Press Note

Our holistic take on the last edition

Over the last two days, Cubbon Reads has been at the epicenter of endless public debate. Even those who don’t know what we do, and who haven’t attended any of our editions have come forward to offer their viewpoints, which impels us to present our version to the press, and the public at large.

Cubbon Reads has gathered hundreds of readers together every Saturday morning since March 2023. They sit individually by themselves to read for a few hours. Towards the end, some of the readers who stay till the end gather for a group picture together with their books stacked. Our gatherings are anything but a private event, as anyone can join, one can come and leave anytime, they can read anything they wish to, they don’t even have to commit to attendance. They are not the same as registered events like marathons that happen with prior registration and tickets. We don’t even collect the database of attendees through forms.

This being the pre-Christmas weekend, we asked readers to bring a gift-wrapped book with them (which is referred to as “Secret Santa” in popular culture), so we could facilitate a book swap amongst them. As is customary during our meet-ups every Saturday, there was nothing extraordinary than our usual editions, apart from the books being gift wrapped. All of this was to end within 15 minutes, until the authorities showed up and halted the proceedings.

They first took two of our curators to the Department of Horticulture office. The department officials were hostile and thought that Cubbon Reads was selling books to the public and using a public space to make money. They forcefully extricated their ID cards. The security guards there were talking about imposing fines from anywhere between INR 25,000 to 60,000. Also, our founding curators, who are not in town, were called and were threatened with FIR and a fine to show up in their office right away, else the current curators would be held in custody. It is important to highlight here that one of the curators was from Karnataka, while the other was from a neighbouring state, to prevent this from becoming a regional issue.

While on-ground, the park officials came and took away the gift-wrapped books from readers. The officials did not inform us of any specific legal provisions that permitted them to confiscate our books or one that required us to take prior permission to meet at the park for a social gathering. In the video, you see disappointed readers trailing them, demanding explanations both in Kannada and Hindi.

Ultimately, it was timely legal help that saved us and also freed those illegally confiscated books, else we would have been at the mercy of the Department of Horticulture, which has been the fate of so many other, smaller communities that started but died in Cubbon Park because of needless policing. There is evidence of similar incidents documented in our recent Instagram post.

Regarding the request for permission, we have been conducting silent reading gatherings for 100 weekends now, and each time, over 200-300 people have shown up. Not once have the park authorities had an issue with us coming there to read, stacking books and taking group pictures with hundreds of us huddled. We did not anticipate that readers coming together with gift-wrapped books would invite suspicion from the park authorities, forcing them to snatch the belongings and unwrap gift covers—only to find harmless books inside.

With regards to the press note issued by the Department of Horticulture yesterday, we would like to clarify:

• The guards came and started snatching the books belonging to others, many of whom had arrived from really far away, and that created panic, the “shouting and screaming” that has been referred to by the Deputy Director in her statement in the news article. We just wanted to rightfully claim our belongings.

• The Department of Horticulture claimed that there were 1000 attendees. That’s not true. We have documentary evidence that the last numbered book was 351 as we counted the gift-wrapped books there. Assuming some more people visiting the park joined in to see what was going on, at max there were 450 odd people, which is usual for Cubbon Reads.

• Nowhere in the rules before yesterday’s press release has the Department of Horticulture specified a number on a group of people that is allowed. If it were, Cubbon Reads should have been stopped in February 2023 itself, when over 20 readers came to the park to read and later huddled together for a group photo for the first time.

• In a report by Deccan Herald, the Deputy Director has been quoted as saying: “The nature of the event also matters. She said, "Marathons, walkathons, yoga sessions, and book readings are allowed, but we do not permit events like religious activities."” Using the word “Santa” in a meet-up does not make it religious.

• Regarding concerns of littering, after everyone had dispersed, our curators had themselves made multiple rounds of the space and foraged whatever garbage they could spot, irrespective of whether it was erroneously left there by someone in our community or someone else.

• It is not an organised event as there was no registration, no forms, and no money was undertaken. It was a voluntary show of readers, like it happens every Saturday.

The delay in sharing our clarification has been because today we have been consulting multiple lawyers to understand the legalities around access to public parks. We also met the Horticulture Department in their office. They have regretted the way it was handled from their side, and have offered to make Cubbon Park a safe space for readers to meet again.

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