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OPINION

Retreat to Barbarism?

Abu Abdullah
Tucked away inconspicuously on page 3 of The Daily Star dated October 11. 1991. there was a news item which made my head swim and my blood run cold. The editors had obviously decided that this bit of information did not constitute front page stuff. In my opinion it rated banner headlines and a black bolder.
A modest, understated caption — "Import of foreign books banned”. Reading on. we learn that according to the Minister for Forests. Fisheries, Livestock and Environment. Mr. Abdullah Al-Noman, as reported in the local press the government has decided to "stop imports of foreign books excepting those required for research and reference". Further down we learn that according to the minister. The government decision to stop import of books which are not in conformity with our culture and heritage will help flourish (sic) our own- literature and culture."
A number of issues arise. First, when and how was such a momentous decision taken? Was a bill presented, debated, and passed in parliament? More important is the substantive issue : how could this step back into barbarism even lx- contemplated, let alone accepted as policy? For surely it is nothing less. To deny the literate people of a country open access to worldwide developments in literature, philosophy. or the social and natural sciences, except those that some government committee considers "required for research or reference" and also "In conformity with our culture and heritage", is a sure recipe for cultural and intellectual disaster. For culture, and the life of the intellect, can only thrive on the free flow of ideas. Cultural efflorescences have almost Invariably been the result of cross-pollination. of the meeting of "alien" cultures. Think of the role of Islamic culture in the Italian Renaissance, or that of English in our own more modest but nonetheless astonishing awakening.
What Is "our” culture and heritage ? Surely we are heir to many heritages — not only
Sanskrit. Persian and Arabic, but also, perhaps more powerfully. the Graeco-Roman and Judaec cultural heritage as transmuted and transmitted by the English. To be sure, there is a folk culture that has- been largely untouched by the last. But folk culture, precisely because it is immune to cross fertilization. Is static, and cannot constitute the staple of a growing, developing, dynamic culture.
Imagine it. a future where you don't have access to Dickens. Hardy. Jane. Austen, Balzac, Zola. Sartre. Camus. Marx. Kant, Max Weber. Tagore. Sharatchandru. Tarashankar. Bibhulibhushun. Russell. Whitehead, except such of these authors as some committee has decided to be “in conformity with our culture and heritage" or "required for research and reference". Imagine your children growing up without Anderson. Grimm. Mark Twain. Shukumar Ray. Satyajit Ray. Is it this state of total cultural deprivation (only very partly relieved by piracy and smuggling) that Is supposed to "flourish" our culture? Even in industrial policy protectionism Is now out of fashion because it breeds Inefficiency. In the field of culture, such protectionism spells nothing less than the death of the soul.
How finally, can a government that prides itself on being democratic arrogate to Itself the right to dictate what its citizenry may or may not read? It Is bad enough that from time to time I am denied the right to read a particular book because a committee of scmi-llterate bureaucrats and bigoted pseudo-scholars decide that I must be protected front its contents. A blanket ban on all Imported book constitutes a total infringement of my right to choose and construct my own culture, of my right to views that differ from those of the powers that be. of my right to freedom of thought. Il Is authoritarianism run mad. Perhaps, as tn Hitler's Germany, we shall start with ceremonial bonfires of the Imported books that are already In tlw shops.