Drain inspector's report of Wendy and Martha
Is doublespeak the governing ethic in Univ. of Chicago? Martha Nussbaum a UChicago faculty defending her colleague Wendy D indulges in doublespeak. Now it is Wendy D's turn. There is nothing called blasphemy law in India and the Court which had received Batra's complaint did NOT have to decide in the case because the Publisher Penguin chose to voluntarily withdraw the book and pulp it, as out of court settlement. If in fact, Penguin did not pulp the books as voluntarily agreed in the out-of-court settlement, was the settlement made in good faith?
She should know that India has a penal code which has Section 295A which is in vogue since 1860, one of the clauses under which Batra had made the complaint.
It is shocking that she has expressed no apologies for hurting the sentiments of Hindus whose history she is trying to narrate by her alternative method driven by libido. The cover of her book is a mare pretending to be a horse showing a jutting hand of a woman between the hindlegs. In fact, it is a donkey and depicts the University of Chicago faculty. Go, Wendy, psycho-analyse yourself and write a Drain Inspector'sReport -- the title given by MK Gandhi in 1927, to Katherine Mayo's book on India.
Surely, there is a US Penal Code and Chapter 43 clearly defines harmful material which may arouse the prurient interests of minors. Wendy D's book can be established to be harmful material which calls for punishment under this Code for Public Decency. Civil responsibility of US academe? Respect for the civil rights of over one billion Hindus? Does it ring a bell, Wendy and Martha -- the bell rung by Susan B. Anthony?
S. Kalyanaraman
Sarasvati Research Center.
Banned in Bangalore
CHICAGO — LAST month a retired Hindu schoolteacher named Dinanath Batra, who had brought a lawsuit against me and Penguin Books, India, succeeded in getting my book, “The Hindus: An Alternative History,”withdrawn from publication in India. The book, the court agreed, was a violation of India’s blasphemy law, which makes it a crime to offend the sensibilities of a religious person.
Within hours I was receiving hundreds of emails from colleagues, students, readers, high school friends and even complete strangers — in the United States, India and beyond — commiserating with me in my dark hour. But their sympathy, while appreciated, was also wasted: I was in high spirits.
I have devoted my entire academic career, going back to the 1960s, to the interpretation of Hinduism and Indian society, and I have long been inured to the vilification of my books by a narrow band of narrow-minded Hindus.
Their voices had drowned out those of the broader, more liberal parts of Indian society; it reminded me of William Butler Yeats’s line: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”
What is new, and heartening, this time is that the best are suddenly full of passionate intensity. The dormant liberal conscience of India was awakened by the stunning blow to freedom of speech that had been dealt by my publisher in giving in to the demands of the claimants, agreeing to take the book out of circulation and pulp all remaining copies.
I think the ugliness of the word “pulp” is what struck a nerve, conjuring up memories of “Fahrenheit 451” and Germany in the 1930s. The outrage had been pent up for many years, as other books, films, paintings and sculptures were forced out of circulation by a mounting wave of censorship.
My case was simply the last straw, in part because of its timing, just when many in India had begun to view with horror the likelihood that the elections in May will put into power Narendra Modi, a member of the ultra-right wing of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
If Mr. Batra’s intention was to keep people from reading the book, it certainly backfired: In India, not a single copy was destroyed (the publisher had only a few copies in stock, and those in bookstores quickly sold out), and e-books circulate freely. You cannot ban a book in the age of the Internet. Its sales rank on Amazon has been in single-digit heaven. “Banned in Boston” is a selling label.
Attention has now shifted, rightly, to the broader problems posed by the Indian blasphemy law. My case has helped highlight the extent to which Hindu fundamentalists (Hindutva-vadis, those who champion “Hindutva,” or “Hindu-ness”) now dominate the political discourse in India.
Two objections to the book cited in the lawsuit reveal something about the Hindutva mentality. First, the suit objects “that the aforesaid book is written with Christian Missionary Zeal.” This caused great hilarity among my friends and family, since I grew up in a Jewish family in Great Neck, N.Y.
But when I foolishly decided to set the matter straight — “Hey,” I wrote to an accuser, “I’m Jewish” — I was hit with a barrage of poisonous anti-Semitism. One correspondent wrote: “Hi. I recently came across your book on hindus. Where you try to humiliate us. I don’t know much about jews. Based on your work, I think jews are evil. So Hitler was probably correct in killing all jews in Germany. Bye.”
