Banned | Rohit Chawla’s installation on books that were silenced

Rohit Chawla questions censorship and authority in Banned, a thought-provoking exhibition in Delhi

On February 7, 1497, friar Giralamo Savanarola raised a blaze in Florence, Italy. His supporters, called the Weepers, collected and burned thousands of objects deemed immoral, including books, cosmetics, playing cards, musical instruments, and artworks. Ironically, three months later, the people asked him to prove his piety by walking on fire; he refused. He was charged with heresy and sedition by the very Pope that he had called corrupt. Savanarola was hung and his body burnt in the same square where the bonfire of vanities had been held.

“Ever since the written word has existed, so has censorship. Some of the most recognisable classics, including the Bible and works by Shakespeare, were once considered controversial and were banned,” says Alka Pande, curator of The Art of India exhibition, where Rohit Chawla debuted Banned. The Goa-based photographer’s installation reimagines the covers of 30 books that have been or are currently banned in various countries around the world, including the Satanic Verses, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Alice in Wonderland.

“We live in a time of self-censorship where most creative people are mindful of what they say in a public forum,” says Chawla. “So, I’ve taken some of the greatest literary works and highlighted how they were censored and forbidden. It’s an oblique way of focusing attention on the prevailing ban and cancel culture.”

Holding the world accountable

Chawla has always been fascinated by covers. “I’ve done about 400 — of mostly mainline news magazines and glossies. So, the idea of reimagining some of these book covers seemed like an interesting thing,” says the visual artist whose campaign, Untangling the Politics of Hair — about Mahsa Amini’s custodial death in Iran — won the first Industry Craft Gold Lion for India (and integrated marketing communications company FCB) at last year’s Cannes Lions.

It’s interesting to see what books were prohibited in which countries. Persepolis, with its description of the Iranian Revolution, is banned in Iran. But it was briefly disallowed in Chicago as well, in 2013. When its proposed proscription became a high-profile story, the authorities claimed that the word “censorship” was inappropriate, as teachers could still assign the book as long as they were willing to sit through a class on how to teach such ‘sensitive material’. “They think kids are stupid,” Marjane Satrapi, the French-Iranian author, noted in an interview on the ban. “Children are not dumb.”

Some books on Chawla’s list offer curiosity value, like D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover. “But the idea that children will not read To Kill A Mockingbird [Harper Lee] and Catcher In The Rye [J.D. Salinger] feels personal because they are books that have given me the courage to stand up for my ideals — something I would wish for every child,” he says.