Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of [citizens of India], [by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise], insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to [three years], or with fine, or with both.
I see from the April 2014 issue of the MLBD Newsletter that MLBD is bringing out an edition of Mein Kampf by Adolph Hitlar (sic). It nestles incongruously between Alonso on the Mahabharata and the Black on the Upanisads.
This was a shock! My immediate reaction was that I wish furiously to sever all links with MLBD. I have already written to Penguin Delhi, asking to withdraw my book from them because of their scandalous pulping of Doniger's book. Now MLDB is publishing "Hitlar." Has Indian publishing gone completely mad?
My second reaction was, it's not wrong to publish even Hitlar's writings, because how else can interested people find out how misguided he was, and how else can historians combat his ideas. Free speech and all that.
But my final conclusion is that this is indeed completely inappropriate because MLBD presents itself as an Indological publisher, and Mein Kampf isn't even remotely connected with serious Indology. Even participants in the "Indology under National Socialism" debate don't really need a new edition of Kampf, surely.
I shall therefore be writing to MLBD in protest in the strongest terms about this pubication. I urge all my colleagues to do the same. If someone wants to set up a petition, I'll gladly sign it.
Best,
Dominik Wujastyk
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