A Spectator's Notebook
THERE ARE times when even those who are most sympathetic to the new India feel like tearing their hair. I learn that Mr. Aubrey Menen's book Rama Retold (published by Chatto and Windus) has been banned by the authorities in the State of Delhi, that is, in the city and its environs. The alleged reason for this suppression is that the book may wound the feelings of pious Hindus. But this I suspect is mere eye-wash; for Menen happens to be one of those rare Indian writers who have met with success in America, and to some extent in this country also, and who is refusing to toe, as it were, the Congress line. They want to teach him a lesson, especially as he is living abroad. England's hypocrisy used to be, rightly or wrongly, notor- ious, but from this and other signs it seems that India looks like outdoing her tutor. 'The unhappy story of this particular sup- pression is nicely rounded off by the fact that Mr. Menen's book has been banned in Delhi at a time when the Indian Govern- ment's representatives abroad have been most critical about the maintenance of the Roman Catholic 'Index' in Goa.
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