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.