[INDOLOGY] Fwd: Hitler and MLBD

[Matthew Kapstein]

Pirated or not, Mein Kampf has been a regular fixture of street-corner and railway station booksellers in India for decades. I recall it all over the place even during my first visit to India in 1970. What is surprising is
to see a "respectable" publisher dealing with it. This is why I wanted to know whether MLBD has
actually published it, or whether it appears only in their distribution list. In the latter case, higher
management might not be at all responsible, though this would certainly be a great oversight
on their part.

In any case, it seems to me to be necessary to determine just what MLBD is doing with this, and
then to make known to them that the Indological community (many of us at least) consider this
to be unacceptable and that we will recommend that our libraries stop dealing with them if
they are indeed committed to publishiing or distributing this particular item. I imagine that
such a move would get their attention in a hurry.

And, if they have indeed published it, I think we should insist very publically (e.g. in an op ed in
The Times of India or The Hindu) that they have the thing "pulped."

There's not much we can do about the fly-by-night publishers, but MLBD should know better.

best to all,
Matthew

Matthew Kapstein
Directeur d'études,
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies,
The University of Chicago
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