Hindu fanatics are celebrating after Penguin capitulated to their demands and agreed to "pulp" all unsold of copies of University of Chicago Wendy Doniger's, The Hindus: An Alternative History. They claim that her erotic interpretations of Hinduism are just another form of "neo-colonialism."
Their jihad against Doniger won't affect her much and maybe even help her book sales. But it will ensure a dark future for Hinduism.
For all their pretensions about learning, Hindus don't fully understand their religion because they haven't made an academic study out of it. Religious studies as a discipline doesn't exist in India. Nor will it if extremists are allowed to go on their boob-banning ramapge. The best and most inquisitive Indian minds won't opt for fields ruled by narrow dogmatism. They'll do something else—or take a one-way ticket to America to study with Doniger.
"Instead of resorting to censorhip," I note in my Washington Examiner column this morning, "Hindu obscurantists should concentrate on addressing their own inadequacies."
Go here to read the whole thing.
Comments