[INDOLOGY] Wendy Doniger's book to be withdrawn in India by Penguin India

[Dn Jha]

Dn Jha jdnarayan at gmail.com
8:52 PM (23 minutes ago)

to Valerie, Dominik, indology
We shouln"t expect anything better from  Indian Publishers, be it Penguin
or any other. They are all spineless. What is still worse, the reaction of
the academic community hardly carries any weight. We have seen this in the
case of Courtright' book on Ganesh, Laine's book on Shivaji, Ramanujan
essay on the Ramayana; examples can be multiplied. In many cases the
academics don't even react as I experienced in my own case. They swear by
freedom of expression, but the freedom of X becomes superior to the freedom
of Y.
I am familiar with WendyDoniger's writings which are undoubtedly refreshing
and thought provoking and when I read her Hinduism book (Penguin India) I
had a feeling that the Sangh Parivar may come out openly against it any
time. I will not be surprised if the Parivar repeats performance in the
case of her book ON HINDUISM published by the Aleph company last year.
Isn't it possible that the Penguin authors mobilise scholars from diferent
fields and send a petition-on line to the Publisher. If Peguin does not
agree to put the book back into circulation, at least the Penguin authors
withdraw their books from them or at least decide not to publish with them
in future. This is what some scholars, I am told, did with with Motilal
Banarsidass in the case of Courtright's book.
D N Jha
Former Professor and Chair
Department of History
University of Delhi
jdnarayan at gmail.com


On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 8:52 PM, Dn Jha <jdnarayan at gmail.com> wrote:

> We shouln"t expect anything better from  Indian Publishers, be it Penguin
> or any other. They are all spineless. What is still worse, the reaction of
> the academic community hardly carries any weight. We have seen this in the
> case of Courtright' book on Ganesh, Laine's book on Shivaji, Ramanujan
> essay on the Ramayana; examples can be multiplied. In many cases the
> academics don't even react as I experienced in my own case. They swear by
> freedom of expression, but the freedom of X becomes superior to the freedom
> of Y.
> I am familiar with WendyDoniger's writings which are undoubtedly
> refreshing and thought provoking and when I read her Hinduism book (Penguin
> India) I had a feeling that the Sangh Parivar may come out openly against
> it any time. I will not be surprised if the Parivar repeats performance in
> the case of her book ON HINDUISM published by the Aleph company last year.
> Isn't it possible that the Penguin authors mobilise scholars from diferent
> fields and send a petition-on line to the Publisher. If Peguin does not
> agree to put the book back into circulation, at least the Penguin authors
> withdraw their books from them or at least decide not to publish with them
> in future. This is what some scholars, I am told, did with with Motilal
> Banarsidass in the case of Courtright's book.
> D N Jha
> Former Professor and Chair
> Department of History
> University of Delhi
> jdnarayan at gmail.com
> --
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 6:01 PM, Valerie J Roebuck <
> vjroebuck at btinternet.com> wrote:
>
>> Thank you for telling us about this. I am a Penguin India author too, and
>> have emailed them with my concerns.
>>
>> Valerie J Roebuck
>> Manchester, UK
>>
>> On 11 Feb 2014, at 10:14, Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>> Dear colleagues,
>>
>> I am appalled to learn of yet another book-banning episode in India, this
>> time
>> affecting our colleague Wendy Doniger.
>>
>>
>> Yesterday, if I understand correctly, Penguin India agreed to withdraw
>> the book rather than fight the law case:
>>
>>
>>    -
>>    http://scroll.in/article/penguin-agrees-to-pulp-us-scholars-book-on-hinduism-on-pressure-from-fundamentalists?id=656104
>>
>>
>> If you read the five objections offered against the book<http://scroll.in/article/five-piece-of-evidence-offered-by-fundamentalist-group-against-donigers-hinduism-book?id=656130>,
>> they are risible.  It beggars belief that any court, much less a publisher,
>> would take objections of this type seriously.
>>
>> As a Penguin Delhi author myself, I shall be writing to Penguin India to
>> protest this dark-ages ruling.
>>
>> Penguin Delhi's contact details are here:
>> http://www.penguinbooksindia.com/en/content/contact-us
>>
>> Dominik Wujastyk
>> University of Vienna
>>
>> <Doniger Saket-District-Court-Setlement-page-13.jpeg>
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>
>
>
> --
> --
> D N Jha
> Professor of History (retired),
> University of Delhi
> 9, Uttaranchal Apartments
> 5, I.P. Extension, Delhi 110 092
> Tel: + 2277 1049
> Cell: 98111 43090
> jdnarayan at gmail.com
> dnjha72 at gmail.com
>
>
>


-- 
-- 
D N Jha
Professor of History (retired),
University of Delhi
9, Uttaranchal Apartments
5, I.P. Extension, Delhi 110 092
Tel: + 2277 1049
Cell: 98111 43090
jdnarayan at gmail.com
dnjha72 at gmail.com


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