“I was, of course, angry and disappointed to see this happen, and I am deeply troubled by what it foretells for free speech in India in the present, and steadily worsening, political climate… I do not blame Penguin Books, India. Other publishers have just quietly withdrawn other books without making the effort that Penguin made to save this book [The Hindus: An Alternative History]. Penguin, India, took this book on knowing that it would stir anger in the Hindutva ranks, and they defended it in the courts for four years, both as a civil and as a w:Lawsuitcriminal suit. They were finally defeated by the true villain of this piece – the Indian law that makes it a criminal rather than civil offense to publish a book that offends any Hindu, a law that jeopardizes the physical safety of any publisher, no matter how ludicrous the accusation brought against a book.”

— Wendy Doniger

Wendy Doniger, In: India: PEN protests withdrawal of best-selling book http://fleursdumal.nl/mag/category/news-events/page/12, Fleursdumal.org
Her book [The Hindus: An Alternative History] became controversial and Dinanath Batra of Shiksha Bachao Andolan filed a case against the publisher, claiming that the book was offensive to Hindus and therefore in violation of Section 295A of the Indian penal code which prohibits ‘deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.'

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

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American Indologist 1940

David Hawkes (sinologist) (1923–2009) British sinologist

Source: Interview, 1998, p. 148

“As stated in the book, the First Penguin award went to students who went out on a limb and failed! This came "from the notion that when penguins are about to jump into water that might contain predators, well, somebody's got to be the first penguin." So, even if there are failures, it brings experience. Experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing you have to offer.”

Randy Pausch book The Last Lecture

Source: The Last Lecture (2008), Chapter 39: Be the First Penguin, p. 149

“Four species of penguins that breed in Antartica are endangered by global warming.
Even I, the only man in the world who can get angry from looking at a picture of a penguin, find this bad news.”

Richard Stallman (1953) American software freedom activist, short story writer and computer programmer, founder of the GNU project

"Penguins" (16 December 2007) http://www.stallman.org/archives/2007-sep-dec.html#16%20December%202007%20%28Penguins%29
2000s

“Some people have told me they don't think a fat penguin really embodies the grace of Linux, which just tells me they have never seen an angry penguin charging at them in excess of 100 mph. They'd be a lot more careful about what they say if they had.”

Linus Torvalds (1969) Finnish-American software engineer and hacker

Post, comp.os.linux.announce newsgroup, Google Groups, 1996-06-09, Torvalds, Linus, 2006-08-28 http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=cola-liw-834355743-12037-0%40liw.clinet.fi,
1990s, 1995-99

“Open the book of universal history at what period we may, it is always the India trade which is the cause of internal industry and foreign negotiation.”

William Winwood Reade (1838–1875) British historian

Source: The Martyrdom of Man (1872), Chapter I, "War", p. 40.

“Former Times of India editor Girilal Jain chaired the press meeting presenting my book. It was on this occasion that BJP leader L. K. Advani gave a speech on his Ayodhya policy, waving my book in his hand, and that he made his offer to persuade the VHP to confine their campaign for the liberation of Hindu temple sites to the Ayodhya site, i. e. to drop their claim on the mosque-occupied Krishna Janmabhoomi site in Mathura and Kashi Vishvanath site in Varanasi. That way, my … first book made the front page of most Indian newspapers.”

Koenraad Elst (1959) orientalist, writer

Koenraad Elst, ed.: India’s Only Communalist. In Commemoration of Sita Ram Goel, Voice of India, Delhi 2005
2000s

“The pride comes from accomplishment. I have done what I wanted to do more than any other thing in life. I have become a writer, published two books of integrity and worth. I did not know what those two books would cost me, how very difficult it would be to write them, to survive the opposition to them.”

Andrea Dworkin (1946–2005) Feminist writer

"A Battered Wife Survives", (1978)
Letters from a War Zone: Writings 1976-1987

“… a faded black T-shirt with a soaring penguin and the slogan 'Where do you want to come from today?”

Ken MacLeod (1954) Scottish science fiction writer

Newton's Wake
Other works

“Homo Sapiens wouldn't have made it, and everything would be different! Television would be … you know, Book of the Month club on television would be:
Neanderthal presenter: "And now we have the professor … uh … whaddayou think of this book?"
Neanderthal professor: "Wha' …?"
Presenter: "What do you think of this book, in a critical way?"”

Eddie Izzard (1962) British stand-up comedian, actor and writer

Professor: "It's all right …"
Presenter: "There you have it. It's all right!"
On the consequences if Neanderthals had not become extinct
Sexie (2003)

“I strongly condemn this crime, and am of the opinion that those who are found guilty by a court of law should be given harsh punishment. At the same time, I would like to know whether the same hue and cry which has been raised about it in the media and in Parliament would have been raised had this incident happened in some other part of India, particularly in rural India. I am sure it would not. But surely Delhi is not the whole of India.”

Markandey Katju (1946) Indian judge

On the media attention focused on the 2012 Delhi gang rape, as quoted in "Delhi gangrape: 'Rape isn't India's only problem'" http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india/delhi-gangrape-rape-isnt-indias-only-problem-527414.html, IBNLive (19 December 2012)

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Wendy Doniger 25

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