Penguin's defence of book withdrawal fails to impress intelligentsia

Members of the legal fraternity said the publisher's defence that Section 295A of the IPC could have led to trouble did not stand on firm ground

Penguin India — a day after being severely criticised by its authors for pulling out Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History from bookstores — defended itself and blamed an Indian law, which could lead to prison on grounds of blasphemy, for its decision to cull the book. The publisher, though, failed to win any rounds of applause.

Lawyers, and its own writers, asked why it could not have defended itself in a higher court.

“There hasn’t been any court order. The settlement was signed before they went to the Supreme Court. Of course, there is a problem with strange and ambiguous laws, but they didn’t fight it until the end,” Booker prize-winning author Arundhati Roy told the BBC.

  

 

Penguin India — a day after being severely criticised by its authors for pulling out Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History from bookstores — defended itself and blamed an Indian law, which could lead to prison on grounds of blasphemy, for its decision to cull the book. The publisher, though, failed to win any rounds of applause.

Lawyers, and its own writers, asked why it could not have defended itself in a higher court.

“There hasn’t been any court order. The settlement was signed before they went to the Supreme Court. Of course, there is a problem with strange and ambiguous laws, but they didn’t fight it until the end,” Booker prize-winning author Arundhati Roy told the BBC.

 

Members of the legal fraternity said the publisher’s defence that Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code could have led to trouble did not stand on firm ground.

“... a publishing company has the same obligation as any other organisation to respect the laws of the land in which it operates, however intolerant and restrictive those laws may be. We also have a moral responsibility to protect our employees against threats and harassment where we can,” Penguin said, in a statement released on Friday.

A lawyer said the publishing house could easily have approached a higher court if it perceived any threat against it.

“In case of any threat of any kind, you can approach a higher court and say, protect us,” said a Supreme Court lawyer.

Roy and William Dalrymple, among others, had criticised Penguin for capitulation to an unknown right-wing entity by agreeing to withdraw Wendy Doniger’s volume. Doniger is a professor of history of religions at the University of Chicago.

Four years
The book saw a spike in sales but the publishing world felt Penguin India would lose money in withdrawing and pulping the book.

Penguin India said it had fought the case to defend the book for four years.

“The settlement reached this week brings to a close a four-year legal process in which Penguin has defended the publication of the Indian edition of The Hindus by Wendy Doniger. We have published, in succession, hardcover, paperback and e-book editions of the title. International editions of the book remain available physically and digitally to Indian readers who still wish to purchase it,” its statement said.

Commentators within and outside India have seen the withdrawal of the book as another symptom of a country, which is increasingly intolerant to diverse views, and where writers and painters are at the mercy of fringe elements.

“Doniger's book is part of this alternative history that seeks to explore the worlds of the dalits and women – outcasts at the bottom of the Hindu hierarchy,” wrote Vijay Prashad, an author and professor in a private university, in the UK’s Guardian newspaper. The book withdrawal has been linked to a Modi wave.

“The announcement has rippled through a city bracing itself for big change. Three months remain before general elections, in which the secular Indian National Congress Party is expected to suffer one of the worst losses in its history to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party,” said The New York Times.