NEW DELHI: Penguin Books India has agreed to withdraw from sale all copies of a book that takes an unorthodox view of Hinduism, and will pulp them as part of a settlement after a case was filed against the publisher, the petitioners’ lawyer said.
The Hindus: An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger, a professor at the University of Chicago’s Divinity School, was published in India in 2011. Its depiction of the religion drew criticism from both conservative Hindus and some scholars.
Penguin agreed in the Saket Court in Delhi to recall the book, the petitioners’ lawyer Monika Arora said. What appeared to be a copy of the court agreement was widely circulated on the Internet yesterday. A complaint was filed by seven petitioners’ in the court in 2011. Penguin did not respond to several requests for comment.
The lead petitioner’s original complaint criticised the book for “heresies and factual inaccuracies” and criticised Doniger for having a selective approach to writing about Hinduism. “She denounced the Hindu deities and freedom fighters of India,” the petitioners’ lawyer Arora said.
A group headed by the lead petitioner has previously made complaints about diverse subjects including sex education in schools and a magazine article about Hindu militancy. The book’s withdrawal triggered anger on Twitter, rekindling a debate on freedom of speech in the world’s largest democracy. “The ‘offended’ prevail over freedom of speech” tweeted Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
The legal notice said Doniger was incorrect in describing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), India’s largest Hindu nationalist organisation, which is close to the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), as the party’s militant wing.
The notice also said that Doniger incorrectly tells readers the RSS was behind the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, India’s freedom hero, saying a judicial commission had exonerated the RSS of any complicity in Gandhi’s murder. Gandhi was shot dead by a former member of the organisation. Reuters
