Publisher withdraws guide book with offensive analogy in Assam

An image of the page. The controversial line is marked.  

A local publisher has withdrawn a guide to a Class 12 textbook after it attracted criticism for an insensitive remark.

The Guwahati-based RG Publications had published the guide book to Sahitya Saurav, the Assamese language textbook approved by the State’s higher secondary education council for the current academic session

Explaining the Assamese phrase paani kor (dash hopes), the guide book used a sentence that translates into: “The girl dashed the hopes of her parents by marrying a Muslim boy.”

In an apology the publishing firm’s proprietor Rakesh Goswami said they had stopped printing the guide book and those already sold would be recalled. Around 200 books had been sold.

“We have asked Dipak Rajbongshi and Mary Pujari, editors of the guide book, to revise it. They have admitted their mistake,” an executive of the firm said. State higher education officials said they would probe how such a line came to be published.

Officials added that they will henceforth ensure that books are filtered for such content.