It’s hard to have a religious dialogue with someone who begins the conversation like that. I was doing better in my role as a Christian missionary.
But there is a bitter irony in this mischaracterization of my religion, since Christian missionaries are actually a part of the problem.
The Victorian Protestant British scorned Hinduism’s polytheism, erotic sculptures, spirited mockery of its own gods and earthy mythology as filthy paganism. They also preferred the texts created and perpetuated by a small, upper-caste male elite, and regarded as beneath contempt the vast oral and vernacular literatures enriched and animated by the voices of women and lower castes. It is this latter, “alternative” Hinduism that my book celebrates throughout Indian history.
Many of the Hindu elite who worked closely with the British caught the prejudices of their masters. In the 19th century, those Hindus lifted up other aspects of Hinduism — its philosophy, its tradition of meditation — that were more palatable to European tastes and made them into a new, sanitized brand of Hinduism, often referred to as Sanatana Dharma, “the Eternal Law.”
That’s the Hinduism that Hindutva-vadis are defending, while they deny the one that the Christian missionaries hated and that I love and write about — the pluralistic, open-ended, endlessly imaginative, often satirical Hinduism. The Hindutva-vadis are the ones who are attacking Hinduism; I am defending it against them.
The Victorian factor also accounts for the Hindutva antipathy to sex. (Here it is not irrelevant that India recently passed a law criminalizing homosexuality.) The lawsuit objects that my “focus in approaching Hindu Scriptures has been sexual in orientation.” In my defense, I can tell you there is a lot of sex in Hinduism, and therefore a lot of puritanism in Hindutva; where there are lions, there are jackals. The poems and songs that imagine the god as lover, like the exquisite statues of goddesses, are a vital part of the religion of those Hindus who did not cave under the pressure of colonial scorn.
But I must apologize for what may amount to false advertising on my behalf by Mr. Batra, who pronounced my book “filthy and dirty.” Readers who bought a copy in hope of finding such passages will be, I fear, disappointed. “The Hindus” isn’t about sex at all. It’s about religion, which is much hotter than sex.
Wendy Doniger is a professor of the history of religions at the University of Chicago and the author of “The Hindus: An Alternative History.”
RELATED COVERAGE
Indian Publisher Withdraws Book, Stoking Fears of Nationalist Pressure
Rad
Radvia 1 hour agobala
sunnyvale 1 hour agoI think the comment about Narendra Modi (Namo) is quite uncalled for. it is not objective. It gives the impression that the folks that are supporting Wendy are against Namo. it gives the impression that Namo had anything to do with the ban on this book. I am quite excited that Namo might become the next prime minister. At the same time I quite support freedom of speech and support Wendy. I think it would have been a stronger piece had Wendy stuck to the facts and left Namo out.
Ajoy K Thamattoor
California 1 hour agoBanning of books, cartoons, movies, dramas, songs and maps in India is not really Hindu specific. The noise-makers of very religion, every caste, every group demand it frequently. Mostly they succeed. The logic is always the same: if you don't ban it, the extremists among us, the ones we can't control, will trash your land and riot against its people. It is not just sex that insults them; anything that shows any group in an unflattering light gets the axe. Christian fundamentalists got Kazantzakis's "Last Temptation of Christ" (and the Scorsese movie) blocked; Muslim ones got Rushdie's "Satanic Verses" out; Hindu fanatics went after another Rushdie book: "The Moore's Last Sigh"; all are examples from decades ago.
Debate on the issue often degenerates into a "but books do get banned in the West too" defense. True enough, at least outside the US. Sorrily so. The situation in India is, however, worse and the scope of the bans broadening; even a book about a business family, the Ambanis, was withdrawn. Where free speech is my right to say what doesn't offend you, those with things to say stay silent. Demagogues fill that vacuum and their poison destroys democracy: the nation's main, perhaps sole, functioning civil right.
Debate on the issue often degenerates into a "but books do get banned in the West too" defense. True enough, at least outside the US. Sorrily so. The situation in India is, however, worse and the scope of the bans broadening; even a book about a business family, the Ambanis, was withdrawn. Where free speech is my right to say what doesn't offend you, those with things to say stay silent. Demagogues fill that vacuum and their poison destroys democracy: the nation's main, perhaps sole, functioning civil right.
