Penguin withdraws Hindu book after complaints

Penguin India, an arm of US-based publisher Penguin Random House, is to withdraw from India a book about Hindu mythology written by a prominent American scholar, after rightwing Hindu activists complained that it denigrated their religion.

Confronted with several criminal complaints and a civil lawsuit, Penguin India agreed to destroy all unsold copies of The Hindus: An Alternative History, the critically acclaimed book published in 2009, by Wendy Doniger, a University of Chicago professor.

As part of the out-of-court settlement, India's Shiksha Bachao Andolan - or Save Education Movement, a conservative Hindu activist group which sued Penguin in 2011 over the book - has agreed to withdraw its lawsuit and criminal complaints against Penguin and Ms Doniger.

In a statement, Ms Doniger said she was "angry and disappointed" at the events, and "deeply troubled about what it foretells for free speech in India in the present, and steadily worsening, political climate".

She said she did not "blame" Penguin, which published the book "knowing it would stir anger in the Hindutva ranks" and defended it legally for four years.

She said Penguin was "finally defeated by the true villain of the piece - Indian law, which makes it a criminal rather than civil offence to publish a book that offends any Hindu, a law that jeopardises the physical safety of any publisher, no matter how ludicrous the accusation". Her works would remain available in India electronically, Ms Doniger said, including on Kindle.

"I am glad that in this age of internet, it is no longer possible to suppress a book," she said. "If legal means of publication fail, the internet has other means of keeping books in circulation. People in India will always be able to read books of all sorts, including some that may offend some Hindus."

Penguin, which is 47 per cent owned by Pearson - the Financial Times' parent company - and 53 per cent by Bertelsmann, said it had no comment on the settlement agreement, which was filed in the Saket District Court and subsequently posted online.

The decision to withdraw the book from India comes just weeks after London-based Bloomsbury unilaterally withdrew a book, The Descent of Air India, after Praful Patel, the former aviation minister, filed a lawsuit against the company.

That book, written by a former executive director of Air India, blamed Mr Patel for many of the money-losing state carrier's woes. In withdrawing the book, Bloomsbury apologised to the former aviation minister.

Yet Penguin India's decision to destroy all copies of a 692-page academic tome on ancient Hindu mythology by a leading Sanskrit scholar has caused a storm, with some Indians accusing the publisher of capitulating on critical principles of free speech and academic freedom.

"It was very unwise for Penguin to agree to this," said Swapan Dasgupta, a political commentator. "When publishers get intimidated and cowed down by fringe groups, rather than stand up to scrutiny, then it's very dangerous. It opens the floodgates for all sorts of little fringe groups."

Penguin appeared to have "taken the line of least resistance" in settling with Shiksha Bachao Andolan's demands, Mr Dasgupta said, calling the deal "very disturbing".

Lawrence Liang, an attorney and expert on cultural politics with the Bangalore-based Alternative Law Forum, said Penguin's decision "smacks of convenience", as the book had already been widely sold.

India ostensibly protects free speech, and is known for its vigorous political debate. But it also has highly elastic laws against inciting hatred, or "hurting the sentiments" of religious communities, which conservatives from across the religious spectrum have successfully used to suppress creative works not to their tastes, such as paintings of Hindu deities by the late artist M.F. Husain.

"The political economy of hurt sentiment has been extremely well-played by the religious right," Mr Liang said. "Every religious community knows how to play this game. But publishers have to be willing to take this fight on."

Ms Doniger has written 16 books, including modern translations of Sanskrit literature with annotations and commentary. However, her "joyful, sexual, pagan account of Hinduism," as Mr Liang describes it, has made her the bete noire of rightwing Hindu groups, which embrace more puritanical aspects of their faith.

Hindu critics claimed The Hindus contained errors and that Ms Doniger's use of Freudian psychoanalytical tools to analyse ancient myths was disrespectful to Hindu deities.

The settlement comes as India gears up for parliamentary elections, which India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is widely expected to win.

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