Another book by Wendy Doniger under attack

A Hindu organisation that successfully campaigned for the removal of author Wendy Doniger’s “The Hindus: An Alternative History” from shops has demanded the recall of another book by her.

A Hindu organisation that successfully campaigned for the removal of author Wendy Doniger’s “The Hindus: An Alternative History” from shops has demanded the recall of another book by her.

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Dinanath Batra of Shiksha Bachao Andolan, the group that had filed a legal complaint to get the book withdrawn, on Saturday said the contents of Doniger’s “On Hinduism” too were “disrespectful” and “malicious”.

“It is dirty, sexy and malicious. It is natural for the people for India to be provoked and agitated,” he said.

Doniger, a University of Chicago professor, is an international scholar of Hinduism, whose works focus on an alternative history of Hindu culture, dwelling on its mythology, lore and traditions. Sex and caste are major themes.

Murali Balaji of the Hindu American Foundation, among those who have questioned Doniger’s works, wrote in the Huffington Post that Doniger presents an “often insulting” narrative of an “erotic, exotic, mythologically rife Hinduism”.

Penguin, in an out-of-court pact, decided to voluntary withdraw the “The Hindus”, citing the laws that outlaw acts causing religious hurt. The decision had sparked widespread outrage from free-speech advocates.