Anand Mathur
It's unfortunate that there has been much hue and cry after Penguin recalled
Wendy Doniger’s book, The Hindus. India has a policy of free expression, but
one cannot accept blatant insult to its sacred deities and the culture of its
land.
All of Wendy’s special works, including The Hindus, revolve around slandering
Hindu Gods and Goddesses and the subject of sex in Sanskrit texts. Gods &
Goddesses are as sacred to the Hindus as Prophet Muhammad is to Muslims and
Jesus Christ is to Christians. Just as one cannot attack Prophet Muhammad and
Jesus Christ, one cannot attack Hindu Gods & Goddesses.
It is the intention behind Wendy’s writings which is questionable. Will she
show the same creativity and the same spirit with Islamic heroes and would she
then be able to avoid getting beheaded or getting a fatwa issued in her name?
One also fails to understand why most of our intellectuals, aptly called
Wendy's children by Rajiv Malhotra, have different criteria for Salman Rushdie
and Taslima Nasreen on one hand and Wendy Doniger and her ilks on the other.
Will Arundhati Roy and Ramchandra Guha support Wendy if she were to write about
the Prophet’s penis size or discuss his prolific sex-life with similar fervor?
Double standards, bias and hatred describe Wendy’s children. I sincerely hope
that Arundhati Roy and Ramchandra Guha ask Penguin to cancel their book
contracts so as to stop littering of the Indian intellectual street with poop.
Posts
