THE PROCEEDING

Someone must have informed against Javed Khan. One morning in January 2020, though he had done nothing wrong, he was arrested.

What follows is a descent into a kafkaesque nightmare where innocence is no defense and the proceeding never ends.
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JAVED KHAN IS A MODEL CITIZEN. A bank executive in Delhi, he pays his taxes, keeps his head down, and stays out of politics. He has built a respectable middle-class life through hard work and careful choices.

Then, one Friday morning, the police arrive at his door.

He is accused of attending a protest he never went to. No formal charges are filed. No evidence is presented. But he is trapped in a proceeding-a kafkaesque legal limbo where he must prove his innocence without knowing what he's accused of.

As Javed navigates India's labyrinthine justice system, he loses his job, his savings, and his sense of security. His lawyers offer competing strategies: cooperate quietly, fight publicly, or pay the system off. Each choice carries risks he can barely comprehend.

Meanwhile, his identity becomes a liability. In a city roiling with protests over the new Citizenship Amendment Act, being Muslim and living in the "wrong" neighborhood is enough to make him suspect. His silence hasn't protected him. His compliance hasn't saved him. And the investigation that was supposed to clear him seems designed never to end.

THE PROCEEDING is a searing adaptation of Kafka's The Trial, transplanted to contemporary Delhi during the CAA-NRC protests of 2020. It's a story about bureaucratic absurdity and targeted persecution, about the violence of being
processed by a system that sees you as guilty until proven innocent-and maybe not even then.

For readers who loved Megha Majumdar's A BURNING, Aravind Adiga's THE WHITE TIGER, and Kamila Shamsie's HOME FIRE.

Perfect for fans of: literary fiction with political depth • kafkaesque narratives • contemporary Indian literature • stories of resistance and resilience • adaptations of classics