These images, and more, don't negate the fact that many Hindus would feel "offended" by Wendy Doniger's book as many Muslims felt offended by the writings of Salman Rushdie or Taslima Nasreen or Irshad Manji - all born Muslims, for example. (The Danish cartoon was of course by a Christian, MF Husain was a Muslim and Doniger was born of non-observant Jewish parents.) Many Christians, in India, were offended by the novel 'The Da Vinci Code' - authored (understandably) by a Christian and had demanded a ban on screening of the film based on it. Right these days some Muslims have been offended by Ya Rab, a Bollywood movie, directed by Hasnain Hyderabadwala starring Ajaz Khan, Arjumman Mughal et al, and demanded a ban on its screening. It has been reported that in some areas of Mumbai the state government has barred the theatres from screening it.
The issue is that nobody can stop one from being offended. And it is quite legitimate for one to give voice to one's feeling of offence. The point is that how far it is justified to gag voices, not to speak of doing far worse, on the ground of being offended. And, there of course, has got to be some uniform standard. Here is a gist of Dinanath Batra's objection to the book: Quote Her intention is bad, the content is anti-national and the language is abusive. Her agenda is to malign Hinduism and hurt the feelings of Hindus. ... According to her book, when Ramrajya [an idyllic vision of state propounded by Mahatma Gandhi] comes to India, then Christians and Muslims will be driven out of India. We all know that Gandhiji's vision was about unity; he dreamed of a state where there would be no discrimination based on religion or wealth. Her book will incite hatred among communities. Furthermore, Doniger says [in the book] that when Sanskrit scriptures were written, Indian society favored open sexuality. The jacket of her book shows Lord Krishna sitting on the buttocks of nude women. She equates the shivlingam, worshipped all over India by millions, with sex and calls it an erect penis. She calls Gandhiji strange and says he used to sleep with young girls. ... The entire book is objectionable, but yes, that is one of our main objections. She is insulting our gods and goddesses and religious leaders and texts and even our freedom fighters. I don't have any objection to sex and neither does our religion, as long as it's within the parameters of religion. ... If someone makes a cartoon of the prophet Mohammad, Muslims are outraged around the world. So why should anyone write anything against Hinduism and get away with it? It matters because this book is hurting the sentiments of Hindus all over the world. I am a Hindu. When I read the book, I felt hurt. It hurt my sentiments. Unquote [Source: < http://world.time.com/2014/02/12/sex-lies-and-hinduism-why-a-hindu-activist-targeted-wendy-donigers-book/ >.] And here is the link to an online petition to protest against withdrawal of the book from India: <http://www.petitiononline.com/THAAH123/petition.html>. This online petition gives a detailed listing of the objections raised and responses to these objections. Sukla On 14 February 2014 10:53, Ansari Baig <ansar...@gmail.com> wrote: > If the moderator has disallowed "at times" some emails of Sukla Sen there > must have been a genuine reason for that. Several of my emails have also > been rejected by him "at times". To be honest Faiz has been very fair in > allowing an open discussion on all topics. I don't find him baised at all. > > That apart, I find the argument amusing that "offense" does not include > hate campaign or libel or abuses etc. Why can't there be a comprehensive > right to offend? Why exclude hate campaign or libel or abuses? So it is the > hypocrites who will decide on the definition of the word "offense"? Kya > zamana aagaya hai! > > I am posting some images from the internet to ask the guys who found the > cover of Doniger's book offensive; "Uncles and aunties! What about these > pictures? Did Wendy Doniger create them? > > > https://www.google.co.in/search?q=krishna+and+gopis+paintings&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=tKT9UvSxBKLqiAe_04D4CQ&ved=0CCUQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=667 > > > > > > http://backtogodhead.in/krishnas-pastimes-reality-not-allegory/ > > Please also read the interview in the above link. And do you want me to > post some "nice" images from the Ajanta caves?? > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "The Moderates" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to the-moderates+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send an email to the-modera...@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/the-moderates. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > -- Peace Is Doable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to greenyouth+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to greenyouth@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
