Text Wars: Communication, Censorship, Freedom and Responsibility (Hardbound-2021)

Discourse is a battlefield, and texts (in the broadest sense) are weapons in such battles. Contemporary India has become a major battleground in these “text wars”: there is no end in sight to the crude tinkering with centuries of intellectual advance currently being indulged in by puritanical revisionists. If they succeed, India will be redefined by having its institutions forced into line with what can best be described as a nationalist agenda. This collection of texts by Indian and non-Indian authors tackles questions of free expression, communication, censorship and social pressure, but also problems of social and media responsibility. It contains essays by writers, journalists and scholars, media specialists and political commentators, and includes accounts by contributors who have themselves been the direct victims of censorship, bullying and intimidation; there are poems, too, and a cartoon comic-strip. Most of the texts are originals that were written for this publication. The book stands out because of the high calibre of the contributors, but also because of the passion of their contributions. This is, after all, a war that must not be lost.

Dr. Hilda David is an Associate Professor of English at the Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce in Pune. A novelist, playwright, stage director and teacher of creative writing, she has also written extensively for the national dailies. A consultant to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she has coordinated and organised the Ibsen Festivals in India, and she was chosen by the English Speaking Union to represent India at the Shakespeare Workshop in London in 2008. Among her recent publications is a collection of essays, India Diversity (co-edited with Francis Jarman, 2017). Her works have been translated into Hindi, Urdu and Kannada.
Dr. Francis Jarman taught English, Comparative Cultural Studies and Intercultural Communication at Hildesheim University, Germany, until his retirement in 2013. He has also taught or lectured in Egypt, Thailand and Japan and at eighteen European universities, and been a Scholar in Residence at Symbiosis, Pune, and a Visiting Professor at American College, Madurai. He is a novelist, a playwright, and a classical numismatist. Among his publications about India are a play, A Star Fell (1998), about Cawnpore (Kanpur) in 1857; a study of sat? (2002); a short biography of Azimullah Khan (2008); and a collection of essays, India Diversity (co-edited with Hilda David, 2017)