When great books become dangerous

Book: a word that, whenever it touches our ears, gives us a deep dive into a world of imagination. There was no government or king to restrict you until it was published. For many people, books are just old stuff no one cares about. But they are so much more than that—something most people do not know. A book is a whole life that a writer has lived. Through that book, many readers also experience those same emotions that the writer once experienced. To have such a deep connection with books, you have to be good at imagination.

I recently recommended a book by an international journalist during our conversation about censorship in the digital era. But when I went to the biggest bookshop in Islamabad, Pakistan, the seller responded to me with a mysterious look, as if I had asked him something unethical. After visiting a few shops, I was stunned by what I came to know. They said these books were banned not only in Pakistan but also globally.

For a moment, I was thinking that my friend told me the book was worth reading. If it was right, why was it banned? I was astonished but also curious to read what it had that made it banned. Many of them were classic books that have a fan base on a global stage. I didn’t get many of them, but I am writing about a few. I borrowed some from my journalist friend and somehow bought others online. Yeah, there are many things banned, but you can find them on the internet.

The first book is 1984 by George Orwell, a dystopian novel published in 1949. Yeah, that book is older than our parents—maybe our grandparents as well. This book was not banned in Pakistan or even in many other countries like the UK and the USA. The theme is about anti-totalitarianism, challenging anti-government ideas, and sexual content. It was first banned in the USSR, which was quite obvious, but also in 2022 in Belarus and the USA (at the local level). In the United States, the book was removed from national libraries from time to time due to parental, community, and political issues. There are a few things that might be banned in China in the near future, as they were only kept unbanned because of their anti-Western criticism. Also, it takes a bow at the Stalin era, not at the present Chinese government.

The second book is The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, a coming-of-age novel published in 1951. The basic theme of the novel is very beautiful—about losing the innocence we all had in this hypocritical world. It explores the struggle of a teenager’s loneliness and disillusionment, heading toward a hurtful transition to adulthood. Obviously, the theme is a well-polished art piece about one of life’s harsh realities. This masterpiece is banned in countries like Australia, Ireland, China, Singapore, and parts of East Asia. In the USA, the book was not banned but was restricted at the local level. One of the reasons is its anti-establishment and subversive content. Another reason was that it rooted rebellious thoughts in young people.

The next book is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, a utopian novel published in 1932. The theme is about a society that loses humanitarian values in exchange for comfort and control. It explores how comfort can suppress citizens from seeing the truth—the worship of consumption, entertainment, and instant gratification. Seemingly nothing serious to worry about, but it is banned in countries like India, Australia, and Ireland, while in the US, it was banned on the local level. Ireland and Australia regarded it as blasphemous and demoralizing to family values, while sexual content is also one of the reasons.

Here we have one more book by George Orwell, named Animal Farm, published in 1945. This one is a satirical, allegorical, dystopian novel, where the theme shows how a failed revolution can occur under the disguise of tyranny. It revolves around real-world issues through the setting of an animal farm—a never-ending tyrannical cycle of rulers. If you feel like that is a must-read themed book, it was banned in China and many other countries (not officially).

The last name on the list is the biggest—the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, published in 1999. This one is a fantasy novel themed around good and evil. It celebrates friendship, love, and moral courage over fear, prejudice, and the desire for corrupt power. This one was banned in the USSR and the UAE due to political reasons and religious conflict, while in the USA, it was removed from many schools and libraries in the past years. It was challenged for promoting witchcraft and religious conflict. However, it is still present on the challenged book list. Until now, it has not been banned in the USA, but there have been frequent calls and discussions about banning this masterpiece.

Many books on this list have similar reasons, like sexual content, for being banned. That reason is totally justified, but it was one of the reasons to restrict any book. There are so many books with sexual content that are labeled to be banned. All of us know how and why things were like that. For them, banning is a suitable option, but they actually lose when someone reads such a masterpiece, which is not recommended. For me, “Reading is not an escape from life; it’s a deeper dive into it.”