Anil, You may be judging others by your own yard sticks. We have a government which has been voted in by the one-man-one-vote principle and so we are all equal before the law. So I do not see how some people can be more equal than others and decide what others should read or not read, what others should drink or not drink, whether others should take drugs or not ...etc. In the US it is the motion pictures association of America that censors movies whereas in India, officials decide the issue with no standardized yardsticks. It is the same with books. Why should some people alone should decide what their equals should read As for hurting sentiments, it is a ruse used by bigots to attack others. Anything and everything can hurt someone's religious or ethnic sentiments. In the beginning all religions practiced human sacrifices. The first ones to point out that that human sacrifice is wrong must have hurt the sentiments of the establishment. Christians believe that Jesus is the son of god whereas for Muslims it is utter blasphemy to say that god can have a son. Galileo and Darwin hurt sentiments when they said that the earth is round and there was evolution and no creation. Giordano Bruno was burnt at the stake for hurting the sentiments of the church when he insisted that the earth is round and goes round the sun. The law against hurting religious sentiments was brought in by the British in the 19th century. The British have since repealed it or amended it whereas we still stick to it even as we find fault with everything the British did. Democracy and the vote assume that each and every one of us is knowledgeable enough to make decisions for ourselves. So leave it to the people to decide for themselves as to whether a film should be seen or a book should be read or whether beef should be eaten or an alcoholic drink should be taken. Xavier William "Ridicule is often the only possible weapon against ridiculous propositions" Thomas Jefferson
Asking for a ban and getting something banned ,dos'nt always essentially automatically mean to prevent its availability and certainly not possible in this cyber-age.Asking for ban is also a way for lodging one's justified protest against the contents. If something is allowed to prevail without protest, tomorrow some other joker gets the bright idea to play with the sentiments of his or her fellow human-beings.Reaction to the contents also varies with one's own mind-set.All those,who are howling against the ban on Wendy Doniger's book, would have been braying for her blood if she had written positive things about history of Hinduism.
A.K.SHARMA--------------------------------------------
On Thu, 2/7/15, Sitesh Dutt siteshd@gmail.com [indianfirst] wrote:
Subject: Re: [INDIAN FIRST] Re: Wendy Donger's book (banned in India) available free online
To: indianfirst@yahoogroups.com
Cc: indianfirst@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, 2 July, 2015, 6:20 PM
I feel banning a book is certain to increase human curiosity and result in more sales.In fact I sometimes feel it is a devious ploy to garner more publicity.
I remember Marie Corelli's books were banned by the Cathlic Church and I made it a point to find out where these could be got and read her banned books.I could not understand the reasons for the ban by the then Pope. I wonder if she is still banned and Xavier is kindly requested to confirm if the Catholic Church continues to ban books in this age of the Internet.
On Wed, Jul 1, 2015 at 9:57
PM, Xavier William varekatx@gmail.com
[indianfirst]
wrote:
Eddie,There is what is called the 'Streisland effect' according to which the more you try to hide things the more exposure it gets. I had not heard of Doniger or her book until the issue became public.
We must thank the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samithi, founded by Dinanath Batra(Hindi, literally, "Committee for Struggle to Save Education") for giving the book so much coverage after it went to court against the book on the grounds that it hurt Hindu sentiments. I do not understand what education the andolan is trying to save by suppressing knowledge.
On 1 July 2015 at 11:04,
Eddie
wrote:
Many thanks, Xavier, for the link on Wendy
Doniger's The Hindus (2009). https://ia700604.us.archive.org/28/items/TheHindusAnAlternativeHistoryWendyDoniger_201402/The-Hindus-An-Alternative-History---Wendy-Doniger.pdf
Something seemed to have upset the Hindutva bigots about the book that led them to demand its ban.
My guess is there is no equivalent tract (of the same intellectual quality) written by a Hindu historian.
Eddie
--
Prof. Sitesh
DuttVice President
Honorary General
Secretary Club
Regards
Propositions which are revered today as sacred may prove to be ridiculous tomorrow - me www.keralites.net 
Posted by: Xavier William <varekatx@gmail.com>
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