Essay Law

Brought To Book

An author recalls the ordeal of defending his fiction against spurious litigation

01 January 2016
ILLUSTRATION BY PRIYA SEBASTIAN FOR THE CARAVAN
ILLUSTRATION BY PRIYA SEBASTIAN FOR THE CARAVAN

AT THE START OF APRIL 2009, I couldn’t have been better positioned. My book of short stories, Breathless in Bombay, published the previous year, had been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. I was working on a novel about the eunuchs of Mumbai. I had two years of research behind me, and a character and a story I believed in.

On the afternoon of 8 April, I got a text message from a journalist at the daily Mid Day, asking if she could call me. She said it was important. I asked her to call in 20 minutes, which she did. She got straight to the point, and asked for my response to the criminal complaint against my work.

Criminal complaint? I had no clue, honestly! She proceeded to explain.

Murzban F Shroff Murzban F Shroff is a Mumbai-based writer. His fiction has appeared in over 50 literary journals in the United States and United Kingdom. He is a recipient of the John Gilgun Fiction Award, and has garnered six Pushcart Prize nominations. His short-story collection Breathless in Bombay was shortlisted for the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and rated by The Guardian as among the ten best books on Mumbai. His novel Waiting for Jonathan Koshy, published in December 2015, was a finalist for the Horatio Nelson Fiction Prize.

Keywords: Maharashtra censorship publishing books police Indian Penal Code author Breathless in Bombay Murzban Shroff Court Section 153B
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