James W. Laine is an American academic and writer notable for his controversial book on the 17th-century

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

n king

Shivaji Shivaji Bhonsale I (; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680), also referred to as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle Maratha clan. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the declining Adil ...

, ''Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India''.James W. Laine: Faculty page
at Macalester College: Religious Studies Department

Background

James Laine is the Arnold H. Lowe Professor of Religious Studies and the chair of the Religious Studies department at

Macalester College Macalester College () is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate four-year institution and enrolled 2,174 students in the fall of 2018 from 50 U.S. states, four U.S te ...

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. He holds a BA (1974) from

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas. Established on , and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the main institution of the five-institution Texas Tech University Sy ...

, an MTS (1977), and a doctorate in

Theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

(1984) from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

''Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India''

Laine's book, ''Shivaji Maharaj: Hindu King in Islamic India'', contained an offhand comment quoting an anecdote concerning Shivaji's parentage, as part of Laine's discussion of the mysteries of Shivaji's unclear relationship with his father. After publication, four Maratha scholars publicly denounced the book. A hardline Maratha group attacked the

Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute The Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI) is located in Pune, Maharashtra, India. It was founded on 6 July 1917 and named after Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar (1837–1925), long regarded as the founder of Indology (Orientalism) in Ind ...

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

, accusing its high-caste Brahmin scholars as assisting in Laine's so-called slander of Shivaji. In view of the attacks and the public unrest, the book was banned in the state of Maharashtra in January 2004. Filing a petition in the Bombay High Court, James Laine apologized for an offending paragraph on page 93 of the book. Regardless, a warrant was filed for his arrest, and India attempted to have him extradited from the United States. The publisher Oxford Printing Press promised to delete the paragraph from all future editions of the book, following which the court lifted the ban in 2007. In July 2010, the Supreme Court of India upheld the lifting of the ban, which was followed by public demonstrations against the author and the decision. Laine offered a longer analysis of the dispute in 2011. He deplored the attacks on Indian scholars and scholarly institutions which he said had no influence over his choice of tone, but acknowledged that his invocation of a joke was insensitive to Indian caste politics and ought not to be defended as freedom of speech.

Selected works

* (with S. S. Bahulkar) * *

Notes

References

External links

Selected Works of James Laine
at works.bepress.com
James Laine receives Thomas Jefferson Award in 2017, with a portrait photography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Laine, James American male writers Writers from Saint Paul, Minnesota Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Macalester College faculty Texas Tech University alumni Harvard Divinity School alumni Writers about India Religious studies scholars