Re: OUP denies ‘censorship'

[Dominik Wujastyk]

A quick check of the OUP India website today does show that
Ramanujan's *Collected
Essays* volume is currently listed as "available for immediate purchase".
See attached image.

Dominik

--
Dr Dominik Wujastyk



On 30 November 2011 09:21, Jean-Luc Chevillard <
jean-luc.chevillard at univ-paris-diderot.fr> wrote:

> FYI
>
> (copied from the MinTamil list)
>
> "http://groups.google.com/**group/mintamil/browse_thread/**
> thread/50b6f97b6302e209<http://groups.google.com/group/mintamil/browse_thread/thread/50b6f97b6302e209>
> "
>
> ********************************************
>
> Flash from the UK via Chennai.
>
>
> Retrieved on 30 11 2011 from
>
> http://www.thehindu.com/**todays-paper/tp-national/**article2673004.ece<http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2673004.ece>
>
>
> 30 11 2011
>
> Ramanujan essay row: OUP denies ‘censorship'
>
> HASAN SUROOR
>
>
> ‘Commercial considerations' cited for not publishing Three Hundred
> Ramayanas
>
> The Oxford University Press (OUP) on Tuesday said that its decision to
> discontinue publishing and selling A.K. Ramanujan's essay, ‘Three Hundred
> Ramayanas,' was based on “commercial considerations.” It denied acting
> under pressure from right-wing protesters who had claimed that the essay
> hurt Hindu sensitivities.
>
> Nigel Portwood, chief executive of OUP UK, also denied that it had stopped
> printing altogether Ramanujan's Collected Essays , in which ‘300 Ramayanas'
> appears, but said the book was available only in its “short-run print
> programme because there was not a sufficient number of back orders to
> justify a normal reprint.”
>
> Reply to letter
>
> Replying to a letter from American Indologist Sheldon Pollock and several
> other leading academics, including Paula Richman in whose volume the essay
> appears, Mr. Portwood rejected allegations of censorship. He insisted that
> OUP took its “role as a disseminator of the best scholarship in India”
> seriously.
>
> “The two Ramanujan books at the centre of the current debate — Many
> Ramayanas and The Collected Essays of A.K. Ramanujan — have not been
> removed from the market in India through acts of censorship. Prior to 2008,
> both works had been showing minimal sales triggering the decision not to
> reprint either title. As I am sure you appreciate, commercial
> considerations are one of several factors in publishing decisions.”
>
> About the “confusion” over the availability of The Collected Essays , Mr.
> Portwood said the book was out of stock from 2008 but OUP continued to
> collect a small number of back orders on its internal systems.
>
> “In early September 2011, we put The Collected Essays into our short-run
> print programme because there was not a sufficient number of back orders to
> justify a normal reprint, and it has been listed as available on the OUP
> India website ever since — some weeks before the current controversy
> began,” he said.
>
> In their letter, Prof. Pollock and co-signatories had conveyed their
> “shock and dismay” at OUP India's action which, they said, was compounded
> by its abject apology in court to a group which had claimed that the essay
> hurt Hindu sensitivities. They urged the OUP to withdraw its court apology,
> publicly state that it was committed to the right of scholars to publish
> their work without fear of suppression or censorship, and demonstrate this
> commitment by reprinting Ramanujan's The Collected Essays .
>
>
>
> OUP denies acting under pressure from right-wing protesters
>
>
> “ Collected Essays available only in its short-run print programme”
>
>
> Retrieved on 30 11 2011 fromhttp://www.thehindu.com/**
> todays-paper/tp-national/**article2673004.ece<http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/article2673004.ece>
>


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