Quote:
Originally Posted by jayajha
Now, they either sensed that the case was not going in their favor, or something else happened behind the doors. We'd never know because their official statement was very vague.
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I think it is very likely that Penguin simply counted the beans and decided that continuing to fight this was not worth the expense, even if they were eventually vindicated in court. It's like a war of attrition where even if you can win eventually, the amount of sheer numbers of men and materiel you need to pour in make it not worthwhile.
The controversy has undoubtedly sold quite a lot of copies of the book outside of India to those who might otherwise never have heard of it. Is it "deliberately and maliciously outraging the religious feelings" of Hindus? If Hindus didn't want to read it, it probably wouldn't sell well in India. It presents an alternative view, but just because some people don't like it doesn't mean that there was any malice or attempt to cause outrage. I understand the intent of these laws, they want to avoid goading conflict between religions. But these laws can have the effect of allowing one faction of a religion enforce orthodoxy upon others. Fortunately, with today's technology, banning a book doesn't stop it, it only promotes the book.