Niloy
Malaysia 1 hour agoMs Doniger - I am one of those Indians who is apalled by this desire to ban books and completely militate against it.
And the funny thing is the number of people who will now read your book has just gone up by a factor of 1000X.
However I do wish you would get more of your facts straight. It does strike me that for someone who has obviously done so much research there are some stunning wrong assertions in your book.
Not wanting to dilate too much and take credit away from the person who has actually dissected the book fully I will leave you with one sample -
India is not mainly in the northern hemisphere Ms Doniger - it's southern most extremity ends at 8 deg N!
And the funny thing is the number of people who will now read your book has just gone up by a factor of 1000X.
However I do wish you would get more of your facts straight. It does strike me that for someone who has obviously done so much research there are some stunning wrong assertions in your book.
Not wanting to dilate too much and take credit away from the person who has actually dissected the book fully I will leave you with one sample -
India is not mainly in the northern hemisphere Ms Doniger - it's southern most extremity ends at 8 deg N!
Pradeep
MA 1 hour agoA classmate's mail about a month back introduced me to the name "Doniger" and the apparent transgression of her book. The mail initiated a brouhaha that has now come full circle. Indeed I chuckled as I read it for someone in my forum had used the word “vulgar” to describe the references in Hinduism by this author. U of Chicago being a bastion of conservative politics, made me wonder at that time and I stand vindicated reading this article. I am proud of Hinduism with its sexual sculptures on temples - one of which I went to see with my mom at the age of 15, speak of embarrassment, LOL. It demonstrates the bigger vision of that religion - the celebration of life, in addition to after life, if that exists. I am essentially in argument with what Doniger is stating in the op-ed about Hinduism's BIG canvass rather that the colonial Sanskrit centric (possibly also upper class male dominated) historiography. I only disagree with the last line. As an agnostic, Hindu to boot, to me, “Sex is hotter than religion”, after all without sex, there would be no one bothered about such inconsequential diatribe of whose god is better.
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RB
Bombay 1 hour agoI am Indian, upper caste Hindu, libertarian, and support free speech in ALL circumstances.
However, I must say the Ms. Doniger is either ill informed or mendacious in this Op-Ed. Select factual errors: 1) India does not have a blasphemy law. It has a law against hate speech, and writings that are solely aimed at offending the religious sentiments of people. 2) Ms. Doniger gives the impression it protects only Hinduism from blasphemy. Actually, it has been used more often by Muslims or Christians and "protects" people of all religions. 3) No Court in India has ruled that her book was a violation of this law. Her publisher voluntarily decided to settle the case, perhaps based on an economic analysis of the cost of litigation (which could have been taken to the High Courts and Supreme Court even if the lower courts ruled against them) vs. the benefit from selling the book. 4) Mr. Modi is not a member of the ultra right wing of the BJP. His campaign is based on development, and would be to the left of Republicans like Rick Santorum. Yes, his government messed up in 2002 but that was not unique to him or the BJP, and he has been held personally not culpable by the Supreme Court of India. 5) India did not pass a law criminalizing homosexuality recently. A 2 judge bench of the Supreme Court merely overturned a lower court verdict and allowed (wrongly, in my view) an 19th century law to stand. Justice Scalia would have ruled the same way. The GOI is appealing this verdict.
However, I must say the Ms. Doniger is either ill informed or mendacious in this Op-Ed. Select factual errors: 1) India does not have a blasphemy law. It has a law against hate speech, and writings that are solely aimed at offending the religious sentiments of people. 2) Ms. Doniger gives the impression it protects only Hinduism from blasphemy. Actually, it has been used more often by Muslims or Christians and "protects" people of all religions. 3) No Court in India has ruled that her book was a violation of this law. Her publisher voluntarily decided to settle the case, perhaps based on an economic analysis of the cost of litigation (which could have been taken to the High Courts and Supreme Court even if the lower courts ruled against them) vs. the benefit from selling the book. 4) Mr. Modi is not a member of the ultra right wing of the BJP. His campaign is based on development, and would be to the left of Republicans like Rick Santorum. Yes, his government messed up in 2002 but that was not unique to him or the BJP, and he has been held personally not culpable by the Supreme Court of India. 5) India did not pass a law criminalizing homosexuality recently. A 2 judge bench of the Supreme Court merely overturned a lower court verdict and allowed (wrongly, in my view) an 19th century law to stand. Justice Scalia would have ruled the same way. The GOI is appealing this verdict.
