Friday, August 19, 2011

‘Why I took on Arindam Chaudhuri’

Siddhartha Deb’s latest book, The Beautiful and the Damned, paints a picture of present-day India through the stories of five individuals who span the country’s social, economic and geographical gamut.

The book’s first chapter, focusing on the rise of businessman Arindam Chaudhuri, was excerpted in The Caravan, a Delhi-based monthly magazine. Mr. Chaudhuri is the director of the Indian Institute of Planning and Management, a popular privately-run network of management schools.

The article gained more attention when the IIPM filed a lawsuit against Mr. Deb, his publishers Penguin India, The Caravan and Google India for “grave harassment and injury.” (You can read more about Mr. Deb’s publishing saga in this New Yorker article.)

The Indian edition of the book, published by Penguin India, was released without the first chapter. Mr. Deb said the lawsuit alleges that he and other defendants are working for IIPM’s competitors. This is what The Caravan had to say about the case. Mr. Chaudhuri and an IIPM official did not respond to requests for comment.

Full report here WSJ blogs

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