Fellow authors have condemned Penguin's withdrawal of Wendy Doniger's book, The Hindus, in India.
Celebrated authors Arundhati Roy, Neil Gaiman and William Dalrymple have condemned Penguin's withdrawal of Wendy Doniger's book, The Hindus, from sale in India.
The decision is "shocking, appalling, dreadful and entirely negative," Dalrymple told the Guardian newspaper.
Roy - who won the Booker prize for The God of Small Things - has asked the publishing giant to explain why it "caved in".
Doniger's critically-acclaimed book was removed from circulation in India following a lawsuit from the Hindu group Shiksha Bachao Andolan. That group accused the University of Chicago professor of "hurt[ing] the religious feelings of millions of Hindus."
This, the group argues, constitutes a violation of the Indian penal code which forbids "deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs".
The lawsuit describes Doniger's book as "a shallow, distorted and non-serious presentation of Hinduism" which is "riddled with heresies and factual inaccuracies".
Penguin have agreed to withdraw the book and to pulp existing copies, but no doubt the story is not over.
