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February 28, 2010

Phalgun Pournima, Kaliyug Varsha 5111

http://www.petitiononline.com/dharma10/petition.html

This is an earnest request to you to sign the online petition and forward it to your friends for their support by way of a signature.

The petition to the Penguin Group asks for an apology for their publication of the factually incorrect and offensive book “The Hindus-An Alternative History” by Wendy Doniger. We expect the Penguin Group to withdraw the book immediately.

“The Hindus: An Alternative History” is rife with numerous errors in its historical facts and Sanskrit translations. These errors and misrepresentations are bound to and are perhaps intended to mislead students of Indian and Hindu history.

Throughout the book, Doniger analyzes revered Hindu Gods and Goddess using her widely discredited psychosexual Freudian theories that modern, humanistic psychology has deemed limiting. These interpretations are presented as hard facts and not as speculations. Doniger makes various faulty assumptions about Hindu traditions in order to arrive at her peculiar spin on the matter. In the process, the actual beliefs, traditions and interpretations of practicing Hindus are simply ignored or bypassed without the unsuspecting reader realising that trumped up assumptions are being dished out as being reality. This kind of Western scholarship has been criticized and termed as Eurocentrism. The non Judeo-Christian faith gets used to indulging in voyeurism and ancient traditions get twisted and eroticized.

(Eurocentrism is a term coined during the period of decolonization in the later 20th century to refer to the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective, with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminence of European culture. The term Eurocentrism implies criticism of the concerns and values at the expense of non-Europeans.)

We emphasize that this defamatory book misinforms readers about the history of Hindu civilization, its cultures and traditions. The book promotes prejudices and biases against Hindus. Can Penguin’s editors really be incompetent enough to have allowed this to pass for publication? If this is not deliberate malice, Penguin must act now in good faith.

As concerned readers, we ask the PENGUIN GROUP to:

1. WITHDRAW all the copies of this book immediately from the worldwide bookshops/markets/ Universities/ Libraries and refrain from printing any other edition.

2. APOLOGIZE for having published this book “The Hindus: An Alternative History”. This book seriously and grossly misrepresents the Hindu reality as known to the vast numbers of Hindus and to scholars of Hindu tradition. PENGUIN must apologize for the failure to observe proper pre-publication scrutiny and scholarly reviewing.

- By a devout Hindu

Read Further

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	MF Hussain campaign HJS protested against nude painting of Bharatmata (Mother India) by MF Hussain. The painting was auctioned publically by Nafisa Ali for 80 Lakhs resulting in huge protests all over India.   Read more