In a shocking development, the book ‘Modi & Me: A Political Reawakening’ by analyst & author Saurav Dutt has been banned by Amazon and removed from its platform, with the American MNC stating such ‘Hindutva themed literature’ is not permissible.
The author shared a tweet today with a snapshot of the message he has received from Amazon –
The message sent by Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) to Saurav Dutt states –
“During a review, we’ve found that your account is related to a KDP account that we previously terminated for selling the book “Modi and Me: A Political Reawakening” which was the subject of complaints for allegedly spreading communal dissension and triggering customers because of Hindutva themed literature. Amazon KDP takes the customer experience seriously and titles such as this are subject to action if several complaints are raised about content that can upset or antagonise, which yours was seen to fall within.
As stated in our Terms and Conditions, if we terminate an account after complaints of this nature, you are not allowed to establish a new KDP account. As a result, we are terminating this account effective immediately and you may not open any new KDP accounts. …You’re no longer eligible to receive any outstanding royalties for the book ‘Modi and Me: A Political Reawakening’….All of your published titles will be removed from sale on Amazon”.
If you click on the earlier Amazon link for the book, you get an error page now.
Going by the above, it seems that a concerted campaign to raise complaints against the book was all it took for Amazon to remove it from their platform. And if this is going to be their stance on ‘Hindutva themed literature’, many other books are now at risk of being de-platformed. The very ideology of Hindutva has been declared as unacceptable by this powerful American MNC which dominates the e-book industry.
This is yet another aspect of digital colonisation, something HinduPost has been warning about for long.
Ironically, the American billionaire Jeff Bezos who owns Amazon also owns the liberal newspaper Washington Post, which whitewashed the ISIS terrorist chief Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi as an “austere religious scholar.”
About the book
As HinduPost had reported previously, the book ‘Modi & Me: A Political Reawakening’ by TIME magazine featured author and political commentator Saurav Dutt explores the growing global movement of Hinduphobia and makes a compelling case for a reassertion of Dharmic and Indic values by the global Hindu diaspora to combat attacks on Hindu culture, religion and civilization.
In the book, the Bharatiya-born British author describes how he was relatively nonchalant about Bharatiya politics and Hindu culture prior to Modi’s rise but became incredibly troubled by the rising wave of Hinduphobia that possessed the liberal left across both the Bharatiya subcontinent and the West, both working hand in glove to paint Bharat as a rising Hindu fascist nation and that Modi had seemingly emboldened cow vigilante groups, demonized Muslims, rewrote the nation’s texts to glorify Hindus at the expense of Abrahamic faiths.
“It has become open season against Hindus,” Dutt said on the release of the book “since 2014 it has become a sin to be proud of one’s Hindu faith and India’s place in the world. Indian left-wing ecosystems, well-funded ‘toolkits’, Western supremacist narratives, have all been deployed to depict Narendra Modi as ‘the brown Hitler’ and all his followers as ‘Bhakts’ or crazy religious zealots. It is time to embrace the fact that Hindus can be proud of who they are and where they’ve come from and that Modi’s rise to power is a major part in imbuing that sense of self and worth to a previously rudderless and confused Indian whose mind had been colonised.”
Dutt was aware the book may upset many but felt compelled to write it after speaking to Hindu NRIs, thought leaders, think tanks, NGOs, lobby groups, politicians, and Hindus like himself who have felt increasingly isolated by a tidal wave of hatred directed against Hindu polity, practice, worship, culture, religion, and which has depicted them all as Hindu supremacists.
Outpouring of support
Saurav Dutt has received an outpouring of support, ever since he posted about his book being deplatformed.
“This is unbelievable. I’m genuinely speechless. Hindutva is indigenous people of India decolonising and resisting ethnocide at the hands of violent colonisers. To deny an indigenous voice chronicling this is everything wrong thats with @amazon. @EHRCChair“ tweeted author Pt. Satish K Sharma.
“Can’t believe that ideologies claiming supremacism & right to conquer the world can sell but not the ones that call for respect for all!! Amazon has gone bonkers,” tweetedauthor Ratan Sharda.
“Their conditions are so vague – what the hell do they mean by “Hindutva themed literature” & how many complaints qualify as “several complaints”!! Please sue them in India and US“, tweeted Megha G
“ईस्ट इंडिया कंपनी -२ ?” tweeted Gopal Goswami, wondering if this marked the advent of a new wave of colonisation via East India Company 2.0.
“I interviewed @sd_saurav on my show. We talked about the upcoming book ! However ‘Mein Kampf’ by Lord Voldemort is selling in several languages! The ‘tool kit’ is real – everyday a new one shows up!” tweeted Vibhuti Jha.
“Shame on Amazon … stop dealing with this company which maligns Hinduism #BoycottAmazon“ tweeted Amit Saxena.
“Access to the Indian Market is a privilege for a foreign company, and it is not proper for the foreign company to introduce its foreign biases onto the Indian market and unduly influence and impact the Indian customer negatively,” tweeted another user.
“We need more Desi apps to address this monopoly of such companies,” tweetedPramod Gupta.
“Daily dose of #hinduphobia from @amazon. This decision had to be reversed. Hindutva means Hindu + Tatva (a way of life). Living In harmony with everybody else. Shame on #amazon,” tweeted Prakash.
“@amazon has an axe to grind. They are having a court case against Reliance in Supreme Court. Billionaire also owns @washingtonpost Outcome is not unexpected.”tweeted Dr. Jagdish Pathak.
“That’s unacceptable. I have a personal experience with Amazon. After writing a review on Wendy Doniger’s book, my review was removed and I’ve been barred from writing a review on anything I buy. There’s little to no due process to look in and correct the muzzling of free speech,” said Dr. Murthy Badiga
“If @amazon has s problem on a book on #Hindutva then they are free to leave the land of #Hindutva. @RajivMessage prophecy of big tech controlling the narrative is coming true. Don’t leave them without the fight.” said one twitter user.
https://hindupost.in/media/amazon-censors-hindu-voices-bans-book-on-pm-modi/