INDIAN authorities have banned 25 books in Kashmir for allegedly propagating “false narratives” and “secessionism.”

The decree threatens people with jail for selling or owning works by authors such as Booker Prize-winning novelist and activist Arundhati Roy, constitutional expert AG Noorani and noted academicians and historians Sumantra Bose, Christopher Snedden and Victoria Schofield.

Free speech groups including Reporters sans Frontieres have sounded the alarm over increasing censorship in India since far-right Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in 2014, especially during the huge farmers’ protest movement of 2021, when journalists were arrested, media outlets covering the protests closed and social media posts removed.

Censorship is even harsher in disputed Kashmir, with local investigative outlet the Kashmir Walla blocked in 2023.

The new books ban was decreed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, who ordered the 25 titles “forfeit” under rules brought in in a revision of the penal code in 2023. Offences related to “forfeit media” can carry life sentences, though no-one has yet been prosecuted under those rules.