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Author Wendy Doniger has said she does not blame Penguin India for agreeing to pull all copies of her book The Hindus in India.
The US academic's book is a narrative account of the history of the religion. Campaign group Shiksha Bachao Andolan had argued that the book was insulting to Hindus and focused on "sex and eroticism", according to a BBC report.
Documents published online show that Penguin India has reached a settlement with Shiksha Bachao Andolan to remove all copies of the book from sale and not circulate any more.
Penguin Random House has declined to comment on the step.
In a statement, Doniger said she was "angry and disappointed" by the matter and "deeply troubled by what it foretells for free speech in India in the present, and steadily worsening, political climate”. However the publisher was not to blame for the development, she added.
Doniger said: “Other publishers have just quietly withdrawn other books without making the effort that Penguin made to save this book. Penguin India took this book on knowing that it would stir anger in the Hindutva ranks, and they defended it in the courts for four years, both as a civil and as a criminal suit. They were finally defeated by the true villain of this piece—the Indian law that makes it a criminal rather than civil offence to publish a book that offends any Hindu, a law that jeopardizes the physical safety of any publisher, no matter how ludicrous the accusation brought against a book.”
She added that she was “glad that, in the age of the internet, it is no longer possible to suppress a book”.
“People in India will always be able to read books of all sorts, including some that may offend some Hindus," she said.
In the UK, The Hindus is published by Oxford University Press.