I've mentioned the outrageous events around Wendy Doniger's The Hindus, most recently here, and in The New York Times she now has an opinion piece, Banned in Bangalore.
Good to hear that:
Good to hear that:
If Mr. Batra's intention was to keep people from reading the book, it certainly backfired: In India, not a single copy was destroyed (the publisher had only a few copies in stock, and those in bookstores quickly sold out), and e-books circulate freely. You cannot ban a book in the age of the Internet. Its sales rank on Amazon has been in single-digit heaven.It's good to hear she is in high spirits, but I worry that she puts entirely too positive a spin on all of this: surely she understands that Mr. Batra's intention was not (primarily) to keep people from reading the book, but rather using that as a vehicle for his own agenda -- which seems to be carrying the day. And while she finds the: "dormant liberal conscience of India was awakened" by what happened ... well, sure, it's early in the day, but that hasn't really seemed to make much of a difference yet.