Penguin India yanks Hinduism book after outcry

[Jim]

My publisher e-mailed this AP wire to me. It may be of interest to some group members.

Thursday, Feb. 13, 3:11 p.m. UTC

New Delhi (AP) - Under pressure from a small Hindu nationalist group, Penguin India publishing house has yanked all copies of an American scholar's narrative history of Hinduism from sale in India and ordered them destroyed.

The group Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti, or the Save Education Movement, had objected to religious historian Wendy Doniger's 2009 book, The Hindus: An Alternative History", for describing mythological texts as fictional and, thus, hurting "the religious feelings of millions of Hindus", according to a lawsuit filed against Penguin India.

A leader of the group filed the lawsuit in 2010 against the Indian publishing house as well as the New York-based arm Penguin Group, Inc. On Monday, Penguin India said that, as part of a case settlement, it was ordering all Indian sales of the book to cease and all copies to be pulped.

By Thursday, bookstores in the capital of New Delhi were refusing to sell any copies.

The action stunned writers and intellectuals in India, with many wondering how one of the world's oldest publishing houses had given in to demands by right-wring nationalists.

Associated Press

[Kathy]

I'm wondering myself.

[Sybil]

It's a shame the way extreamist stop the thinking man thinking.

[[deleted user]]

I think it's really important to keep on top of our right to express ourselves through the written word. If inequalities aren't tackled as they arise we will, all to quickly, have a world that slips back into medieval thinking.