Hindu activism and academic censorship in India

Abstract

The article explores the latest wave of citizen censorship in India, described by one writer as India's ?Ice Age for scholarship'. It looks at the main players, places these events in context, describes some of the drivers and looks gloomily at the future of free speech in India. At the same time, Doniger herself said in an online statement that she did not blame Penguin India, which had taken on the book knowing it would provoke opposition from conservative Hindu activists. On the contrary, she praised the publisher for defending the publication in the courts for four years, where some other publishers had simply withdrawn troublesome publications without a fight. In 2001, Batra and the SBAS initiated a campaign against India's National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the organization which has primary responsibility for national curricula and textbooks.