Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Wendy Doniger's statement on her withdrawn book. Lying about support? U Chicago should investigate and throw her tenure out.

From




1. What types of people does the University of Chicago tenure to teach students about history or religion? 

2. Is there someone in the University to monitor if students end up learning pornography as history?

3. Is the situation similar in the American Academe on teaching pornography as religion or history and does the pornographic method apply to all religions or restricted only to Hinduism? 

4. Publishers should learn from Penguin goof up to avoid peddling porno as as 'history' or 'religion'? Shouldn't a cover chosen by Wendy for her book rung a bell? Or, when William Dalrymple acclaimed the book as 'an earthy, revelatory and brilliant book'? So, the Jaipur lit. fest gets to be a forum giving prominence to the earthy types like Dalrymple who seem to get excited about 'revelations'. 

5. There should be set standards of morality for the academe like the Hippocratic oath for medical practitioners. Any problems?

Revelations can be either porno or myths to fool students and young, impressionable minds.

It seems to have led to caricaturing Hinduism practiced by over one billion people into sex orgies. 

It is time Obama sets up a high level Commission of Inquiry into the state of the academe dealing with such rubbish studies and poisoning the minds of inquisitive students and ruining US relations with other sovereign nations.


Wendy Doniger expresses anger over Penguin's decision to axe her book


India Today Online  New Delhi, February 11, 2014 | UPDATED 23:45 IST
Wendy Doniger on Tuesday expressed her disappointment over Penguin Books India's decision to withdraw all published copies of her book, The Hindus: An Alternative History.

"I was thrilled and moved by the great number of messages of support that I received, not merely from friends and colleagues but from people in India that I have never met, who had read and loved The Hindus, and by news and media people, all of whom expressed their outrage and sadness and their wish to help me in any way they could. I was, of course, angry and disappointed to see this happen, and I am deeply troubled by what it foretells for free speech in India in the present, and steadily worsening, political climate," said Wendy in her statement to India Today Group.

According to reports, Penguin Books India has succumbed to pressure by various groups and agreed to withdraw all published copies. Reports say that they have even agreed to destroy all the remaining copies of the book which are currently with the publisher.

While there is no official confirmation from Penguin, a copy of the agreement wherein Penguin cans the book has been leaked online and is doing the rounds on Twitter and Scribd.
The main contention of all petitioners is that the book insults and offends Hindus and Indians. The issues against the book range from factual errors, dates, maps, to use of psychoanalytical tools while viewing Vedic, Hindu and Indian gods.

The decision has been taken in light of a civil lawsuit against the company in 2011 by a group called Shiksha Bachao Andolan based in New Delhi. The book also has two other criminal complaints against it.

Wendy Doniger's statement:

I was thrilled and moved by the great number of messages of support that I received, not merely from friends and colleagues but from people in India that I have never met, who had read and loved The Hindus, and by news and media people, all of whom expressed their outrage and sadness and their wish to help me in any way they could. I was, of course, angry and disappointed to see this happen, and I am deeply troubled by what it foretells for free speech in India in the present, and steadily worsening, political climate. And as a publisher's daughter, I particularly wince at the knowledge that the existing books (unless they are bought out quickly by people intrigued by all the brouhaha) will be pulped. But I do not blame Penguin Books, India. Other publishers have just quietly withdrawn other books without making the effort that Penguin made to save this book. Penguin, India, took this book on knowing that it would stir anger in the Hindutva ranks, and they defended it in the courts for four years, both as a civil and as a criminal suit.

They were finally defeated by the true villain of this piece-the Indian law that makes it a criminal rather than civil offense to publish a book that offends any Hindu, a law that jeopardizes the physical safety of any publisher, no matter how ludicrous the accusation brought against a book. An example at random, from the lawsuit in question:

'That YOU NOTICE has hurt the religious feelings of millions of Hindus by declaring that Ramayana is a fiction."Placing the Ramayan in its historical contexts demonstrates that it is a work of fiction, created by human authors, who lived at various times........." (P.662) This breaches section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).'

Finally, I am glad that, in the age of the Internet, it is no longer possible to suppress a book. The Hindus is available on Kindle; and if legal means of publication fail, the Internet has other ways 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.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/wendy-doniger-expresses-anger-over-penguins-decision-to-axe-her-book/1/343020.html

Penguin To Withdraw 'The Hindus: An Alternative History'
Publishing house Penguin India has agreed to Withdraw the book 'The Hindus: An Alternative History' by Wendy Doniger

According to an agreement signed by Penguin India that was leaked on Scribd and news broken on Twitter, Penguin India  has agreed to withdraw all copies of the book The Hindus: An Alternative History' written by Wendy Doniger in response to a case filed by Dina Nath Batra, the convenor of a Hindu group called the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Committee, and five other complainants.
Wendy Doniger is an American Indologist and Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School, the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, and the Committee on Social Thought.

The agreement reads that Penguin shall "with immediate effect recall and withdraw all copies of the book, Wendy Doniger's The Hindus: An Alternative History, from Bharat (Indian territory.)". 
It goes on to note that Penguin will no longer sell, distribute, the book and that all recalled/withdrawn/unsold copies of the book shall be 'pulped' by Penguin at its own cost.
According to the agreement, the book has to be withdrawn from all territories of 'Bharat' starting at the earliest and latest within six months of the agreement being signed. The agreement also states that Penguin 'submits that it respects all religions worldwide'.
Penguin India has refused to comment on the issue, but Wendy Doniger has confirmed in an email that the book is being taken out of publication in India.
The book was published in India in 2009.
In 2010, a petition backed by the Sarasvati Research Trust was signed online and submitted to the Penguin USA demanding that the book be withdrawn on the grounds that it was "rife with numerous errors in its historical facts and Sanskrit translations."  The petition had argued that "these errors and misrepresentations are bound and perhaps intended to mislead students of Indian and Hindu history."
The legal notice sent by Dina Nath Batra to Wendy Doniger, Penguin Group (USA) Inc. and Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd included objections such as the following:
  • That it is a shallow, distorted and non serious presentation of Hinduism. 
  • That it is a haphazard presentation riddled with heresies and factual inaccuracies.
  • That it is written with a Christian Missionary Zeal and hidden agenda to denigrate Hindus and show their religion in poor light.
  • That the entire list of the books authored by Doniger concentrate and focus on the negative aspects and evil practices prevalent in Hinduism. 
  • That the words used by Donige for referring to various Hindu Gods are highly objectionable.
  • That on the book jacket of the book Lord Krishna is shown sitting on buttocks of a naked woman surrounded by other naked women.
  • That Doniger depicted Lord Krishna in such a vulgar, base perverse manner to outrage religious feelings of Hindus. 
  • That Doniger's approach has been jaundiced, and "is that of a woman hungry of sex"
Read from Outlook archives:
Read the full text of the settlement agreement between the petitioners and Penguin:


-- 
S. Kalyanaraman

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