Ms Shree’s event said that a meeting was held in Agra on Saturday with noted Hindi writers to discuss a suitable course of action.

The cancellation of the event has been condemned on social media.

“We hope to organise the event in the future, with Geetanjali Shree’s consent,” Mr Upadhyay said.