International publisher HarperCollins will publish Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s memoir in India, the company said in a statement Friday. The book is set for release in India on Nov. 10.
Sonia Gandhi’s memoir, “Belonging: A Journey of Love,” is being published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf. A deal had been struck with Penguin Random House India to publish it in India, but Penguin later withdrew. The publisher had objected to the “facts” in some chapters and asked the author to revise those sections, but Sonia declined.
As a result, Penguin Random House announced on Aug. 28 that it would not publish the book. HarperCollins stepped in after Penguin’s decision. In a post on X on Friday, the publisher announced it would officially release Sonia Gandhi’s memoir in India on Nov. 10.
Calling “Belonging: A Journey of Love” “one of the most anticipated political memoirs of our time,” HarperCollins described it as “a dramatic and deeply personal narrative of love, identity, duty and solidarity — a close chronicle of the Indian experience.”
According to HarperCollins’ press statement, the narrative begins at Cambridge University in England, where a 19-year-old student named Sonia Maino fell in love with Rajiv, who would go on to become prime minister of India.
Known for being reticent and private, Sonia writes in the book about her childhood, describing her postwar life in Veneto, Italy, and how she came to India from there. She writes about how a series of deaths in the family shaped both her future and India’s, and describes how the flow of events shaped and transformed her life.
Reports say Penguin Random House had objected to Sonia’s views on Narendra Modi becoming prime minister, the RSS, and Chinese incursions in eastern Ladakh, and had proposed she revise those sections.
The Congress leader declined, and that is the reason cited for Penguin’s decision not to publish the book. Penguin largely acknowledged this in one statement, but later said in another statement that the decision was its own, not influenced by any outside party — an effort to convey that its withdrawal was not politically motivated.
Penguin Random House has withdrawn from publishing two other books in similar circumstances before. The most recent case involved “Four Stars of Destiny,” a memoir by former Indian army chief Manoj Mukund Naravane. Though published abroad, Penguin did not release it in India due to the controversy it stirred.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had cited a section of that book in the Lok Sabha, saying Prime Minister Narendra Modi had left the responsibility of responding to Chinese incursions in Ladakh to the former army chief. Penguin also withdrew from publishing “The Once and Future Riot,” a book by acclaimed graphic novelist Joe Sacco about the 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.