This is a list of books or any specific textual material that have been or are banned in India or parts of India.
Nationwide This section lists books that are banned or once faced a nationwide ban in India (including in British India).
Date Work AuthorNotes 1909 Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule Mahatma Gandhi The Gujarati translation of Hind Swaraj was banned by the British authorities on its publication in India.Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, A History of Indian Literature in English. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, 2003. (p.139) 1924 Rangila Rasul Pandit M. A. Chamupati or Krishan Prashaad Prataab In May 1924, this Urdu booklet was published in Lahore. The booklet purportedly described Prophet Muhammad's relationship with women. 1934 Hindu Heaven Max Wylie It cannot be brought into India. Max Wylie, the creator The Flying Nun TV show, researched this book while teaching in Lahore. The novel questioned the work of American missionaries in India. It also dealt with the harsh effects of the climate on the missionaries. 1933 Angarey Various This collection of stories by Sajjad Zaheer, Ahmed Ali, Rashid Jahan and Mahmud-uz-Zafar was published in 1932. It drew protests from Muslim religious leaders. In 1933, it was banned by the British colonial government. 1936 The Face of Mother India Katherine Mayo It cannot be imported into India. In 1927, Gandhi wrote a review of the book titled "Drain Inspector Report" which was published in the Young India. 1936 Old Soldier Sahib Frank Richards The book cannot be imported into India. The book is a memoir of the author's time in British India as a veteran soldier. 1937 The Land of the Lingam Arthur Miles It cannot be imported into India. The book is about Hinduism, caste and phallicism. 1940 Mysterious India Moki Singh The book cannot be imported into India. The book purportedly contained stereotypes. 1945 The Scented Garden: Anthropology of the Sex Life in the Levant Bernhard Stern This book cannot be imported into India. This is a book about sexual practices and marriage rites of the people of Middle East (Levant). The book was allegedly sexually explicit. 1950 Pakistan-Pasmanzarwa Peshmanzar Hameed Anwar This book, originally in Urdu, cannot be imported into India. 1950 Cease-Fire Agha Babar This book, originally in Urdu, cannot be imported into India. 1950 Khaak aur Khoon Nusseim Hajazi This book, originally in Urdu, cannot be imported into India. 1952 Chadramohini This book, originally in Urdu, cannot be imported into India. 1952 Marka-e-Somnath Maulana Muhammad Sadiq Hussain Sahab Sadiq Siddiqui Sardanvi This book, originally in Urdu, is a Pakistani treatise on Somnath and it cannot be imported into India. 1954 Bhupat Singh Kaluwank Ravatwank This book, originally in Gujarati, cannot be imported into India. 1954 What has Religion done for Mankind This book cannot be imported into India. This is a book published by the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. This book tries to refute Eastern religions. 1955 Rama Retold Aubrey Menen This book cannot be imported into India. It was a play which was a spoof of the Ramayana. It was one of the first books to be banned in independent India. The American edition was simply called The Ramayana. 1955 Dark Urge Robert W. Taylor This book cannot be imported into India. 1958 Captive Kashmir: Story of a Betrayed and Enslaved People Aziz Beg This book is highly critical of India's stand on Kashmir. This book cannot be imported into India. 1959 The Heart of India Alexander Campbell This book cannot be imported into India. Alexander Campbell was Time magazine's New Delhi correspondent. The book is a fictionalized and humorous account of Indian bureaucracy and economic policies. 1960 The Lotus and the Robot Arthur Koestler This book contains the author's experiences in India and Japan. The book was highly critical of the cultures of both nations. The book was banned for its negative portrayal of Gandhi. 1962 Nine Hours to Rama Stanley Wolpert This book cannot be imported into India. The book and the movie based on it, both were banned in India. The book points to the lapse in security. 1963 Nepal Toni Hagen This book cannot be imported into India. 