Arundhatti Roy Criticizes Penguin for Withdrawing Controversial Book

Booker prize-winning author, Arundhatti Roy, is pointing the finger at her own publisher, Penguin, for agreeing to withdraw a book they published which has offended Hindu “fanatics.” From The Telegraph:

The writer, who won the Booker Prize for her 1996 novel The God of Small Things and has since become India’s leading radical non-fiction writer, hinted she may drop Penguin over its decision.

The withdrawal of American academic Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus, An Alternative History on Monday to settle a legal battle with a fundamentalists who claimed it demeaned their gods and humiliated their devotees, caused dismay among India’s intelligentsia. 

Ms Doniger is a highly respected Indologist at the University of Chicago and her book, which describes Hinduism as a pluralist, liberal and compassionate faith angered Hindu fundamentalists who said was written with Christian missionary zeal and over-sexualised Hindu gods.

The group which took legal action cited its cover, which featured an image of Lord Krishna sitting on the buttocks of naked women, and claimed the book contained many inaccuracies.

See more at The Telegraph here and here.