Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Jharkhand-based writer whose book was banned in the State on Friday, was on Saturday asked by the district administration of Pakur to explain his actions.
Mr. Shekhar, 34, is an employee of the State government: he is a medical doctor attached to the Additional Health Centre in the Pakuria block of Pakur district.
On Friday, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das asked Chief Secretary Rajbala Verma to confiscate copies of the short stories’ collection, The Adivasi Will Not Dance , and initiate legal action against Mr. Shekhar. The government has accused him of obscenity and of portraying women of the Santhal tribe — into which Mr. Shekhar was born — in a bad light.
The Adivasi , published in 2015, was Mr. Shekhar's second book. It was shortlisted for The Hindu Prize for Fiction 2016. His debut novel, The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey , won him the 2015 Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar.
"I am awaiting a response from him and will decide on disciplinary action. We are awaiting instructions from the government to see if legal action should be initiated against him," said Dilip Kumar Jha, Deputy Commissioner of Pakur.
The notice to Mr. Shekhar has asked him to respond on three main issues. It asks him whether he had taken permission from the government to write his books. If not, why disciplinary action should not be taken against him, it asks. The notice also accuses him of causing a law and order situation in the State.
Mr. Shekhar received the notice on Saturday afternoon. “He does not need permission from the government to write novels. The service conduct rules specify that one does not need to get the government’s permission if the product is a piece of art or literature,” said a Jharkhand-based individual who has been sued for his literary works many times. The individual agreed to speak anonymously as he feared retribution.
Mr. Shekhar is aware of the rules, having been disciplined in the past for writing an opinion piece for an English daily.
Little support
“It was not my intention to disturb the peace,” Mr. Shekhar said on Saturday. He finds himself isolated in Jharkhand, with no high-profile group or individual willing to support him. On Friday, legislators of both the ruling and the Opposition parties came together on the floor of the Assembly to condemn the writer.
Mr. Shekhar said he believed that the controversy had been allowed to grow due to his views on the script used to write Santhali.
“It is strange that this issue is being raised now. There were issues raised in December 2015. It went silent and, in July 2017, protests resumed. This happened after I published an article against Ol Chiki, officially accepted by the Government of India as the script for Santhali. The protesters support the use of Roman script. Could there be a connection; that the obscenity charges against me are a facade,” he asked.
Mr. Shekhar said that he wished Jharkhand's legislators spent more time trying to pass a pending legislation on protection of medical professionals. "Yesterday [in the State assembly], they were supposed to pass the Medical Protection Bill. Instead, they wasted time and energy to get a book banned," he said.
