Vandalism in 2003
The institute was vandalized in December 2003 by a mob made up of members of an extremist self-styled Maratha youth squad, calling themselves the Sambhaji Brigade, named after Shivaji's* elder son. They claimed to be angered by the help provided by the institute's staff (in translating manuscripts) to a Western writer, Dr. James Laine, who discussed the telling and retelling of stories about Shivaji's parentage and life in his book on narrations of the Shivaji story. The mob also damaged thousands of manuscripts and attacked Shrikant Bahulkar, a Sanskrit scholar who had only explained some Sanskrit references to Laine. The incident provoked widespread reaction and historian Gajanan Mehendale to destroy parts of his in-progress biography of Shivaji.
The vandalism and a ban on the book were denounced by historians who put their signatures to the statement include R.S. Sharma, R.C. Thakran, Suraj Bhan, Irfan Habib, D.N. Jha, Shireen Moosvi and K. M. Shrimali. Oxford University Press - publisher of James Laine's, ‘Shivaji: Hindu king in Islamic India’, withdrew the book after protests from Ninad Bedekar and other right-wing politicians as it contained allegedly objectionable statements about Shivaji.
Read more about this topic: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute
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