I think Penguin India Is Looking For Excuses To Drop My Book - Joe Sacco

1 hour ago 8

Joe Sacco is An internationally known cartoonist journalist famous for his books on Palestine and Gaza. His first book on India — The Once and Future Riot — was published last year, about the Muzaffarnagar riots of 2013 between Jats and Muslims that ended in the death of 60 people and the displacement of 60000, mainly Muslims. The book was set to be sold from August onwards, but last week, the distributors Penguin Random House India stepped back from it. He got a five page list of queries from Penguin UK asking for clarifications and changes. “The main thing for me was changes that seemed like editorial changes they were asking for, which were removing quotes, removing quotes about public figures, removing quotes from a public figure I talked to, even to the extent of move this caption down the page. And I mean, there were like four or five things that were called requirements that I simply wasn't going to do,” Sacco said in a podcast conversation with Sidharth Bhatia. Giving an example, Sacco said, “I talk about after those riots and just since the BJP has taken power, that Hindu hegemony has been firing on all cylinders. And they said, this needs to be removed for the Indian edition as will be construed as inflammatory and causing religious offence. I mean, I don't think I was out of bounds to come up with a conclusion and then to be told to remove it.” “I'm simply gonna say no to whoever, if you wanna distribute the book and you want me to do something like that, I'm going to just reject it out of hand.” He spoke about spending three weeks in Muzaffarnagar, where he met a wide range of people, including members of the Jat and Muslim communities, victims of the riots, government officials. He said he started working on the book but kept it aside and came back to it after many years. The book has already been published in the west. Sacco thinks distributing a book like this might be “embarrassing” for Penguin. “I know Penguin India is also the publisher of Prime Minister Modi's book. But it's not all over. “After this dust up with Penguin India, a number of publishers, about four publishers have approached me from India saying, we'll print the book, we'll publish the book. That says something to me.” Join The Wire's Youtube Membership and get exclusive content, member-only emojis, live interaction with The Wire's founders, editors and reporters and much more. Memberships to The Wire Crew start at Rs 89/month. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChWtJey46brNr7qHQpN6KLQ/join

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