Adam Phillips
New York 1 hour agoWonderful piece! Go Wendy!
I can tell you this: Wendy Doniger is one of the most brilliant and vibrantly alive and deep-spirited people I have ever had the opportunity to meet and spend significant time with. Wonderful piece.
(For those wishing to listen to the 1990 audio documentary I produced about Wendy and her complex and delightful take on Hindu myth for the University of Chicago, please respond here and I will send you an mp3.)
I can tell you this: Wendy Doniger is one of the most brilliant and vibrantly alive and deep-spirited people I have ever had the opportunity to meet and spend significant time with. Wonderful piece.
(For those wishing to listen to the 1990 audio documentary I produced about Wendy and her complex and delightful take on Hindu myth for the University of Chicago, please respond here and I will send you an mp3.)
Critic
1 hour ago
"The Hindutva-vadis are the ones who are attacking Hinduism; I am defending it against them."
I found this to be a quite condescending. Fine, you are writing about religious aspects of South Asia that have been inadequately represented in mainstream Hindutva politics. The idea that you are "defending""Hinduism "seems to imply that your book focuses on the true "Hindusim" and the Hindutva "Hinduism" is false. I would argue that all aspects--from Upanishads to erotic sculptures--are a part of the tradition. I respect the need to have all voices heard and appreciate the effort to give voice to those who may not have a pen (women/lower castes). And obviously the laws leading to the book not being published are outrageous. But the idea you have expressed in this piece-- that you are defending us Hindus from the Hindutva is a little ridiculous. I do believe the Upanishads are a wee bit older than British colonialism - it wasn't solely invented for the purpose of satisfying British tastes.
I found this to be a quite condescending. Fine, you are writing about religious aspects of South Asia that have been inadequately represented in mainstream Hindutva politics. The idea that you are "defending""Hinduism "seems to imply that your book focuses on the true "Hindusim" and the Hindutva "Hinduism" is false. I would argue that all aspects--from Upanishads to erotic sculptures--are a part of the tradition. I respect the need to have all voices heard and appreciate the effort to give voice to those who may not have a pen (women/lower castes). And obviously the laws leading to the book not being published are outrageous. But the idea you have expressed in this piece-- that you are defending us Hindus from the Hindutva is a little ridiculous. I do believe the Upanishads are a wee bit older than British colonialism - it wasn't solely invented for the purpose of satisfying British tastes.
Exdetroiter
New Delhi 1 hour agoThough I haven't read this book, it is tragic that a handful of fanatical people in India who come up with their own interpretation of literary works force their views on the rest. Hinduism, and I say that being a Hindu myself, has indeed become a milieu of spirituality, superstition, fables and an unfathomable mix of both sexual permissiveness as well as prohibition. It is difficult to tell what amounts to blasphemy and what does not. There has long been a crying need to sanitize and reform this great religion and this can happen only if Hindus demonstrate that they can look at their religion with an open mind and appreciate the good as well as the undesirable. A whole lot of the stuff that passes off as part of Hinduism has been passed on from generation to generation by just hearsay - a sad legacy of the fractious social structures of the past. Doniger's book needs to be appreciated and understood in that light. If it does hurt someone's religious sentiments then s/he needs to introspect and question the basis for such sentiments before calling for a ban on the book.
chickenlover
Massachusetts 1 hour agoI think Ms. Doniger should count her blessings and thank the Hindu fundamentalists for sky rocketing her book into the top ten. I ask Mr. Batra, "Who is laughing now?"
Kali
California 1 hour agoBeing lucky enough to have read Dr. Doniger's book a while ago while it was still in circulation, I can attest, that the book is a celebration of all that is good with Hinduism. It is what I remember growing up with as a child. India has changed since and the muscular Hinduism that grew out of that change bore little resemblance to the polytheistic society that it sort to transform. Now a narrative that celebrated a single god, Ram, was shoved down everybody's throat via TV, things like lack of progress, disunity etc. that had been blamed on the Brits were now blamed on the Muslims and a small but viciously vocal group turned on anyone turned who dare question the mythical Hindu greatness. They've turned on a scholar now and I feel great sadness. Pastor Martin Niemoller comes to mind.
