New Delhi, April 17 -- In 1904, Franz Kafka, then a passionate young man of 21, wrote in a letter to his friend Oskar Pollak a sentence that has since passed into the collective conscience of the literary world: "A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us." The statement is now common currency on bookstagram, exuding a feel-good earnestness that belies the sinister message underlying it: that books can unleash reactions in individuals that can swell and grow into a great tide of discontent against the powers that be.

It's not surprising that the seemingly innocuous act of reading has struck as much fear into the hearts of authoritarian regimes as the possibility of violent rebellion against them by the people. Over a century aft...