Read the passage below from her book. If you don't find it offensive,disagree with me; I have no issues."Numerous Sanskrit texts and ancient sculptures (such as the Gudimallam linga from the third century BCE) define this image unequivocally as an iconic representation of the male sexual organ in erection, in particular as the erect phallus of the god Shiva. So too a verse from the “Garland of Games” of Kshemendra, a Brahmin who lived in Kashmir in the eleventh century, refers to the human counterpart of the Shiva linga: “Having locked up the house on the pretext of venerating the linga, Randy scratches her itch with a linga of skin.”4 The first linga in this verse is certainly Shiva’s, and there is an implied parallelism, if not identity, between it and the second one, which could be either a leather dildo or its human prototype, attached to a man. And many Hindus have, like Freud, seen lingas in every naturally occurring elongated object, the so-called self-created (svayambhu) lingas, including objets trouvés such as stalagmites. The linga in this physical sense is well known throughout India, a signifier that is understood across barriers of caste and language, a linga franca, if you will."
There is a Hindu world-view and it is struggling to find its place under the sun. This struggle has to be a real one and only criteria for success is excellence and performance. Performance in the sense of how it shapes arts, sciences, technologies, architecture, politics and economic development.
This world-view can not be defended by suppressing contending thoughts. Such victimhood complex, widely prevalent, is not going to heal any injury or resolve any felt historical tension.
Re: banning the book in India hurts more than it heals
by Pat Thakur on Feb 19, 2014 03:08 PM
Mate, you better stick to desi things such as telangana or khaps or panchayats or muslims. Let intellectuals handle literary issues.
