The pulping of Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History, published by Viking/Penguin in 2009, after the Supreme Court of India’s recent judgment has made us think in several directions and has brought out some interesting and significant responses. The chief of these responses is that of Arundhati Roy, a novelist, who has often responded with fervour on issues that she has not dealt with as beautifully as she crafted her masterpiece, The God of Small Things. But what she says cannot be taken lightly; she speaks sense (at least of a certain kind). The judgment of the Supreme Court has possibly catered to the popular Hindu sentiment and a number of judgments in India have, it seems, tended to respect the masses rather than the minorities, unless the minorities have the clout to start a major problem, particularly of a political nature.

Some of the questions which have surfaced due to the decision of Penguin Books India to withdraw Doniger’s book, are as follows: (a) Is there any real freedom of expression in India? (b) Can a scholar dare to challenge something that millions of people want to believe in? (c) Is the Ramayana no more than fiction? (d) Has Penguin Books India succumbed to pressure of a fascist nature in its decision to withdraw the book? (e) Should an author in the position of Arundhati Roy voice her feelings in a personal capacity against a publisher’s decision to withdraw a book or should she demand an explanation from the publisher for the action, quite forgetting that the publisher, however big, has the right to follow a policy which best suits their business needs? (f) Should publishers be like other businessmen, Shylock-like, or should they invest their capital in books and let it go the risky way as Antonio did when he signed the bond to promote the interest of his gentleman love, Bassanio?

The list of questions raised is too large to be discussed in a single article. But the raising of these questions themselves is significant because they point to the chaos through which India seems to be currently passing. In the absence of a strong, responsible and honest government, partisan politics has come more centre-stage than positive political governance should allow. In such a confused state of affairs no part of the polity seems to function as it should. The legislature, the executive as well as the judiciary, each seems to gasp for breath. The intellectual too needs to remain in business for business’ sake rather than for the true voice of feeling and/or rationality. Confusion, indeed, has made its masterpiece now and nothing seems to be what is not.

Why blame the Indian political scene alone? The world economy and the growing instability in the publishing industry are there to share in the blame. Publishers like Penguin are being forced to make strange compromises, like joining hands with Random House. They find it difficult to cope with the conditions created by Amazon.com and other online business companies. They can hardly dare to take risks with the reader’s feelings that are tied to religious sentiments. Of course the question whether the Ramayana is fiction can never be answered with any sense of finality. And what if it is fiction? The New Historicists, following other post-structuralists, go to the extent of saying that History itself is close to fiction; there is more history in literature (fiction) and other documents of an age than in history books. Regarding Arundhati Roy, one must not fail to see that in demanding an explanation from Penguin India she is trying to play the role of the true intellectual. She will find support from a number of intellectuals because we love teaming up to raise dust in the fair to remain in the business of academia. It must not, however, be forgotten that Penguin India went to court in trying to defend their author, Wendy Doniger, and gave up only after a legal battle of four years was over. Wendy Doniger, who has been attacked even earlier for giving her versions of history that have not always been happily digested by the community of historians in the West, has been grateful to Penguin India for standing up for her. Of course we cannot be certain that Doniger’s gratitude springs from feelings of sincerity alone or from future goals in publishing. Besides, she knows that her book will still be read on Kindle in India and not remain entirely unseen by Indians. Often a book becomes better known after being banned, and this one was already a best seller and so the Supreme Court of India has only increased its longevity in the West.