New Delhi:
Amid outrage over its decision to destroy American scholar Wendy Doniger's "The Hindus: An Alternative History" as part of a legal settlement with a fringe group, Penguin India today defended its capitulation, alleging that India's "intolerant" laws made it difficult to uphold free speech.
"A publishing company has the same obligation as any other organisation to respect the laws of the land in which it operates, however intolerant and restrictive those laws may be," Penguin said in its statement. "We also have a moral responsibility to protect our employees against threats and harassment where we can."
Penguin agreed to withdraw the 2009 book and destroy all remaining copies to settle a four-year court battle with the Shiksha Bachao Andolan, an activist group that said the book insulted Hindus.
Wendy Doniger, 74, said she was angry and disappointed that all copies of her book in India would be pulped. "I am deeply troubled by what it foretells for free speech in India in the present, and steadily worsening, political climate," she said in a statement on Tuesday.
The publishing house, breaking its silence after the controversy erupted on social media, said it stood by its original decision to publish The Hindus, but "the Indian Penal Code, and in particular section 295A, will make it increasingly difficult for any Indian publisher to uphold international standards of free expression without deliberately placing itself outside the law."
The clause makes it a punishable offence to "outrage religious feelings with any words, spoken or written."
The Shiksha Bachao Andolan filed civil and criminal suits in a New Delhi court claiming the book contained factual errors and misrepresented Hindu mythology.
Several writers and champions of free speech have widely criticised Penguin's decision to cave in and reach a settlement, rather than continue the fight legally.
Penguin said international editions of the book remained available, physically and digitally, to Indian readers.