The following is the text of a statement issued by the Faculty of the CENTRE FOR HISTORICAL STUDIES, Jawaharlal Nehru University, protesting against the recent decision by Penguin India to withdraw and pulp all remaining copies of Wendy Doniger’s Hinduism. An Alternative History
We are outraged by the news that Penguin India has agreed to withdraw Wendy Doniger’s much acclaimed book The Hindus: An Alternative History and pulp all existing copies of the book in stock. Professor Doniger is one of the most respected Indologists in the world. She has spent a lifetime exploring the richness of India’s religious pasts, showcasing the creative interplay between multiple traditions — the Puranic and the Vedantic, the folkloric and the Brahmanic. Innovatively drawing on many disciplines, she has investigated the variegated world of Hindu mythology and theology, to explore what they say about order and chaos, morality and ethics, the good and the evil, the erotic and the non-erotic. Her reading of Hinduism has inevitably disturbed those who wish to sanitize and straitjacket Hinduism, and repress the multiplicity of traditions that constitute it. While welcoming all critical engagements with the book, the faculty of the CHS condemns any attempt to curtail the circulation of this book in any form.
The decision of Penguin India to sign an out-of-court settlement to withdraw Professor Doniger’s book is therefore an act of abandoning the basic ethics of publishing. What is most disturbing is the fact that Penguin Books — which had in the past a sturdy reputation of defending freedom of expression — has agreed to a settlement even without the Indian state or the Indian judiciary taking a position against the book. This decision will affirm the power of the forces of religious intolerance, encourage further attacks on authors who question the fundamentalist interpretation of the past, and subvert the right to freedom of expression. It will undermine further the rapidly eroding public space wherein critical debates and discussions can take place. This is a space that all who believe in democratic values — publishers included — need to preserve and defend.
Please note that individual names are not being listed in this statement as this is emanating from the entire faculty.
Thank you,
Professor Rajat Datta
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 
Why did Jamia cancel lecture by Pak-Canadian broadcaster Tarek Fatah? http://www.sunday-guardian.com/news/jamia-cancels… Where did your intellectual freedom disappear at that time?
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Are you asking the JNU historians or kafila? As far as the historians, they do not and are not supposed to go around protesting at every incident, given that such incidents happen everyday. Here they speak as historians on a matter that concerns their discipline and the larger issue of academic freedom. Nobody is a professional protester even in kafila but, elsewhere on kafila you will get many instances of our opposition to incidents like the one you mention. Because we are not professional protesters, we merely support and give space to ongoing campaigns – often with the purpose of initiating an informed debate.
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I could not have agreed with the faculty of CHS, JNU more. A concerted effort to stifle research that opens up new areas of engagements is increasingly being noticed and the capitulation of Penguin to such shameful and unethical practice bodes ill for the community and the country as a whole. Such politics of censorship and capitulation must be resisted for the sake of Indian democracy and the integrity of the academia.
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“Another bunch of Hindutva fanatics have succeeded in having a book by a respected academic banned because they feel offended by its contents. They have not understood the book, give ridiculous reasons, and threaten publisher and author with dire consequences if the book is not withdrawn. The Indian judiciary is caving in to religious fanaticism and practically abolishing freedom of speech in India.”
Untangling The Knot http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?289559
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The question is not about participating in academic debates or voicing your concerns in rational manner in public sphere of free speech, but the question is do all voices are equal in reality in so called public sphere? If you have a modern marketing machine like Penguin to distribute and market your work and you hold a position in international university which pays you to work and the professional discipline that you are part of is not neutral in the impassioned inquiry of knowledge but knowledge itself is a handmaiden of structure of power. so if in the context of scholarly onslaught on your faith or identity getting steamrolled by that modern structure of power, than one’s response is considered irrational/backward, because you do not possess the equal power to resist the constructed rational and assumed equal public sphere where the ideas are argued for or against.
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Yes ,you are correctly said that the said decision will affirm the power of the forces of religious intolerance, encourage further attacks on authors who question the fundamentalist and it will lead to subvert the right to freedom of expression !!
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