Academics, writers, and lawyers have voiced strong opposition to the withdrawal of American scholar Wendy Doniger’s book, The Hindus: An Alternative History, following a settlement between the publisher Penguin, a division of Random House, and a complainant group, Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti. Under the settlement, all copies of the book will be removed and shredded in India.

A well-known Hindi literary critic, Namwar Singh called the act as an “attack on writers’ freedoms”. After reading Doniger’s book, he said that he found it challenging. “It is not the kind of book that says ‘yes sir’ to everything. It challenges several beliefs. If Hindutva is so powerful and secure, it should tolerate it, and respond in kind. It is an open market, and the appropriate response to the written word is the written word itself, not a ban.”

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