Friday, February 21, 2014

On Being Liberal

"Toleration does not, to use Govind Ranade’s phrase, come in halves. You cannot pick and choose when to be tolerant."

A few days back Penguin-India decided to 'pulp' Wendy Doniger's book, The Hindus: An Alternative History. The opinon pages have been ablaze with arguments for and against this decision. 

All such bans, IMHO, are clever marketing ploys. There is nothing like a good controversy to kick up flagging sales. As for those who are crying themselves hoarse against the ban, it would be good to examine some inconvenient facts:

  • Subramanian Swamy tweeted @Swamy39 - "Why are libtards weeping on Doniger?At least she had a chance to reply in court. When Harvard terminated my courses I could not reply."
  • There were no protests when Joseph Lelyveld's book "Great Soul" was banned for hinting at Gandhi's relationship with Hermann Kallenbach
  • A. M. Singhvi got Spanish author, Javier Moro's novel "The Red Sari" blocked because its uncomplimentary focus was on Sonia Gandhi.
  • Jitender Bhargava was ordered to withdraw his book on Air India.
  • Ban on R.V. Bhasin's book on Islam

At the end of the day, its good to know of contrarian viewpoints. What would the world be without alternate narratives?

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LINKS:
- Mehta, Pratap (2014): SILENCING OF LIBERAL INDIA - http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/silencing-of-liberal-india/

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