Wendy Doniger controversy: When did Hinduism become so intolerant?

Editor’s note: This is a compilation of several comments we received on the piece How Doniger’s now-recalled ‘The Hindus’ ruffled Hindutva feathers by reader tyroinfinzie. This is a compilation of several of his comments, which have been edited lightly for spelling and grammar. The sentiment has been left as is. If you disagree with Wendy’s work, debate it. Write rebuttals. Produce scholarly works that refute her claims. But why ban the work or force the publisher to withdraw it? Whether it is Rushdie or Nasreen or Wendy, I want India to publish all works. [caption id=“attachment_1384093” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Cover of The Hindus which has been withdrawn by Penguin India[/caption] Scholarly works should be debated and not banned. Intolerance in Islam and Christianity is an established fact. But we are seeing the emergence of intolerance of Hinduism. There is now a bunch of hooligan rightwingers who claim to represent Hinduism, who are changing the tolerant nature of our great religion. This new breed to extremists who claim to represent our great religion, only understand the language of violence and brute force, it seems. They cannot engage in debates of the intellectual kind. Sad. Very strange. Isn’t intolerant Hindu an oxymoron? We have had enough of this religious intolerance.