In what’s very upsetting news to anyone who respects intellectual and academic freedom, Penguin India 
has agreed to recall all remaining Indian copies of scholar Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History as a result of an agreement with several Hindu groups. The entire agreement was leaked to Scribd and you can read it here. All remaining Indian copies of the book will be destroyed.
First published in 2009, DNAIndia points out that The Hindus was the top bestselling nonfiction book in India that year. Despite that, some groups targeted the book right away. A 2010 petition by the Sarasvati Research Trust claimed the book was “rife with numerous errors in its historical facts and Sanskrit translations.”
Even worse was the legal notice sent by the activist Dina Nath Batra to both Doniger and Penguin India (I’ve put the most horrifying points in bold):
- That it is a shallow, distorted and non serious presentation of Hinduism.
- That it is a haphazard presentation riddled with heresies and factual inaccuracies.
- That it is written with a Christian Missionary Zeal and hidden agenda to denigrate Hindus and show their religion in poor light.
- That the entire list of the books authored by Doniger concentrate and focus on the negative aspects and evil practices prevalent in Hinduism.
- That the words used by Doniger for referring to various Hindu Gods are highly objectionable.
- That on the book jacket of the book Lord Krishna is shown sitting on buttocks of a naked woman surrounded by other naked women.
- That Doniger depicted Lord Krishna in such a vulgar, base perverse manner to outrage religious feelings of Hindus.
- That Doniger’s approach has been jaundiced, and “is that of a woman hungry of sex.”
I can’t even on that last one. As for Doniger herself, she released a statement through PEN Delhi’s Facebook page. An excerpt:
…I was, of course, angry and disappointed to see this happen, and I am deeply troubled by what it foretells for free speech in India in the present, and steadily worsening, political climate. And as a publisher’s daughter, I particularly wince at the knowledge that the existing books (unless they are bought out quickly by people intrigued by all the brouhaha) will be pulped. But I do not blame Penguin Books, India. Other publishers have just quietly withdrawn other books without making the effort that Penguin made to save this book. Penguin, India, took this book on knowing that it would stir anger in the Hindutva ranks, and they defended it in the courts for four years, both as a civil and as a criminal suit.
They were finally defeated by the true villain of this piece—the Indian law that makes it a criminal rather than civil offense to publish a book that offends any Hindu, a law that jeopardizes the physical safety of any publisher, no matter how ludicrous the accusation brought against a book.
Doniger later points out that in the age of the Internet, it is impossible to truly suppress a book and that The Hindus will remain available on Kindle. If you’d like to purchase a copy in solidarity, the link is here.
Follow Lakshmi Gandhi on Twitter @LakshmiGandhi and follow The Aerogram at @theaerogram or on Facebook.
Has anyone read this book? I haven’t. I know censorship is b.s. and the reasons given on the legal notice are disgusting, but from the Amazon reviews I’ve read, this book seems to fall into the traps of Western elitism viewing Hinduism as nothing more than a brutal and chauvinistic dogma. I’m willing to have my initial, very uninformed opinion changed, but so far, I’m unlikely to give her any money for writing something as boring as this. To clarify, I don’t think the copies should be destroyed, nor censored. I’m just prob not going to read it.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Hindus-An-Alternative-History/dp/1594202052
Thanks for commenting. I haven’t read the book either, but remember that it got mostly positive attention when it was published in 2009. Here’s link to the New York Times review from 2009 (it seems like reviewer Pankaj Mishra liked it for the most part. He also called it “staggeringly comprehensive”): http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/books/review/Mishra-t.html
Cool, thanks for the response. Yeah, he does seem to give a generally positive review. Read the first amazon review written by a South Asian American who also references the NYT review. Let’s expand this discussion to include how the diaspora views writing about India/Hinduism versus the liberal elite in India. I know personally that anytime I’ve tried to discuss the condescending way white Americans often treat Indian subjects or race in general, I don’t think native Indians really understand. Since they grew up in a majority, I wonder if they’re less sensitive to attacks, or maybe even welcome them, even if they are ill-informed and culturally Western biased.
I’ll be very interested in reading your review of the book once you get it. I’m glad you posted this article in Aerogramme about the wrongful censorship. It’s a sad day when things get banned in a free society.
White people only take the stuff that they can best understand out of the Hindu culture. The 1% they like of it is the free sex part and the sex positions manual. Nothing else has caught on. Yoga perhaps…
I think many white people also take the negative elements out of most other cultures to somehow support the belief that “The West is Best (and only)”. Living life is probably just easier that isolationist, finger-pointing way. Also, Christianity has become more sin-focused, so judging has become an easy habit when it comes to the Christian faithful and culturally ignorant.
There must be a reason why no one in authority is bothered about this news. And neither it the common Indian. People expect it to be at best a western steoroty[pical representation of India and Hinduism. And at worst, a motivated, malicious and intentional denigration and running down of Hinduism by the usual suspects in the west. This attempt is nothing new to the Indian public.
Never in the past have I seen so few defenders of freedom of speech turn up than in the case of Wendy’s book. It really must be perceived to be extremely ghastly by 99.9999% of those who haven’t read it either due to the steorotypical cover which seems to equate Hinduism with kamasutra or because they simply noticed the author’s face. So no sympathies with the author.
It’s really not. It’s actually quite balanced and respectful. But way to make a judgment without knowing the facts. Wendy Doniger is far from an anti-Hindu scholar.
I am a bit curious about the reference to the law that makes it a criminal law to publish a book that offends any Hindu. Is that a reference to the Indian law against offending religious sensibilities? if so, the author seems to be engaging in some pretty shady disingenuousness. It is my understanding that such law has been used to protect the sensibilities of various religions (e.g. public readings of the Satanic Verses are effectively banned under the law). It’s a bit like claiming that the U.S. has a “double-jeopardy” law that prevents Hindus from being tried twice for the same offence. The double-jeopardy law applies.to all Americans, regardless of religion. So yes, she can get pissy about the legitimacy and effects of the Indian law, but the fact that she implies that the law is designed to protect Hindus per se (as opposed to protecting all religious sentiments) makes me suspicious of her motives on this matter. And if she didn’t take the time to understand the nuances of the law that affects her so personally, with the resources that a relatively well-heeled publisher can provide, then it doesn’t speak well for her research methodology in other areas.
Bottom line, assuming that is the law she is referencing, that quote suggests to me that she is either lying or incompetent with respect to this issue. Either way, although I think the law in question is asinine, and have no desire to censor unpalatable views, I’m not inclined to pick up a copy of her tome to fund her continued malice or obtuseness. I’m actually a bit surprised that this site took her words at face-value without doing some fact checking of its own.