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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchA contemporary 1955 record documents a prohibition on Aubrey Menen’s *The Story of Rama Retold* entering India, citing its irreverence toward the gods. That establishes a historical import restriction—not that the book is still legally banned today. The available sources do not settle its current legal status.
What the 1955 record says about the ban
A note dated 8 October 1955 in the Nehru Archive summarizes correspondence about censorship. It says K. M. Panikkar, a member of the Sahitya Akademi executive committee, had asked the Akademi to discuss censorship in connection with the prohibition on Menen’s book entering India. The stated ground was that it treated the gods irreverently. Read the archival note.
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Rama: Retold from the Ramayna ( Amar Chitra Katha) (English and Hindi Edition) | $8.50 | Buy on Amazon |
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The Valmiki Ramayana. Vol. 1: Retold in Verse | $56.18 | Buy on Amazon |
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The note is contemporaneous institutional evidence of a prohibition, but it is not the government’s underlying order. It therefore establishes that the restriction was discussed in 1955, not the precise legal instrument, its full terms, or how long it remained in force.
Why the book provoked disagreement
Panikkar defended irreverent retelling
Panikkar argued that irreverence toward the gods had a place in Hindu tradition. As the archival note quotes his letter of 3 October, 1955: “In fact the Hindu tradition has tolerated if not encouraged an irreverent treatment of gods”. He described Menen’s book as “of outstanding quality, satirical no doubt, but touching profound truths.” These are Panikkar’s assessments, not a judgment adopted by the Akademi as a whole.
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Radhakrishnan urged institutional restraint
S. Radhakrishnan’s note said he personally would not mind the book circulating, even if its satire might provoke cheap laughter at the country’s expense. He also said the Home Ministry had other factors to consider, and advised the Akademi not to judge the Ministry’s decision or advise it on censorship unless asked. The exchange records differing views about the book and about the Akademi’s role; it does not show that the institution formally endorsed Menen’s treatment.
What Menen changed in his Ramayana retelling
An NPTEL lecture characterizes *Rama Retold* as an irreverent, secular adaptation. Its synopsis presents Sita as more intelligent than Rama, describes her offering herself as a hostage to save Valmiki’s ashram, and notes a suggested attraction between Sita and Ravana. Those are the lecture’s summaries; readers should consult Menen’s text before treating detailed plot descriptions as direct quotations or definitive textual analysis. See the NPTEL lecture.
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A peer-reviewed 2018 article places Menen’s rewriting in debates about literary profanation, censorship, religious tradition, and his position as an Anglo-Indian outsider. That context helps explain why the retelling became contentious, but it is interpretive scholarship, not evidence of the restriction’s legal status. Read the 2018 article.
Why the title varies by edition
Catalog records list the book under different titles. Open Library records a 1954 Scribner edition as The Ramayana as Told by Aubrey Menen, at 276 pages, and notes that the London Chatto and Windus edition appeared as Rama Retold. Google Books catalogs a 1954 Chatto and Windus edition under Rama Retold, at 246 pages. These are edition-specific catalog details; the page counts should not be generalized across editions.
A 2016 Scroll article describes an import prohibition in 1956, while the archival note already discusses the prohibition in October 1955. The sources may concern different stages or dates; without the underlying order and publication records, they do not establish one exact effective date. Read Scroll’s 2016 account.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Is *Rama Retold* still banned in India?
The evidence here does not establish that it is. The 1955 archival record documents a historical prohibition, and Scroll reported in 2016 that the book remained banned at that time. A report from 2016 is not confirmation of the law as it stands today, and the contemporaneous archival note is not the government order. So “still banned” should be treated as a historical report, not a verified present-day legal fact.
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