Banned: Controversial Literature and Political Control in British India, 1907-1947

Gerald N Barrier
University of Missouri Press
1974
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Summary: 
"Professor Barrier's name is synonymous with bibliography, especially to those who have been engaged in research involving nineteenth and twentieth century politics and nationalism in North India, specifically the Punjab. His latest work can only enhance and widen his reputation; it contains an 'annotated guide' -as he calls it- to the literature banned by the British from circulation in India during the period from the aftermath of the Partition of Bengal until Independence, a total of approximately 1,200 titles, exclusive of material that appeared in newspapers during the period...This book, however, is considerably more than just a bibliographic tool; the first half contains a lucid and interesting delineation of the give-and-take between British officialdom and those who produced the literature considered subversive, whether it was seen as intended to foment communal or political disruption. The main issue revolved around the anomaly of Britain - which prided itself on the free exchange of opinion and news - being placed in the position of stifling such a free exchange in the colonial situations." The Journal of Asian Studies , Vol. 34, No. 3 (May, 1975), pp. 854-855
Language: 
English