Penguin censors words like 'Hindutva', 'UAPA' from Varavara Rao's book: Report

Amid growing communal tensions in the country, leading publication Penguin Random House India has censored parts of Telugu poet Varavara Rao’s poems fearing a backlash.

Several ‘sensitive’ words have been proposed to be removed from the latest edition of the book ‘Varavara Rao: A Revolutionary Poet’, according to a report in The Quint.

The publication accessed a copy of the latest edited draft of the book dated May 7 which shows that the legal team of the published wanted to remove words like ‘Hindutva’, ‘Sangh Parivar’, and ‘saffronisation’ from the book.

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DH could not independently verify the report.

The 84-year-old poet, accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, is temporary out on medical bail by Bombay HC. On April 14 this year, HC extended this bail by three months to allow Rao to undergo cataract surgery, and he will have to surrender to the Taloja jail authorities at the end of this period.

The news report also stated that apart from the above-mentioned words, the publisher also wanted words like ‘Ghar Wapsi’, ‘Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA)’ and ‘Ayodhya’ to be removed from the book.

Penguin had last year declined to publish the book to avoid sedition and defamation charges.

On the other hand, Venugopal, Rao’s nephew dismissed the suggested changes made by the publisher. He said, “Is Hindutva also banned from the dictionary? How strange!”

Rao, a famous Telugu poet has many books published under his over the past few decades. The Penguin book would be the first English-translated collection of his poems.