Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Sexy Hindu history book banned in India

Wisdom Quarterly; Nina Porzucki, author Prof. Wendy Doniger, PRI's The World (pri.org)
Amorous godly couple Krishna and Radha (Emuishere Peliculas/flickr.com/PRI.org)

 
Judge not. This is religious temple art (U
After years of a legal battle, Penguin Books India, a division of Penguin Random House, has agreed to pull its book, The Hindus: An Alternative History from Indian bookstores.
 
The history book, which its author [Harvard, Oxford Indologist] Wendy Doniger has described as an alternative, Howard Zinn-esque version of the history of Hinduism, has been accused of denigrating Hindus and Hindu [Brahminical Vedic] traditions.
 
(goodreads.com)
“It tells an aspect of the history of Hinduism that is unpleasant for a certain type of Hindu, what I would call a fundamentalist Hindu, to accept,” said Doniger, who is a professor of history of religion at the University of Chicago.

The lawsuit against Doniger and Penguin was filed by Dinanath Batra, a leader of the conservative Hindu group, Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti.
 
Among their specific accusations is that the book wrongly includes a map of India that excludes Kashmir, the subject of a territorial dispute with neighboring Pakistan. [Hey, Doniger, even we think it's going too far!
 
This isn’t the first time that Doniger has encountered an impassioned and vocal response to her ideas about Hinduism. More 
 
The Politics of Sexuality in Ancient India: The Indebtedness of the Kamasutra to the Arthasastra
Shivdasani Lecture by Prof. Wendy Doniger, November 2013
Penguin to withdraw BANNED book (MW)
The depth and extent of the influence of the textbook of politics (Arthasastra) on the textbook of sexuality (Kamasutra) is surprising, most evident in the high incidence of distrust, betrayal, and force in sexual relationships.
 
And the subsequent influence of the Kamasutra upon not only the erotic literary traditions of India but the eroticism of the bhakti [devotional] tradition, particularly in Bengal, accounts in part for the darkness of that tradition, its emphasis on divine abandonment, betrayal, and even violence.
 
Prof. Wendy Doniger [M.A., Ph.D. (Harvard University), 
D.Phil. (Oxford University)] is Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions in the Divinity School, University of Chicago, and in the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, the Committee on Social Thought.
 
Prof. Doniger's research and teaching focus on translating, interpreting, and comparing elements of Hinduism through modern contexts of gender, sexuality, and identity. Her courses in mythology address themes in cross-cultural expanses, such as death, dreams, evil, horses, sex, and women; her courses in Hinduism cover a broad spectrum that, in addition to mythology... More
(TYT) Adopted daughter Dylan Farrow says Woody Allen molested her at age 7

No comments: