Just to clarify, this one is weird because neither government, nor courts have asked for a ban on this book. Indian government and politicians do and say their fair share of ridiculous things, but this is not one of them
And freedom if speech here is much better than what a large percentage of world's population enjoys! (I wouldn't mind it becoming even better, particularly better protected by law, but that is another story.)
Penguin has
voluntarily decided to do this and offered some flimsy excuse for that. I don't know if someone in the company was facing some death threat or what for taking such a step. Every group, religious or otherwise, has some crackpots, whose sole job in their lives is to get offended. I don't know what kind of threats Penguin felt to have withdrawn the book despite no legal compulsion.