Banned in Bangalore
Religious historian Wendy Doniger of the University of Chicago takes to the opinion pages of The New York Times after the banning of her latest book, The Hindus: An Alternative History in India. A lawsuit alleged the book violated the country’s blasphemy law, “which makes it a crime to offend the sensibilities of a religious person.” Rather than be dejected, she writes, “I was in high spirits.” Her case awakened liberal outrage, highlighted the work of Hindu fundamentalists, and put her book on bestseller lists. But she notes that readers looking for salacious material in her work may be disappointed: “‘The Hindus’ isn’t about sex at all. It’s about religion, which is much hotter than sex.”