Online plea for Mistry book gathers support

After the outrage expressed by writers, civil society activists and Rohinton Mistry himself over the manner in which Mistry's book, Such a Long Journey, was removed from the Mumbai University's syllabus, an online petition initiated by two city students is garnering support beyond Mumbai. Sadaf Modak reports.

After the outrage expressed by writers, civil society activists and Rohinton Mistry himself over the manner in which Mistry's book, Such a Long Journey, was removed from the Mumbai University's syllabus, an online petition initiated by two city students is garnering support beyond Mumbai.

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The petition, launched on October 11 by Shashank Kumar (21), a postgraduate student at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and Neil Maheshwari (19), a second year student at St Xavier's College, has 1,200 signatories.

Addressed to Governor K Sankarnarayanan, it demands the book be reinstated and aims to create awareness among students.

Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had on Sunday congratulated University vice-chancellor Rajan Welukar for dropping the book after Aditya Thackeray complained that its contents were objectionable.

"It is not about the book, but the manner in which it was dropped," said Kumar.

Though 800 of the 1,200 signatories so far have been students, they have not come out on to the streets to protest.

"The student community is not very concerned. To begin with, not many are affected directly because not many colleges study the book," Kumar said.