The Extremist Agenda to Dumb Down Hinduism
Hindu fanatics are celebrating after Penguin capitulated to their demands and agreed to "pulp" all unsold of copies of University of Chicago Wendy Doniger's, The Hindus: An Alternative History. They claim that her erotic interpretations of Hinduism are just another form of "neo-colonialism."
Their jihad against Doniger won't affect her much and maybe even help her book sales. But it will ensure a dark future for Hinduism.
For all their pretensions about learning, Hindus don't fully understand their religion because they haven't made an academic study out of it. Religious studies as a discipline doesn't exist in India. Nor will it if extremists are allowed to go on their boob-banning ramapge. The best and most inquisitive Indian minds won't opt for fields ruled by narrow dogmatism. They'll do something else -- or take a one-way ticket to America to study with Doniger.
"Instead of resorting to censorhip," I note in my Washington Examiner column this morning, "Hindu obscurantists should concentrate on addressing their own inadequacies."
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