Vexray
Spartanburg SC 1 hour agoAnother case of religion and free speech - a toxic combination.
All religion is personal as understood by its practitioners. There is no need for "scholars" to explain the religion of others as fiction or opinion. It is not art but faith.
All religion is personal as understood by its practitioners. There is no need for "scholars" to explain the religion of others as fiction or opinion. It is not art but faith.
SPT
Delhi 1 hour agoThe problem is that everybody except Hindus are considered an authority on Hinduism. Jews, Christians, Muslims, all have declared themselves as experts on Hindu culture and religion and Hindus who say that the interpretation of these "scholars" are just a caricature of the real thing, are cursed as "Hindu fundamentalists." However, for Christianity, Islam and Judaism, only practicing scholars are allowed to write about them and considered an authority. This privilege is not assigned to Hindus for Hinduism, where non-Hindus as a matter of right try to grab the intellectual leadership.
Kam Banerjee
Stamford, CT 1 hour agoWendy Doniger is wrong in asserting that "India recently passed a law criminalizing homosexuality". What actually happened is that India's Supreme Court let stand a colonial era law, stating that only Parliament had the authority to rescind the law.
Sam Wilen
Durham NC 1 hour agoMazel tov on getting your book banned, Wendy! As long as we live in a silly world, may we all have such luck!
Sonya
Menlo Park 1 hour agoProf Doniger: Buying your book was on my To Do list for a while but reading the news that Penguin was going to be required to pulp the remaining copies in India made me order my copy pronto in the US. Also, my circle of friends and family in India who could not order the book in the US have been downloading the PDF to read it. Thank you for making it available for free online. I guess if one is incapable of writing one's own book on any topic, there is always the refuge of "one's religious sentiments being hurt." Sad and pitiful.
theni
phoenix 1 hour agoDear Wendy, I hope that my humble note will negate the evil anti-semitic message you received. I am afraid that sometimes I can no longer speak kindly about all that is happening recently in my birth-place. India and its hindu population are an abode for different religious thought and existence. As a Christian in India I always marveled at how hindus would attend Mass or Novenas for the Virgin Mary at our Church in India. Gandhi, a devout hindu, very easily quoted the bible. Just look at the number of religions still practiced in India. Religious tolerance was the norm and yes I cannot deny that there are streaks of violence between Hindus and Muslims.
Modern India unfortunately, has shown a greater level of intolerance. Hopefully this is a passing phase and will eventually die off. Censorship of your book is wrong and I am glad that the internet era will nullify any chances Mr Batra has to stifle your book and its message.
Please do not pay too much attention to the anti-semitic comment made by an obvious hateful person. The world will proceed on with the free flow of knowledge and ideas. Anyone trying to suppress this flow will eventually be overrun.
Modern India unfortunately, has shown a greater level of intolerance. Hopefully this is a passing phase and will eventually die off. Censorship of your book is wrong and I am glad that the internet era will nullify any chances Mr Batra has to stifle your book and its message.
Please do not pay too much attention to the anti-semitic comment made by an obvious hateful person. The world will proceed on with the free flow of knowledge and ideas. Anyone trying to suppress this flow will eventually be overrun.
artist
CT 1 hour agoHooray for Wendy!
fjsalazar
Massachusetts 1 hour agoI currently am living and working in India on assignment for my employer. I am also one who immediately bought Prof. Doniger's book upon hearing it was banned. Both the content of the book and the controversy around it confirm for me something I have been seeing since my arrival here nearly two years ago, namely: India is imprisoned by its myths more than it is helped by them. All the Indians I know are steeped in the stories related in this book, about Ram and Sita, Hanuman, Arjun, and others. Yet the conclusions they seem to draw from these stories are rarely positive, and tend more towards inevitability and confirmation of class structure than any progressive agenda. One colleague has even regaled me with how the Brahmanic heroes had actually discovered nuclear fission, fighter planes, antibiotics and more.
Here, too much energy is spent looking back for validation, and not enough looking forward. India has immense potential, but also immense problems, of poverty, inadequate infrastructure and blatant social injustice. If the Indian elites don't stop pining for their days of ancient glory and actually do something, they risk coming to a time that will make the Mahabharata look like a picnic.
