Outcry as Penguin India pulps 'alternative' history of Hindus

Novelist Arundhati Roy leads chorus of protest after publisher settles lawsuit brought by militant groupConservative activists in India have pledged to continue their campaign to purge bookshelves and schools of works they say are abusive to Hinduism, as a fierce row over a 700-page academic work on the faith intensified on Thursday.Penguin Books India agreed this week to withdraw from sale and pulp all copies of The Hindus: An Alternative History, by the US-based academic Wendy Doniger, as part of a settlement after a group of Hindu conservative nationalists filed a case against the publisher."We are going to fight each and every example of this. We will leave nothing unchallenged that is against our customs, our religion, our nation," said Prakash Sharma, spokesman for the hardline Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) organisation, one of a series of conservative religious groups in India that aggressively campaign against artists and authors who they believe malign or misrepresent Hinduism.Penguin's decision not to fight the case has worried many authors, and revealed deep cultural divisions. Arundhati Roy, who won the Booker prize in 1997 for her novel The God of Small Things, said she was shocked by Penguin's decision and uncertain whether to stay with the publisher. "So far I have had been more than happy to be published by Penguin. But now? What you have done affects us all," Roy wrote.An editorial in the Times of India condemned "the growing power of bullying... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2014-02-14 00:00:00 UTC ]

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