The Book of Controversy

INDIATODAY’S story “The Offended Indian” (February 24) highlights the controversy surrounding Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History. Did her freedom to express musings on Hinduism pose such a big threat that the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti saw it as a challenge to society? Was it so subversive that the “alternative” interpretation was shunned and the book withdrawn and pulped by the publishers? She was merely testing pluralism of the religion. Those who may be offended by the book simply need not read it. But stifling an opinion is not the correct approach. But as the author says, it will be difficult to wipe out her book completely in the era of Internet and technology.

SHAMITA HARSH, Dehradun