New Delhi: The latest biography on Mahatma Gandhi, 'Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his struggle with India' is not even available here yet, but Gujarat and Maharashtra are banning it. The central government is deciding not to, after some consideration.
The Pulitzer Prize winning author and former New York Times executive editor Joseph Lelyveld has trashed media reports that have stirred up a controversy, also saying that a ban reflects poorly on India.
Author Joseph Lelyveld said, "The word bisexual never appears in the book. The word racist only appears once in a limited context relating to a single phrase and not to Gandhi's whole set of attitude or history in South Africa."
Lelyveld said that in a county that calls itself a democracy, it is shameful to ban a book that no one has read including the people who are doing the banning. "They should at least make an effort to see the pages that they think offend them before they take such an extreme step," he said....
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10:13 AM, Apr 01, 2011
