By Hamaad Habibullah & Ishtayaq Rasool
Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir: It was 13 February 2025, and business as usual for most booksellers in Srinagar’s commercial hub, Lal Chowk. A prominent bookseller and his staff had just finished lunch and were about to attend to their waiting customers when four men in civilian clothes walked in, holding a list of books.
They asked if those books were available.
“Before we could respond, they cleared the store of all customers and shut both the front and back doors. They said that they are from the police,” said W*, the bookstore owner, who asked not to be identified. “We were stunned and scared. Out of fear, we didn’t ask any questions and simply cooperated.”
They laid a sheet on the floor and ordered the staff to bring out every copy of the books on their list. “They said they had instructions from top authorities to seize all the listed books,” said W.
The seized books were written by the Islamic scholar Maulana Abul Ala Maududi, the founder of the pan-south asia group Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), whose Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) chapter was banned by the Indian government, in 2019, under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, for alleged “activities against the security, integrity and sovereignty of the nation” and “fuelling secessionism in Jammu and Kashmir”.
Maududi’s opposition to the political worldview of secularism and belief in political Islam has caused his writing to resonate with the secessionist movement in Kashmir. It has placed it at loggerheads with the state.
X*, another small bookseller in the city, raided by the police on the same day, said they seized the same books.
Both booksellers confirmed that the confiscated titles, all authored by Maududi, included Khilafat o Malukiyat (Caliphate and Monarchy), Fundamentals of Islam, Purdah (The Veil), Khutbaat (Sermons), and Towards Understanding Islam.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.
