Don't blame Penguin for withdrawal of Wendy Doniger's book, ask the government

It won't do to cast the publisher of US scholar Wendy Doniger's book, The Hindus: An Alternative History, as a cowardly institution that buckled under threats and decided to withdraw the book from the Indian market. Such fascist threats, or mere lumpenism in the name of defending an imaginary, invented notion of faith and nationhood, is widespread in India, across communities. Indeed, one may as well call this the republic of offended feelings. There are just too many cases of books, artists et al being attacked, hounded and even driven out of the country to not arrive at the conclusion that most anyone can choose to take offence at just about anything and cause mayhem and violence, with the state watching as a mute spectator. Then again, what does one say about the state itself when it habitually also either cowers in front of such undemocratic attacks on free speech or goes about banning books itself?

A random list of books, articles, artists and writers hounded or banned in India include works by probably the finest Indian-English poet and scholar, A K Ramanujan; there are also books on Nehru, Gandhi, Dhirubhai Ambani, Shivaji, a book on the Bhopal gas disaster, and literary pieces like Rushdie's Satanic Verses and Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey, among others. This is a country that allowed its most famous artist, M F Husain, to be exiled and die abroad. So, the publishing house concerned had every reason to expect no help from such a supine state on such "controversial" matters.

When universities ban books on pain of lumpen threats, as the government itself does, the publishing house, arguably, had but little choice. These are the ugly moments when mob India raises its ugly head, and one has every right to worry about what all this portends.