4. Controlling the flow of information

Ranade’s court cases represent the leaders’ last ditch attempt to prevent the publication of Lives in India. The American edition has been in print since April 2008, but it is expensive and thus hard to obtain in India. So long as people in India were unable to read the book, the leaders of the movement could present their distortions without any possibility of verification. (This problem has been overcome to some extent by the circulation of more than 100 xerox copies in Pondicherry and Auroville, and some freely donated copies of the book.) From the beginning of the movement, the leaders’ cry was for the banning of the book and even for the collection and destruction of sold copies: “The books should be withdrawn”, said Pandey (AP1). Ranade was more specific “We must write to the publishers of the book in the USA demanding its withdrawal on grounds of academic fraud, false representation and defamation.… We must immediately block Penguin from releasing the Indian edition” (SR1).

Eggenberger laid out an entire program of censorship: “1. The Ashram [should] disavow the work, in writing, as misleading and erroneous and defamatory towards Sri Aurobindo and forbid its distribution in the Ashram. [For his point 2, see heading 5 immediately below]. 3. [The trust should] request Penguin Books not to publish the book in India” (RE).

Eggenberger’s program became the model for a broader and more aggressive message written by Kittu Reddy, which was posted on the Ashram notice board and emailed to hundreds of people in all parts of the world. “1. The distribution and sale of this book must be stopped. Attempts must be made to procure and destroy all existing copies of this book, and to stop all future editions and reprints” (KR).