“Angered most often, to judge by its actions, is the government of India. Our maps that include the disputed territory of Kashmir show it carved up into Indian, Pakistani and Chinese areas of control. Every time we print one, every single issue of the magazine distributed in India is defaced with an official stamp. The government thinks it important to inform readers that the external boundaries of India as depicted are ‘neither correct nor authentic’.

“Some readers in India seem to suspect us of malice: perhaps we publish such maps purely to irk the authorities and add to the overtime earnings of the hard-pressed stampers. The truth is more benign: in using ‘the line of control’ that divides Kashmir in the absence of an agreed international frontier we are merely noting the status quo, not endorsing it,” it added.

Inaccurate map an offence

Anyone who wants to publish a map of India in a textbook or magazine has to approach the Survey of India, which has a special cell that takes at least a month to certify the map after checking its authenticity manually. In case the map is of a higher scale than usual, a certification is also required from the Military Survey Cell. The Survey of India gets over 3,700 such requests every year. Publication of inaccurate external boundaries and coastline of India is a cognizable offence under Section 2 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1961 and is tantamount to questioning the territorial integrity of India.