India: It's Batra again: Book on sexual violence in Ahmedabad riots is 'set aside' by publisher

Indian Express, 3 June 2014

by Seema Chishti

A letter written by Dina Nath Batra, whose civil suit led to the pulping of Wendy Doniger's book on Hinduism, has now led to the "setting aside" of a publication on violence against women in communal riots in Ahmedabad. Publisher Orient Blackswan, which recently released Communalism and Sexual Violence: Ahmedabad Since 1969 and put it up for sale on its website in April 2014, has written to author Dr Megha Kumar saying the book needs "comprehensive assessment" and should be set aside "for the present".

In the letter dated May 16, Orient Blackswan told Kumar, an Oxford-based Rhodes scholar, that Batra's lawyer had written to them in April complaining that another book published by them and in print for more than 10 years, the popular textbook Plassey to Partition: A History of Modern India by Sekhar Bandopadhyay, was defamatory and derogatory to the RSS. In the light of that notice, Orient Blackswan wrote, a "pre-release assessment of books that might attract similar reactions" was being undertaken, suggesting that Kumar's book had not been released so far. The publisher cited worries of legal proceedings and also of exposing "staff and families" of authors and publishers to "the risk of violence, endangering their life and safety".

Kumar contests Orient's claim of its decision being a "pre-release" move, noting that the book has been on sale since April 15. The 33-year-old also points out that the book "has been printed following thorough peer review and systematic copyediting between June 2013, when the first draft of the manuscript was submitted, and March 14, when the book went to press". Kumar has asked Orient Blackswan to clarify "the precise nature and scope of what you have termed comprehensive assessment" and asked the publisher to revert to her about what witholding the book for "the present" means.

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