New Delhi: Readers in India looking forward to finding Joe Sacco’s latest graphic novel on local bookstore shelves will be disappointed. Penguin Random House India has pulled the plug on distributing The Once and Future Riot, the acclaimed graphic novelist’s unflinching 135-page chronicle of the 2013 Muzaffarnagar communal clashes, which left over 60 people dead and 40,000 displaced.
The book, published last year, was scheduled to hit Indian markets by August or September. However, Gaurav Shrinagesh, CEO of Penguin Random House India, confirmed that the title was red-flagged during a pre-check and legal scrutiny process. The decision to halt distribution came after Penguin UK failed to respond to several critical issues raised by the Indian division. The primary concern was an illustration of a map that inaccurately depicted the international boundaries of India. Additionally, the local publisher had raised content-related questions and requested citations that were never provided, though the exact number of these queries remains unclear. Shrinagesh emphasized that the company maintains a strict stance against distributing any material known to contain an inaccurate map if corrective changes are not made.
Despite the distribution halt, the book remains accessible to some domestic readers through alternative routes. It is currently available on certain online platforms that source copies from UK-based wholesalers—a parallel distribution channel over which Penguin Random House India has no control. Furthermore, some independent bookstores in South Delhi have bypassed the domestic publisher entirely and imported copies directly from the United Kingdom.
Sacco, whose celebrated illustrated dispatches from Gaza, Palestine, and the Balkans have redefined war journalism and comics reporting, dedicated his latest work to India’s hardworking rural journalists, several of whom assisted him as translators and researchers. Reflecting on the project in a recent interview with Prism magazine, Sacco stated that he wanted to move beyond passive reporting, noting that simply quoting opposing sides is not true journalism, and that he wanted to make a genuine effort to find out what actually happened. In the book's final chapter, titled "The Future Riot," Sacco analyzes the political landscape surrounding the tragedy, which occurred just months before the 2014 general elections, writing that communal violence can confer electoral advantages and that bloodshed, when properly framed, serves as a political building block.