The Unseen Hand of an Underappreciated Law: The Doniger Affair and Its Aftermath
The international outcry by scholars and journalists that followed Penguin Books,’ withdrawal of Wendy Doniger’s 2009, The Hindus: An Alternative History , typically attributed the conflict to one of two causes. Reactions in India tended to blame the publisher for capitulating to pressure from the H...
| Published in: | Journal of the American Academy of Religion |
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| Subtitles: | Roundtable on outrage, scholarship, and the law in India |
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2016]
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| In: |
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Doniger, Wendy 1940-, The Hindus
/ India, Strafgesetzbuch (1860). 295A
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| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The international outcry by scholars and journalists that followed Penguin Books,’ withdrawal of Wendy Doniger’s 2009, The Hindus: An Alternative History , typically attributed the conflict to one of two causes. Reactions in India tended to blame the publisher for capitulating to pressure from the Hindu right; reactions in the United States tended to blame a climate of intolerance for free speech in India as a whole. This article argues that both responses overlooked the true source of the conflict, section 295A of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalizes “outraging the religious feelings of any class of Indian citizens.” This law has generated a politics of religious sentiment that legally empowers those offended by academic speech to suppress it. The statute, moreover, works to conceal its operations through the manufacture of hurt feelings and consequent demands for censorship that appear to emerge from offended subjects rather than from the law. |
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| ISSN: | 1477-4585 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: American Academy of Religion, Journal of the American Academy of Religion
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jaarel/lfw029 |