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@gmail.com

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On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 6:01 PM, Valerie J Roebuck <vjroebuck@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@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, 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

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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@gmail.com
dnjha72@gmail.com