Here, too much energy is spent looking back for validation, and not enough looking forward. India has immense potential, but also immense problems, of poverty, inadequate infrastructure and blatant social injustice. If the Indian elites don't stop pining for their days of ancient glory and actually do something, they risk coming to a time that will make the Mahabharata look like a picnic.
bk
bethesda,MD 1 hour agoi disagree with Ms Donigar. I am an American and an extreme liberal and an Indian by birth. I was born as a Hindu. However, of all religions Hinduism is the only religion that i extremely tolerant. My husband was an atheist but never minded me calling myself a Hindu. My mom says her prayers from home and does not care if we go tot he temple or not. If you are not born as a Hindu and lived in a Hindu family you are in capable of writing about Hinduism. Westerners do not understand Hinduism. So i would suggest people top pretending to understand Hinduism when they don't.
Sriram
India 1 hour ago"...just when many in India had begun to view with horror the likelihood that the elections in May will put into power Narendra Modi, a member of the ultra-right wing of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party."
I'm sorry, but this statement betrays your political leanings, and renders all that you say suspect. It could be that your book depicts the evolution of Hinduism truly, but if one's agenda shows in the way everything remotely "Indian" or "Hindu" is mocked and denigrated, there's no reason for a dialogue either.
"many in India" do not actually fear Narendra Modi ji coming to power. These constant attempts to conflate Hindu self-respect with such terms as Hindutva and ultra-right Hindu nationalism forces even secular Hindus to see a hidden agenda in these causes that are seemingly espoused.
Disclaimer: I haven't read your book, but I do intend to so I can decide for myself whether this pulping was justified.
I'm sorry, but this statement betrays your political leanings, and renders all that you say suspect. It could be that your book depicts the evolution of Hinduism truly, but if one's agenda shows in the way everything remotely "Indian" or "Hindu" is mocked and denigrated, there's no reason for a dialogue either.
"many in India" do not actually fear Narendra Modi ji coming to power. These constant attempts to conflate Hindu self-respect with such terms as Hindutva and ultra-right Hindu nationalism forces even secular Hindus to see a hidden agenda in these causes that are seemingly espoused.
Disclaimer: I haven't read your book, but I do intend to so I can decide for myself whether this pulping was justified.
rajivnaval
london,ky 1 hour agoLove your books , my conservative well educated Tamil Brahmin father sent me a copy for my American girlfriend and told her to read it before her next visit to india. Your books are well researched and quite accurate and it's high time india changes it's anti-blasphemy laws which are only there to appease minorities.
Prof.Jai Prakash Sharma,
Jaipur, Indiaternal 2 hours agoWendy Doniger faced rough weather in India for her scholarly work, " The Hindus:An Alternative History" not because she had little regard for the faith or wanted to pervert its intrinsic worth and appeal or even wanted to hurt the believers of Hindu religion any way, but it seems her publishers The Penguins India had perhaps I'll timed the release of the book when the national elections were approaching fast, and the political contenders wanted to grab any opportunity or issue which could promise electoral dividends to them. The Doniger book proved to be a Godsend for the Forces to whom Hinduism, far from being the liberating spiritual experience, has always been a tool of political mobilization and self-claimed vigilantism. it was this fringe section of Hindu zelots that felt unnerved by the book publication and turned the usual intellectual exercise into a full blown controversy to encah it in elections, especially when their champion of Hindutva. the Gujarat pogrom famed PM aspirant was busy turning dream into reality. It was the insensitive nerves of the practioners of political Hinduism that got hurt this time with anticipated cries of pain.
Diana Moses
Arlington, Mass. 6 hours agoWhat is the most effective way to get the strand of Hindu practice being championed by the author accepted by those who focus on drier aspects of Hinduism, if I may call them that? I am actually quite sympathetic in my own way to what I've read of the author's point of view about spiritual practice, but I am concerned is that riposte may make such acceptance less likely, not more. But I don't know Indian culture well enough to know whether my concern is well-founded.
The case by Batra is partly for equal protection - for e.g., Satanic Verses was banned by the government to appease the minority muslim population. The blasphemy law should be removed for all or applied to all.
Invoking Modi and Hindutva. is an irrelevant strawman. Batra et al followed due process; no one took to the streets, issued fatwas, etc.
Hinduism is very wide - it includes ultra-conservatives, catholic theists, atheists, rationalists, tribals, etc., and will include also the Doniger point of view, if it is genuine. But a bit of controversy never hurt book sales, what?