Published:
Vladimir Radyuhin. The Hindu. March 1, 2012.
As the battle over a Russian translation of Bhagavad Gita continues,
Russian scholars came out strongly in support of the book and condemned attempts
to ban it as extremist literature. Over 60 Russian scholars gathered in the
Siberian city of Tomsk for a conference on Bhagavad Gita. It adopted a
resolution that voiced alarm over a court trial against the book “Bhagavad Gita
As It Is” and stressed “the enduring historic value” of the ancient Indian
scripture.
A court in Tomsk in December rejected a local prosecutor’s petition
seeking a ban on “Bhagavad Gita As It Is” on the grounds that it incited
“social hatred” and “violence against non-believers”. However, the Tomsk
prosecutor has appealed against the verdict and the court is to hear his appeal
on March 6. In a new petition the prosecutor is demanding a ban only on the
Russian translation of comments in the book “Bhagavad Gita As It Is”, not the canonical
text itself.
Russian scholars welcomed the Tomsk court verdict and said the
prosecutor’s appeal was groundless because religious texts cannot be tried for
extremism. They accused experts who prepared testimony against Bhagavad Gita of
incompetence and bias and called for establishing an independent body of
scholars and experts in religion, philosophy and social sciences, who would
prepare objective and competent reviews of various texts. The scholars warned
of “grave consequences the continuation of the trial may have for our friendly
relations with India.”
