To
Dinanath Batra
Convenor
Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti
New Delhi
Dear Mr Batra
You may have succeeded in denying me and others like me the option of buying a hard copy of Wendy Doniger's The Hindus: An Alternative History, but if the objective was to prevent people like me from reading it, then you have failed.
You have failed because some like me already have a (soft) copy of the book. Others who do not yet can buy it online or can even download it for free.
You have failed also because people like me, who were not that interested in reading the book when it was first published, started only because you created a controversy around it.
But, now that you have gone so far as to have the book withdrawn, here is what I will do: I will finish reading the book. Every time I have a conversation on religion with anyone, I will cite the book. To all of my interlocutors, I will recommend the book, and to anyone who shows even the slightest interest in it, with them, I will share my copy of the book.
Yours sincerely
Srijan Sandip Mandal
PS for reader: I know that this open letter will never reach the SBAS. Even it did, they will not read it. Even if they did, it will not affect them in the slightest. Nevertheless, I have written it. I have written because I am angry, I have been since yesterday.
I am angry because as a citizen of India and a student of history to boot, I do not want Doniger's book withdrawn, I want it to be available for sale in bookstores and online, and I want the option of deciding for myself whether I wish to read it or not. But, that option has been denied me without my consent by a few men, whom I do not know and who do not represent me, simply because they are 'offended'.
I am offended, too, offended that the SBAS could file civil and criminal complaints against an author and her publisher, offended that the publisher felt compelled to withdraw all copies of the book and pulp them, and most offended that a court of law actually supervised such an agreement between two parties instead of throwing out the complaints and penalising SBAC for bringing them in the first place. But, since the offence caused me is based not on religious, but secular and scholarly sentiments, they matter to no one and I have not the financial and legal wherewithal to make it matter.
All I can do is what I have written in the letter. It is not much, not in a country, whose Constitution guarantees its citizens the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression. But, until we, as citizens, coerce our government into enacting laws that make this right real for all of us, and not just for those among us claiming hurt religious sentiments, it will have to do.