1963 Ayesha Kurt Frischler This book is alleged to hurt Muslim sentiments. This book cannot be imported into India. The original German title was Aischa: Mohammed's Lieblingfrau (Aischa: Mohammed's Favorite Wife). 1963 Unarmed Victory Bertrand Russell The book dealt with the Sino-Indian War and showed involved political leaders in poor light. 1964 An Area of Darkness V. S. Naipaul Banned for its negative portrayal of India and its people. 1968 The Jewel in the Lotus Allen Edwardes This book cannot be imported into India. Allen Edwardes was the pen-name of a scholar who wrote on Middle East and Oriental erotica. 1969 The Evolution of the British Empire and Commonwealth from the American Revolution Alfred LeRoy Burt This book cannot be imported into India. 1969 A Struggle between two lines over the question of How to Deal with U.S. Imperialism Hsiu-chu Fan This book cannot be imported into India. 1970 Man from Moscow Greville Wynne This book cannot be imported into India. Greville Wynne was a courier for the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). The book is about his involvement with Oleg Penkovsky. The book was banned for purportedly misrepresenting Indian policies. 1971 Nehru: A Political Biography Michael Edwardes This book cannot be imported into India. The book purportedly contained grievous factual errors. 1975 Early Islam Desmond Stewart This book cannot be imported into India. The book purportedly contained grievous factual errors. 1975Quotations from Chairman Mao ZedongCompiled and excerpted from the works of Mao ZedongBanned following the Naxalite Uprising and the first phase of the Naxalite Movement led by Charu Majumdar. 1976 India Independent Charles Bettelheim This book cannot be imported into India. It was banned for criticising the policies of the Indian government. 1978 China's Foreign Relations Since 1949 Alan Lawrence This book cannot be imported into India. 1979 Who killed Gandhi Lourenço de Salvador This book cannot be imported into India. The book was considered inflammatory and ill-researched. 1983 The Price of Power: Kissinger and Nixon in the White House Seymour Hersh Briefly banned for alleging Morarji Desai to be a CIA informer. The book claimed that Morarji Desai was paid US$20,000 per year, starting from the time of Lyndon B. Johnson. Desai obtained an injunction from the Bombay High Court for a temporary ban and sued for damages worth US$5 million in US. 1984 Smash and Grab: Annexation of Sikkim Sunanda K. Datta-Ray The book dealt with India's annexation of Sikkim. The Delhi High Court had stopped its publication after a political officer station in Gangtok at the time filed a defamation suit. The book was later allowed for release. 1988 The Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie This book cannot be imported into India. Import ban was imposed after Muslim groups protested that it was blasphemous and hurt their religious sentiments. India was the first country to ban this book. 1989 Soft Target: How the Indian Intelligence Service Penetrated Canada Zuhair Kashmeri and Brian McAndrew The book claims that the Indian intelligence agencies penetrated the Canadian Sikh community, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to discredit the demand for a separate Sikh state. 1991 Understanding Islam through Hadis Ram Swarup The book, originally published in 1982, was banned for its critique of political Islam. 2005The True Furqan Al Saffee, Al Mahdee Banned for purportedly mocking Islam. The book has been allegedly written by a Christian evangelical group to proselytise Muslims. The import of this book is strictly prohibited. 2014 Santsurya Tukaram and Loksakha Dnyaneshwar Anand Yadav A Pune court ordered the copies of the books to be destroyed in June 2014. The complaint Jaisingh More had claimed that the book was derogatory to Tukaram and Dnyaneshwar. The publishers defended the book and the author's daughter stated that they will appeal in a higher court.2020Building a Happy FamilyRaageshwari Loomba SwaroopThis book initially cannot be imported into India due to shipping restriction as a result of COVID-19 Pandemic. While the book originally published in the UK and was released digitally, physical books were not arrived until 2021.
Statewide This section lists books that were banned by a state government. The Section 95 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 allows the state governments to declare any publication as forfeit.