Quote:
Originally Posted by jayajha
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 I don't know what kind of threats Penguin felt to have withdrawn the book despite no legal compulsion. |
So are you saying that the following quote from the author is a lie?
http://www.mhpbooks.com/penguin-pull...hurt-feelings/
Quote:
I do not blame Penguin Books, India. Other publishers have just quietly withdrawn other books without making the effort that Penguin made to save this book. Penguin, India, took this book on knowing that it would stir anger in the Hindutva ranks, and they defended it in the courts for four years, both as a civil and as a criminal suit.
They were finally defeated by the true villain of this piece—the Indian law that makes it a criminal rather than civil offense to publish a book that offends any Hindu, a law that jeopardizes the physical safety of any publisher, no matter how ludicrous the accusation brought against a book.
|
Shari